State v. Murray

235 W.Va. 312

773 S.E.2d 656

STATE of West Virginia, Plaintiff Below, Respondent

v.William B. MURRAY, Defendant Below, Petitioner.

No. 14–0321.

Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.

Submitted May 12, 2015.

Decided May 22, 2015.

Steven B. Nanners, Esq., Law Offices of Nanners & Willet, L.C., Buckhannon, WV, for Petitioner.

Patrick Morrisey, Esq., Attorney General, David A. Stackpole, Esq., Assistant Attorney General, Charleston, WV, for the Respondent.

Opinion

WORKMAN, Chief Justice:

This case is before the Court upon the appeal of the Petitioner William B. Murray from his jury convictions of first degree murder without mercy and concealment of a deceased human body. The Petitioner was sentenced to life without mercy for his first degree murder conviction and not less than one nor more than five years for his concealment of a deceased human body conviction. The trial court ordered the sentences to be served concurrently. The Petitioner argues that the trial court erred: 1) by denying his motion for a judgment of acquittal¹ as the State failed to prove premeditation and malice, which are required elements of the offense of first degree murder; 2) by refusing to disqualify the Harrison County Prosecuting Attorney's Office when the assistant prosecutor who tried the case became a potential witness during trial preparations; 3) by failing to conduct an in camera hearing due to juror misconduct that allegedly occurred during the deliberations and further by failing to order a mistrial regarding this issue; 4) by allowing the State to play a video recording to the jury of the Petitioner at the Harrison County Sheriff's Department; and 5) by failing to redact or limit impermissible vouching of the co-defendant's plea agreement. Based upon a review of the parties' briefs and oral arguments, the appendix record and all other matters submitted before the Court, we affirm the trial court's decision.

I. Facts and Procedure Below

According to the evidence at trial, in December of 2011, the Petitioner and his co-defendant, Clayton Collins (“Collins”), as well as the victim, T.J. Blankenship (“T.J.”), were all residing together in a home near Clarksburg, West Virginia. The testimony was that the three men were like brothers. The Petitioner's girlfriend, Crystal Kirkland, and Collins's girlfriend, Melissa Arbogast, also resided in the home.²

During December, the relationship between the three men, however, became very tense, when items were stolen from the Petitioner's father. Trooper First–Class Martin Bailey with the West Virginia State Police testified that on December 17, 2011, he responded to a call about a burglary made by Beth Cunningham, the Petitioner's father's girlfriend. Ms. Cunningham reported that two computers and a television had been stolen from them. According to the testimony of Ms. Arbogast, the Petitioner and his co-defendant, Collins, discovered that the victim, T.J., had stolen the items from the Petitioner's father and was hiding them in Collins's truck while trying to sell them. According to Collins, when he and the Petitioner found the stolen computers in the truck, the Petitioner called his father, who came and retrieved them. Nothing was said to T.J. at that time.

Ms. Arbogast and Collins³ both testified that after the Petitioner and Collins discovered that T.J. was the culprit, they met with the Petitioner's father about the theft. They did not want to notify the police about T.J. being the thief as they worried that T.J. would inform law enforcement about their own criminal activities, which included drug use. Consequently, Collins and the Petitioner, along with the Petitioner's father, decided that they would retaliate against T.J. by beating him up. As Collins testified, they were going to do this by “possibly breaking his fingers, or his knees, or something.” The Petitioner's father offered to forgive a debt that Collins owed him and to give both Collins and the Petitioner drugs in exchange for attacking T.J. The initial plan was to wait until after the first of January 2012.

The plan to wait, however, changed on December 28, 2011, due to a confrontation between T.J. and Collins. Collins testified that early in the morning on December 28, T.J. awakened the Petitioner when he returned home from work.⁴ Collins said that he, T.J., Ms. Kirkland and the Petitioner “hung out for a little while.” At some point, T.J. “start[ed] kind of running his mouth” about “getting ripped off.” Both Collins and the Petitioner were angry with T.J. Collins testified that he and the Petitioner went upstairs and discussed confronting T.J. that night with their knowledge that T.J. had stolen the computers and T.V. from the Petitioner's father. According to Collins, they were going to kick him out of the house and beat him up. The two men put their plan in motion by telling Ms. Kirkland to take the Petitioner's son and Ms. Arbogast in Collins's truck and leave the house for a while. Ms. Arbogast corroborated Collins's testimony, stating that Collins told her to get Ms. Kirkland and the Petitioner's son and leave because “[t]here's probably going to be a fight.”

