State v. Jackson

STATE OF WASHINGTON, Respondent, v. CRYSTAL SHARE JACKSON, Appellant.

No. 52353-1-II

Court of Appeals of Washington, Division 2

October 6, 2020

UNPUBLISHED OPINION

GLASGOW, J.

Crystal Share Jackson appeals the trial court's denial of her motion to withdraw her guilty plea to first degree premeditated murder and second degree manslaughter. Jackson argues that her guilty plea to the first degree premeditated murder charge was involuntary because it lacked a factual basis and she did not understand the relationship between her conduct and the charged crimes. She also contends that she received ineffective assistance of counsel with regard to her plea. Finally, Jackson asks this court to reverse the trial court's denial of her motion to withdraw her plea because the trial court excluded her expert witness from the courtroom during Jackson's testimony at the hearing on that motion.

We affirm. The factual basis in the record at the time of Jackson's guilty plea was sufficient to support a conviction for first degree premeditated murder. The record reflects that Jackson understood how her conduct related to the charges and her plea was not involuntary. Jackson did not receive ineffective assistance of counsel because her trial counsel's performance was not deficient. The trial court did not err by excluding her expert from the courtroom at the plea withdrawal hearing.

Jackson raises additional arguments for reversal in a statement of additional grounds (SAG). We decline to consider these arguments because they rely on evidence outside the record.

FACTS

A. Murder of Jesus Isidor-Mendoza

Jackson lived in Tacoma, Washington, with her four children and her younger teenage brother. She sold marijuana and methamphetamine to lower level dealers through a gang-related drug distribution network that operated in several states. Jackson sold drugs out of her home and stored drugs and money there. Beginning in fall 2014, Jackson rented her detached garage to Darrel Daves, who was a dealer in her drug operation. Daves's friend, Wallace Jackson ^[1] frequently came to Jackson's house. Jackson, Daves, and Wallace also used marijuana and methamphetamine together.

Jackson's drug sales routinely netted $7, 000 per month, and she kept significant amounts of cash in a safe in her room. In November 2014, the safe was not locked because Jackson had lost the key. On November 17, 2014, Jackson discovered that $5, 000 was missing from the safe. Jackson accused Daves and Wallace of taking the money. Daves and Wallace accused a third person, Jesus Isidor-Mendoza, of stealing the money. Isidor-Mendoza was an 18 year old who worked with Daves as a drug dealer. Jackson had met Isidor-Mendoza prior to the day her money went missing, but it is not clear from the record how well she knew him.

On November 18, 2014, Isidor-Mendoza was killed at Jackson's home. The details of the killing are disputed, and the record reflects conflicting statements about what happened to him. The following information was presented in the probable cause declaration, which provided the factual basis for Jackson's guilty plea according to her stipulation. The probable cause declaration was based on statements the police obtained from Jackson, Wallace, Daves, Jackson's brother one of Jackson's daughters, Isidor-Mendoza's mother and a few other witnesses.

Isidor-Mendoza arrived at Jackson's house and entered the detached garage where Daves and Wallace were. A few minutes later, Jackson, who was in the house, heard loud yelling. She went into the garage and saw Wallace holding Isidor-Mendoza by the hair and having sex with him. Isidor-Mendoza appeared to be in pain. Wallace and Isidor-Mendoza were both naked. Jackson left the garage and went back in the house.

Jackson then heard an outside faucet running. She went back to the garage. She saw that Wallace and Daves had filled a large bucket from the backyard with water and they were forcing Isidor-Mendoza's head into it. Isidor-Mendoza's hands were behind his back, Daves was holding Isidor-Mendoza's legs, and Wallace was holding his head underwater. After a few minutes, Jackson returned to the house.

About 20 or 30 minutes later, Daves entered Jackson's house, where he retrieved "a long machete-type knife that he knew was kept there." Clerk's Papers (CP) at 4. Daves then returned to the garage. Next, Jackson "heard what she believed to be a scraping or scrubbing noise coming from the garage." CP at 4. Jackson returned to the garage and found that Isidor-Mendoza was on his stomach on the garage floor with his hands behind his back. He appeared to be dead. Daves was using the knife to "hack at the back of [his] legs." CP at 4.

