State v. Griffin

126 Hawai'i 40

266 P.3d 448

STATE of Hawai‘i, Plaintiff–Appellee,

v.Darnell GRIFFIN, Defendant–Appellant.

No. 29981.

Intermediate Court of Appeals of Hawai‘i.

Nov. 22, 2011.

James S. Tabe, Deputy Public Defender, for Defendant–Appellant.

Donn Fudo, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, City and County of Honolulu, for Plaintiff–Appellee.

NAKAMURA, C.J., FUJISE and GINOZA, JJ.

Opinion of the Court by FUJISE, J.

Defendant–Appellant Darnell Griffin (Griffin) appeals from his conviction and sentence for the offense of Murder in the Second Degree entered by the Circuit Court of the First Circuit (circuit court).¹ Griffin challenges the conduct of grand jury counsel leading to his indictment, the exclusion of prior sexual conduct evidence and admission of certain pre-trial statements made by him, and the sufficiency of the evidence presented at trial. We affirm.

I.

Evelyn Luka (decedent) was fifteen years old when she began dating Kevin Luka (Kevin), who was twenty-one at the time. Decedent married Kevin in 1997, soon after her graduation from high school in Hawai‘i. Shortly after their marriage, the couple moved to Virginia, where Kevin was stationed in the U.S. Air Force. During their time in Virginia, Kevin was twice deployed overseas while decedent remained at home. During Kevin's second deployment, decedent began going out at night. Even after Kevin returned from deployment, he would often be unaware of her whereabouts.

In July 1999, the couple returned to Hawai‘i while Kevin was on leave. During this time, decedent stayed at her grandmother's house without Kevin and frequently went out at night, occasionally not returning until the next morning. Kevin acknowledged that decedent's grandmother was worried because decedent would not come home and that at one point she left the grandmother's and he did not know where decedent was living. After several weeks, Kevin's leave expired and he returned to Virginia, but decedent stayed in Hawai‘i.

The next month, when Kevin returned to Hawai‘i, he and decedent lived with his parents. On Saturday, September 4, 1999, decedent took Kevin to Venus Nightclub (Venus), a popular nightclub on Kapi‘olani Blvd. Kevin did not enjoy Venus because it catered to a homosexual clientele on Saturdays. After approximately fifteen minutes, Kevin left to wait outside for decedent, who agreed to come out at midnight. At around midnight, decedent met Kevin outside and wanted to stay longer, but agreed to go home after Kevin reminded her of their agreement.

Later that morning, Kevin and decedent discussed their relationship, and in particular their conflicting lifestyles. While decedent wanted to be out at night and visit nightclubs, Kevin disapproved of her behavior, which he felt was not conducive to his military lifestyle. Their discussion led to talk of separation and the possibility of divorce, culminating in an agreement that they should part ways and consider reconciliation after a couple of years. They continued to discuss their relationship that day.

On the evening of September 5, 1999, decedent wanted to return to Venus but Kevin did not want to go. Kevin agreed to drive decedent to Venus and she agreed to call him at midnight to inform him if she needed a ride home. Before they left, they engaged in sexual intercourse, with Kevin using a condom. Kevin drove decedent to Venus at around 9:30 p.m. Decedent was wearing loose black pants, which would slip down to reveal a small portion of her underwear, and a maroon colored sleeveless shirt. Decedent was five feet, six inches tall and weighed approximately 130 pounds.

Several Venus employees saw decedent that evening and described her as wearing dark or black pants and a purple or maroon top. These employees recognized decedent as a regular patron, particularly during the summer of 1999. Reid Takara (Takara), a waiter at Venus who knew decedent, saw her the night of September 5 and bought her food; decedent explained to Takara that she had a curfew at midnight. When Takara saw decedent around midnight, she appeared anxious to get home. Also around midnight, decedent called Kevin, told him she was staying at Venus an hour longer, and informed him that she would get a ride home with a friend from the Salt Lake area. Several valets at Venus saw decedent leave the club at around midnight with an African–American male in a dark green Nissan Pathfinder.

Kevin believed decedent would be home by approximately 1:30 a.m. When decedent did not come home by 2:00 a.m. or 2:30 a.m., Kevin called Venus and asked to have decedent paged, but the employee who answered the phone indicated the club was busy and ignored his request. Kevin called the club again around 5:00 a.m. and the person who answered told Kevin that the club had been closed for an hour. At around 9:00 a.m., decedent had still not returned home and Kevin called her friends, parents, grandmother, and aunt but was unable to ascertain decedent's whereabouts.

