State v. Parker

STATE OF TENNESSEE v. JAMES RAY PARKER

No. E2017-01787-CCA-R3-CD

COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF TENNESSEE AT KNOXVILLE

Assigned on Briefs November 28, 2018

February 25, 2019

Appeal from the Circuit Court for Monroe County

No. 14231

Sandra Donaghy, Judge

The defendant, James Ray Parker, appeals his Monroe County Circuit Court jury conviction of first degree murder, claiming that the trial court erred by concluding that the defendant was competent to stand trial, that the trial court erred by denying the defendant's motion to suppress his statements to the police and the fruits derived from those statements, that the trial court erred by failing to suppress evidence obtained via an invalid search warrant, that the trial court erred by failing to grant his motion to continue, that the trial court erred by refusing to instruct the jury on the defense of insanity, and that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction. Discerning no reversible error, we affirm.

Tenn. R. App. P. 3; Judgment of the Circuit Court Affirmed

JAMES CURWOOD WITT, JR., J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which THOMAS T. WOODALL and ROBERT W. WEDEMEYER, JJ., joined.

Leah Sauceman, Athens, Tennessee (on appeal); and James H. Stutts, Sweetwater, Tennessee (at trial), for the appellant, James Ray Parker.

Herbert H. Slatery III, Attorney General and Reporter; Alexander C. Vey, Assistant Attorney General; Stephen D. Crump, District Attorney General; and Shari Tayloe, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.

OPINION

The Monroe County Grand Jury charged the defendant with first degree premediated murder for the October 13, 2013 death of his great aunt, Kathy Bookout.

At the defendant's February 2017 trial, the victim's husband, Carl Bookout, testified that in October 2013, he and the victim lived together in Madisonville, Tennessee, and that the defendant is the victim's great-nephew. The defendant was a frequent visitor to their home, and, in December 2012, Mr. Bookout and the victim had allowed the defendant to live with them for approximately one month to help the defendant get back on his feet.

Mr. Bookout testified that in early October 2013, someone broke into his residence and stole an old rifle. He did not report the theft to the police until after speaking with his brother-in-law, J.D. McJunkin, at the victim's funeral.

Mr. Bookout recalled that on October 12, 2013, he cut the hay in his field and mowed his yard before attending a birthday party for his brother. Mr. Bookout did not share a bedroom with the victim because he generally worked the 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. shift at work. Mr. Bookout did not work on the evening of October 12, 2013, and, as was often the case given his work schedule, he had difficulty getting to sleep that night, so the victim gave him an Ambien to help him sleep. When he woke the following morning, he went to wake the victim so that she could mend a pair of pants for him. When he walked into the victim's bedroom, he "noticed her leg was laying off the bed," and when he called her name, she did not respond. He "reached down to shake her," and he "realized she's cold." Mr. Bookout ran from the house and telephoned his daughters, Tasha and Carla.

Both women arrived shortly thereafter and went into the victim's bedroom. Mr. Bookout's daughter, Carla, telephoned 9-1-1, and the family went onto the porch to await the arrival of police. After the members of the rescue squad and sheriff's department arrived, officers asked the family to step into the yard. As they stood in the yard, Mr. Bookout's brother-in-law noticed "a hole, just like a perfect circle in the window" of the victim's bedroom. Mr. Bookout also observed an orange BIC lighter in the grass at the edge of the yard, and he knew that it had not been there the day before when he had mowed.

The victim's daughter, Kimberly Tasha Walton, testified that when questioned by the police at the scene, she suggested that the defendant might have murdered the victim. Ms. Walton explained that, a few days before the murder, she had telephoned 9-1-1 and told the operator that the defendant "had supposedly been beating up his mom" and that the defendant "was crazy, because his mom always said he was crazy." Ms. Walton clarified that she had not witnessed any altercation between the defendant and his mother but that she overheard the defendant's mother telling the victim "what he was doing." Ms. Walton said that she thought the defendant might have believed that the victim "was the one that called the law" and that that belief might have prompted him to harm the victim.