Daves and Wallace then went in and out of the house, getting cleaning supplies and garbage bags. Jackson told the police that she left with her kids for a while because she was afraid. She said that when she came back several hours later, Isidor-Mendoza's body was gone and she saw a large, sealed black garbage bag, which she believed contained his body.

The bag remained at Jackson's home for four days, but Jackson and her children started to notice the smell. Jackson said Daves and Wallace told her they needed her help. They put Isidor-Mendoza's body in Jackson's car and drove it to a house where Wallace used to live. Wallace and Jackson threw the bag down a steep hillside behind the house.

Wallace told the police a different story-that Jackson threatened him with a gun and demanded he help her dispose of a body. He said Jackson showed him a garbage bag that he believed contained a decaying human body. Wallace said he helped dispose of the body in a ravine behind a house. Wallace reported that Jackson said nothing about the dead person, except that he had "f[****]d _Up" CP at 3. Wallace's girlfriend confirmed that Wallace told her he had assisted Jackson with disposing of a body.

Jackson's daughter told the police that she recognized Isidor-Mendoza and that before he was killed, he had been caught stealing something from Jackson's bedroom.

B. Jackson's Plea

In February 2015, Jackson, Wallace, and Daves were charged with first degree premeditated murder under RCW 9A.32.030(1)(a).

Jackson was assigned a court-appointed attorney, Ann Mahony. Mahony prepared the case for trial for a year and a half. Mahony explained to Jackson the charges she was facing, the concept of accomplice liability, the State's evidence, and possible defenses. Even though Mahony knew that Jackson had some mental health issues, Mahony did not have trouble communicating with Jackson, nor did Mahony think that Jackson's mental health issues prevented Jackson from assisting in her own defense. After looking "at every possible defense," Mahony decided the evidence did not support a mental health defense. Verbatim Report of Proceedings (VRP) (July 7, 2017) at 28.

In April 2016, the State offered a plea agreement. Jackson was to plead guilty to first degree premeditated murder and second degree manslaughter, but if she provided "complete and truthful information" to the State, law enforcement, and her attorneys at all times, and if she provided truthful testimony against Wallace and Daves at their trial, the State would dismiss the first degree murder conviction and request that she be sentenced for second degree manslaughter. CP at 661. If she failed to provide complete and truthful information and to testify truthfully at trial, this would constitute a breach of the plea agreement and she would be sentenced for first degree premeditated murder. Jackson could not "hold back any information," and the deputy prosecuting attorney's reasonable belief that she was not being completely truthful pretrial or that she did not testify truthfully would be enough to establish a violation of the plea agreement. CP at 662. Truthfulness at trial would "be determined by considering [Jackson's] testimony in light of her tape-recorded offer of proof." CP at 662.

If sentenced for first degree premeditated murder, Jackson faced a standard range sentence of 240-320 months. If sentenced to second degree manslaughter, the standard range sentence was 21-27 months.

On April 12, 2016, Jackson gave a recorded offer of proof. Jackson provided more information that did not appear in the statement of probable cause, including that she was a drug dealer, she had discovered $5, 000 missing from her unlocked safe the day before Isidor-Mendoza was killed, and she had accused Wallace and Daves of stealing the money, who in turn accused Isidor-Mendoza. She continued to maintain that she did not know Isidor-Mendoza personally.

Jackson also claimed that Wallace and Daves fought in her bathroom inside her house and damaged the faucet in her shower while cleaning themselves up after the murder. When asked about a photo of Isidor-Mendoza's dead body on her phone, Jackson said that it was possible that a third person, Jakeel Mason, had seen the photo on her phone, but she insisted she did not take the photo or show it to him. She said she could not possibly have shown the photo to anyone because Wallace and Daves confiscated her phone during the murder and did not return it to her until after she helped them dispose of the body.

On April 13, 2016, the State filed an amended information charging Jackson with first degree premeditated murder under RCW 9A.32.030(1)(a) and second degree manslaughter under RCW 9A.32.070Q).

Mahony met Jackson in the jail to discuss the plea agreement and go over Jackson's plea statement. Mahony did not recall bringing a copy of either the probable cause declaration or proposed plea agreement with her. But Mahony testified that she went over the probable cause declaration with Jackson during her pre-plea representation.

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