On September 6, 1999, at approximately 8:00 a.m., Walter Hussey (Hussey), a distributor for the Honolulu Advertiser, was on the Ka Uka Boulevard on-ramp to the H–2 freeway when he noticed what appeared to be a body moving in a dirt area on the side of the on-ramp. Hussey continued driving but believed the situation was odd and later returned to find an unconscious woman lying face down and convulsing. He observed that she was clothed, wearing pants and shoes, and that there were tire tracks in the dirt above her body.

While Hussey was still at the scene, two off-duty Honolulu Police Department (HPD) police officers, Officer Sharon Walden (Ofr. Walden) and Sergeant Deborah Wilson (Sgt. Wilson), were driving in the area and stopped when they saw decedent. The officers observed that she was lying face down in the dirt, making tremor-like movements, and had taxed breathing. Ofr. Walden recalled that decedent was wearing unbuckled high-heeled shoes, a purple shirt, and what appeared to be oversized black work pants that were too big for her body. Ofr. Walden noted that the pants were so oversized that they would have fallen off decedent if she had been standing. Ofr. Walden suspected decedent had been at the location for a long period of time because of the amount of dirt that had been displaced by decedent's movements and the indentation she had made on the ground. Both officers unsuccessfully attempted to wake decedent up by talking and yelling to her. Decedent was then taken by ambulance to Queen's Medical Center, where she was determined to be in a coma and placed on life support in the intensive care unit.

As Ofr. Walden and Sgt. Wilson were leaving the scene and merging onto the freeway, their attention was drawn to a vehicle which had been parked underneath the Ka Uka Boulevard overpass. An African–American male was standing outside the vehicle and looking towards the area of where decedent's body was laying. Both officers thought the situation was strange because the black male would not have been able to see the area of the woman from his location. The male entered his vehicle and drove away as the officers entered onto the freeway. The officers followed the male's vehicle and noted its license plate number.

Because doctors suspected sexual abuse, decedent was examined by an expert in the treatment and examination of sexual assault victims. The examination did not reveal any scarring, bruising or discoloration to the genital area, or motile sperm on decedent's body. Decedent was removed from life support on September 28, 1999, and died on October 2, 1999.

An autopsy performed by the Honolulu Medical Examiner's office revealed the cause of death to be anoxic encephalopathy or brain damage due to ligature strangulation (i.e., strangulation with a long object across the neck). There were no injuries to her anal or vaginal areas. There was, however, bruising of her hands, knees, arms, legs, and buttocks.

HPD Detective Alexander Garcia (Det. Garcia) was originally assigned to the investigation on September 6, 1999. After speaking to Sgt. Wilson and Ofr. Walden and reading their reports, Det. Garcia tracked down the person whom the officers observed standing next to the vehicle parked under the Ka Uka Boulevard overpass. This person told Det. Garcia that he had stopped to see if the body found was a missing child of a relative or friend; Det. Garcia eliminated the person as a suspect.²

Det. Garcia also interviewed Kevin, decedent's parents, and several people at Venus, including the valets. Based on his interviews with the valets, Det. Garcia generated a list of green 1997– and 1998–model Nissan Pathfinders. Det. Garcia was not able to locate any Pathfinder matching the description. He did not search for earlier models because one of the valets had indicated that the vehicle was a late model Pathfinder. On September 10, 1999, a Crime Stoppers bulletin was released regarding the suspect in this case, then-classified as an assault. The bulletin included a description of the suspect and a composite drawing and described the possible vehicle as a new model green Nissan Pathfinder.

In response to the Crime Stoppers bulletin, a person named Michael Vargo (Vargo) contacted the police. Vargo provided information about a person who fit the description in the bulletin, which described the suspect as a black male, in his early 30s, five feet ten inches tall, weighing 185 pounds, of average build, and clean-cut. Vargo identified this person as Deshon Dubois (Dubois). Vargo told police that Dubois drove a dark green Nissan Pathfinder on Wheeler Air Force Base and provided a corresponding license plate number.

Upon decedent's death in October 1999, the case was reclassified as a homicide and Detective Allen Castro (Det. Castro) took over the investigation. Det. Garcia informed Det. Castro that Vargo's information did not lead to any suspects in the case. Det. Castro did not know who Dubois was and thus did not follow up on Vargo's information. Neither Dubois's nor Vargo's name...