State v. Keyes, No. 118,894

472 P.3d 78

STATE of Kansas, Appellee,

v.Michael Alan KEYES, Appellant.

No. 118,894

Supreme Court of Kansas.

Opinion filed September 11, 2020.

Randall L. Hodgkinson, Topeka, of Kansas Appellate Defender Office, argued the cause and was on the briefs for appellant.

Jessica E. Akers, county attorney, argued the cause, and Derek Schmidt, attorney general, was with her on the brief for appellee.

The opinion of the court was delivered by Stegall, J.:

A Grant County jury convicted Michael Keyes of first-degree premeditated murder for the death of Jimmy Martin. On direct appeal, Keyes argues that the district court erred in refusing to give his requested jury instructions of self-defense and involuntary manslaughter.

Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to Keyes, we agree that the district court erred in not instructing the jury on self-defense. And because we are not convinced that there is no reasonable probability the error affected the outcome of the trial, we must reverse and remand Keyes' case to the district court.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Martin and Keyes both lived on the same property owned by Tina Martin. Keyes—who was dating Tina—lived in a trailer on her property. Tina also allowed Martin—who was her ex-husband—to live on her property in a different trailer. In early April 2016, Martin's daughter reported Martin missing. After weeks went by without locating Martin, Carlo Malone—son of Tina—told his probation officer that he witnessed Keyes kill Martin.

After Malone's probation officer reported this information, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) interviewed Malone to get more information about Martin's alleged death. During his interview, Malone told detectives that Keyes broke into Martin's trailer in the middle of the night and shot him to death. Malone admitted to helping Keyes dispose of Martin's body and eventually led officers to the burial site.

Detectives then interviewed Keyes. During Keyes' first interview, Keyes denied having anything to do with Martin's disappearance. But after detectives discovered Martin's body, Keyes admitted to shooting Martin four times: twice in the head and twice in the chest. Based on evidence gathered throughout the investigation, along with Malone's and Keyes' statements, Keyes was charged with first-degree premeditated murder.

Malone and Keyes gave conflicting narrations of Martin's death at trial. Malone—testifying for the State—told the story of a brutal murder. Malone lived in his mother's trailer along with his wife on Tina's property. Malone testified that on the day of Martin's death, Malone and his wife woke up to a fire on Tina's property in the middle of the night but went back to bed after the fire department put out the fire. Malone awoke a second time to find Keyes in his living room. Malone testified that Keyes approached him and said: " ‘Come on, you're going to help me with this. And if you tell anybody, then I'm going to kill you, and your family's not going to leave the farm.’ " Malone said he saw that Keyes was carrying a gun and decided it was best to follow his instructions.

Malone testified that he followed Keyes to Martin's trailer, where Keyes instructed him to " ‘[s]tand at the back door and make sure nothing comes out.’ " Keyes then went around to the front door and entered the trailer allegedly wearing night vision goggles. Malone did not hear Keyes knock but did hear Keyes' footsteps once Keyes was inside the trailer and walked past the back door. Malone then opened the back door to peek his head in, but it was too dark to see anything. Malone testified he could hear an exchange between Keyes and Martin (also known as Cowboy):

"It was pitch black. I couldn't see anything. But all I heard was Cowboy says, ‘Who's this?’ And Michael says, ‘The bogeyman.’ And [Keyes] says, ‘Are you going to stop harassing these women?’ And Cowboy said, ‘Well, do what you got to do.’ And then [Keyes] shot Cowboy and all I heard was his last breath."

Malone testified that after Keyes shot Martin, Keyes told Malone to leave while he cleaned up. Later, Keyes returned to Malone's trailer instructing Malone to get into Keyes' Ford Expedition. Keyes drove Malone back to Martin's trailer, where Keyes had wrapped Martin's body. Keyes and Malone then drug the body out of the trailer and loaded it into the back of the vehicle. Keyes and Malone then drove Martin's body to a pasture on Tina's property. Once they reached the pasture, they unloaded the body and placed it under a crate.

Malone then testified that they returned to the pasture the next night to bury Martin's body. The two started to dig a hole, but Keyes stopped because it was too hard for him. So Malone dug the hole by himself. Once Malone dug a waist deep hole, Keyes and Malone placed Martin's body in the hole. They then covered the hole with dirt and Keyes pulled a wooden frame over the grave. Malone was also arrested for his involvement in Martin's murder based on his statements to detectives.