Collins testified that shortly after they left, he and the Petitioner confronted T.J. Collins told T.J. “he was busted on stealing the laptops, and that we had returned the laptops.” T.J. “got pretty irrate [sic].” According to Collins, the Petitioner “backed up what I was saying.” Collins also testified that T.J. denied the accusation and “[a]t that point, he [referring to T.J.] gets up and charges at me.” Collins further testified that T.J. pushed him into a wall and was holding him there by Collins's throat; Collins then grabbed a large wrench off the table and hit T.J in the head with it two or three times. After being hit, Collins stated that T.J. let Collins go. According to Collins, T.J. then turned and went back and sat down on the couch where he slumped over. Collins testified that T.J. did say something, but he couldn't make out the words. Collins testified that he dropped the wrench onto the floor.

According to Collins, he then started to walk out the door, because he “was kind of just overwhelmed.” Collins testified that while he was walking towards the door, the Petitioner picked up the wrench and repeatedly hit T.J. in the head.⁵ Collins testified that he heard “kind of like a dull thunk.” Collins stated that he proceeded to go outside for a few minutes and when he came back into the house, the Petitioner said that T.J. had “ peed himself,” and was dead.⁶ The Petitioner then told Collins that “ we got to get rid of him.”⁷

Collins testified that the Petitioner began cutting up the carpeting upon which T.J. had urinated. The Petitioner then rolled T.J. off the couch and onto the floor. They rolled T.J. up in the carpet. They carried the couch, which had T.J.'s blood on it, out of the house and set the couch on fire. They also called their girlfriends and told them to return with Collins's truck. When the girlfriends returned, Collins gave them some gas cans and money. He told the women to take a van that belonged to the Petitioner and his girlfriend and go fill up the cans with gasoline. After the women left a second time, Collins and the Petitioner proceeded to load T.J.'s body in the back of the truck. The Petitioner wanted to dump the body in a river and Collins testified that he wanted to bury T.J. somewhere.

Once their girlfriends returned with the gasoline, Collins and the Petitioner put the gas in the truck with the carpet and T.J.'s body. The two then drove to a riverbank in Arden, near Phillipi, in Barbour County. They dug a hole in the damp soil on the riverbank and dumped the body in the hole and covered it up. After disposing of the body, they drove “somewhere else” and burned the carpet.

T.J.'s body was discovered approximately two weeks later. Ms. Arbogast contacted the police and identified both the Petitioner and Collins as having been involved in the killing. The Petitioner was arrested on January 16, 2012. He was indicted on three charges: murder, conspiracy to commit murder and concealment of a deceased human body. The State voluntarily dismissed the conspiracy charge prior to trial. His trial began on July 9, 2013, and ended on July 16, 2013.

Based upon the evidence presented at trial, the jury found the Petitioner guilty of the murder and concealment of a deceased human body charges.⁸ The jury did not recommend mercy. On February 18, 2014, the Petitioner was sentenced to life in prison without mercy and a concurrent term of one to five years for concealment of a deceased human body. It is from this conviction and sentence that the Petitioner now appeals.

II. Standard of Review

The Petitioner has asserted several assignments of error involving various legal principles and differing standards of review. Thus, we will address the applicable standard of review within the discussion section regarding each assigned error.

III. Discussion

A. Sufficiency of the Evidence

The first issue raised by the Petitioner concerns whether the trial court erred in denying the Petitioner's motion for a judgment of acquittal on the murder charge. The Petitioner argues that there was insufficient evidence of premeditation and malice. He contends that the State relied solely upon the testimony of his co-defendant to establish the Petitioner's involvement in the crimes in this case. The Petitioner maintains that he was “added into the mix by Clayton S. Collins after the plea agreement” and that Collins's version of what transpired does not show premeditation or malice. Conversely, the State maintains that there was sufficient evidence offered to support the jury's findings of premeditation and malice. The State contends that the Petitioner's argument on this issue requires the Court to ignore Collins's testimony. Additionally, the State maintains that despite the fact that Collins testified to the Petitioner's involvement in the murder, and that this testimony was...