Monroe County Sheriff's Office ("MCSO") Detective Tonia Norwood was the lead investigator in the defendant's case. Detective Norwood testified that, among her myriad duties in the case, she collected an orange BIC lighter discovered by members of the victim's family. In addition, Detective Norwood observed that "a perfectly round circle" had been broken in the window in the victim's bedroom, which Detective Norwood described as unusual, noting that "the muzzle from a blast will" typically cause a window to shatter. She recalled that all the glass from the break was inside the room and that the blinds on the window appeared to have been cut. Detective Norwood and other officers removed "the drywall and the stud and . . . the insulation" surrounding a bullet hole in the bedroom wall and were able to remove a bullet from inside the insulation.

Detective Norwood obtained and executed a warrant to search the defendant's residence at Plemmons Trailer Park for a rifle and shells. Inside the residence, she "observed the house was . . . in disarray. There was stuff throwed everywhere. There was holes punched in the walls. Things were broken, garbage on the floor in the kitchen." Officers discovered bullets and a camouflage jacket inside the residence and an all-terrain vehicle ("ATV") and .30-06 rifle outside the residence. The bullets discovered inside the defendant's residence, "half-jacketed, with [a] lead nose," were the same type as the bullet found in the victim's bedroom wall. Officers found the .30-06 rifle inside a culvert in front of the defendant's trailer.

Detective Norwood sent the cigarette lighter, rifle, and bullet to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation ("TBI") for forensic examination and testing.

The defendant's grandfather and the victim's brother-in-law, Jesse McJunkin, testified that the defendant visited his house often and had lived with him and his wife during his teens. In October 2013, the defendant came to Mr. McJunkin's house "to get his rifle," a double-action .30-06 with a scope, for target practice and "brought an old shotgun with him" that he said Mr. McJunkin could keep. Mr. McJunkin explained that the defendant had "pawned" the rifle to Mr. McJunkin and his late wife approximately one year earlier. Mr. McJunkin recalled that the defendant also got ammunition that "might have been . . . solid copper" or might have been half-jacketed with "a lead tip."

Mr. McJunkin said that the defendant was not behaving peculiarly when he came to swap guns.

MCSO Narcotics Investigator Conway Mason testified that he assisted in the investigation of the victim's murder. Investigator Mason interviewed the defendant at the sheriff's department on October 13, 2013, and attempted to have the defendantaccount for his whereabouts on the previous day and evening. Investigator Mason recalled that he provided the defendant with Miranda warnings, and the defendant, after indicating that he understood his constitutional rights, agreed to waive them. A video recording of Investigator Mason's interview with the defendant was played for the jury.

Investigator Mason said that after the interview, officers drove the defendant back to his residence. Investigator Mason and other officers then attempted to verify the defendant's account of his activities, and they discovered that the defendant could not account for his whereabouts during the period between 2:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. After interviewing the defendant's girlfriend, Ginger Harris, officers interviewed the defendant a second time. A video recording of the second interview was played for the jury.

TBI Special Agent and Criminal Investigator Jason Legg, who was the lead investigator into the victim's murder, testified that his investigation began with a walk-through of the scene, during which Agent Legg observed a "recent disturbance on top of the air conditioner" outside the victim's window. Agent Legg also observed a perfectly round hole in the bedroom window. Using a string stretched from the center of the void in the window to the bullet strike in the bedroom wall, Agent Legg determined the bullet's likely path. Agent Legg testified that, based upon that trajectory, investigators concluded that the victim was "most likely sitting up in bed at the time she was shot."

After learning that the defendant had obtained a .30-06 rifle and half-jacketed ammunition from his grandfather in the days before the victim's murder, Agent Legg went to the sheriff's department to interview the defendant. A video recording of the interview was played for the jury.

During the interview, the defendant admitted having murdered the victim, but he insisted that he had killed the victim in self-defense, stating, "It's an eye for an eye, and she tried to take my life so by God I took hers. I took it. That's just it. And I don't got no remorse whatsoever." The defendant claimed that the victim had poisoned him and told him that she had done so. The alleged poisoning occurred before Christmas of the previous year when the defendant was staying with the victim while he and his mother were having difficulties. He said that the victim prepared "some kind of casserole type deal" and put poison in it that affected his vision and that, after consuming the meal, he "felt like [he] was dying," claiming, "It's just a miracle I lived through it. . . . She...