Keyes told a different story at trial. First, Keyes denied Malone's presence at Martin's trailer during the shooting and when Keyes buried the body. Keyes explained that on the night he shot Martin, a fire broke out on Tina's property. This wasn't the first fire to break out on the property, however, and Keyes started to suspect Martin set the fires because he was the "common denominator." So Tina instructed Keyes to kick Martin off her property. Keyes planned to tell Martin to leave but took his gun with him because he believed Martin was "out of control" and dangerous.

Keyes arrived at Martin's trailer and knocked on the front door. After no response, Keyes entered the front door of the trailer, yelling out for "Cowboy." Eventually, Keyes found Martin "passed out" in his bed. Keyes shook Martin to wake him up while accusing Martin of trying to "burn us out." Keyes said Martin responded by stating "so what." Keyes then told Martin he had to leave Tina's property. Martin responded by saying "I'm not going anywhere" and threatened to kill Keyes. Keyes stated that Martin then grabbed a knife from his nightstand and got out of bed slashing the knife towards Keyes. Keyes shot Martin twice in the chest, but Martin continued to fight. So Keyes shot Martin two more times in the head.

Keyes testified that after killing Martin, he wrapped Martin's body in plastic with neckties and loaded the body into a Ford Expedition. Testimony from KBI detectives corroborated this—neckties were found strewn about Martin's bedroom and Martin's blood was found in Keyes' Ford Expedition. Keyes then stated he took Martin's body to a remote part of Tina's property and buried the body. Keyes said he did not bother to call the police because they had been unresponsive on other occasions when Keyes and others had reported Martin's erratic and violent behavior.

The jury also heard testimony from the coroner Altaf Hossain. Hossain explained that Martin had been shot four times: twice in the head and twice in the chest. Both of Martin's gun wounds to the head were in the left temporal region. According to Hossain, these gunshot wounds were fatal and Martin would not have been able to move after a bullet entered the temporal region of his brain. Hossain also explained the location of Martin's chest wounds. One bullet went through Martin's heart, while the other struck Martin's aorta and lungs.

At the close of evidence Keyes requested jury instructions on self-defense and involuntary manslaughter. Over objection by the defense, the court denied the requested instructions finding that the evidence failed to support either instruction. The final jury instructions included a first-degree premeditated murder instruction and a second-degree intentional murder instruction. After deliberating, the jury unanimously found Keyes guilty of first-degree premeditated murder. The court later sentenced Keyes to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 50 years.

ANALYSIS

Keyes now argues the district court committed reversible error when it refused to instruct the jury on self-defense and involuntary manslaughter.

"When analyzing jury instruction issues, we follow a three-step process: ‘(1) determining whether the appellate court can or should review the issue, i.e., whether there is a lack of appellate jurisdiction or a failure to preserve the issue for appeal; (2) considering the merits of the claim to determine whether error occurred below; and (3) assessing whether the error requires reversal, i.e., whether the error can be deemed harmless.’ " State v. McLinn , 307 Kan. 307, 317, 409 P.3d 1 (2018).

Keyes properly preserved both of the arguments here satisfying the first step of this analysis. At trial, Keyes requested jury instructions for self-defense and involuntary manslaughter and objected when the court denied both. Because Keyes properly preserved these issues for appeal, any error is reversible only if this court determines that there is a reasonable probability that the error affected the outcome of the trial in light of the entire record. State v. Barrett , 309 Kan. 1029, 1037, 442 P.3d 492 (2019). Determining whether there was error requires us to consider whether the instructions were legally and factually appropriate, using an unlimited standard of review of the entire record. McLinn , 307 Kan. at 318, 409 P.3d 1. In doing so, we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the defendant. State v. Barlett , 308 Kan. 78, 84, 418 P.3d 1253 (2018).

First, Keyes argues the district court erred in refusing to give an instruction on self-defense. We agree—a self-defense instruction was legally and factually appropriate based on the evidence introduced at trial. First, a self-defense instruction was legally appropriate because criminal defendants are generally entitled to an instruction on the law applicable to their theory of the case. See K.S.A. 2019 Supp. 21-5108(c). But the defendant must also show that this affirmative...