State v. Smith

550 P.3d 1030

2024 UT App 82

STATE of Utah, Appellee,

v.Steven Timothy SMITH, Appellant.

No. 20220299-CA

Court of Appeals of Utah.

Filed May 31, 2024

Fifth District Court, St. George Department, The Honorable Jeffrey C. Wilcox, No. 211501082

Nicolas D. Turner and K. Andrew Fitzgerald, Attorneys for Appellant

Sean D. Reyes and Karen A. Klucznik, Salt Lake City, Attorneys for Appellee

Judge Amy J. Oliver authored this Opinion, in which Judges David N. Mortensen and Ryan M. Harris concurred.

Opinion

OLIVER, Judge:

¶1 After coming home from work, Shawntell Smith (Shawntell) gathered her family as she had planned and calmly told her husband of nearly thirty years, Steven Timothy Smith (Smith), that she was leaving him and taking their kids with her. Over the next twenty-five minutes, Smith left the house, drove to the bank and withdrew $15,000, returned home and put the cash in a drawer, got his gun from the closet and loaded the magazine, and asked his two sons if they agreed with the plan to move out. He then fatally shot Shawntell seven times in the back as she stood in the kitchen. At trial, Smith confessed on the stand, and a jury convicted him of first-degree murder. Smith challenges his conviction on the grounds that the trial court erred in denying his request for a jury instruction on the defense of extreme emotional distress and in denying his last-minute motion for a continuance to hire an expert witness. We reject both of Smith’s arguments and affirm his conviction.

BACKGROUND¹

[1] ¶2 Shawntell and Smith were married and had four children, three of whom were adults in May 2021. The two youngest sons, a fourteen-year-old (Teen Son) and a twenty-year-old (Adult Son), lived at home. Smith "was quick to anger or snap at the kids," threatening them with a belt, cussing at them frequently, and sometimes throwing things at them. Smith also directed his temper, which he believes "every male has," at his wife, Shawntell. As Adult Son testified, Smith once got so angry when Adult Son wanted Shawn- tell’s—not Smith’s—help with homework that Shawntell said she would call the police if Smith did not calm down. Smith then "got into her face" and said, "I’m going to put a bullet in your head." Shawntell rarely stood up for herself, was often sleep-deprived from working two jobs—including a graveyard shift—to pay the bills, and had stopped inviting her friends into her house.

¶3 Shawntell eventually decided to leave Smith. For months, she quietly put a plan into action: she confided in her close friends and neighbors, asking for their help storing some of her things; she slowly began packing up boxes; and she found a townhouse and arranged for Adult Son to sign the lease on it. Shawntell decided she would hold a family meeting on May 21, 2021, to tell Smith she was leaving him that same day; she arranged for a couple of friends and neighbors to come help her move after the meeting. One neighbor (Neighbor) was worried about Shawntell’s safety if she left the same day she told Smith and suggested, instead, giving Smith "time to process" the news before moving out. But, Shawntell insisted on sticking with her plan out of fear Smith would "retaliat[e]" if she stayed. Neighbor remained "concerned enough" for Shawntell’s safety that he "put a gun in [his] truck."

¶4 On May 21, just after 5:00 p.m., Shawntell and three of the kids—Adult Son, a twenty-five-year-old daughter (Daughter), and Teen Son—went into the home office where Smith was on his computer. Shawntell calmly told Smith she was leaving that day and that Adult Son and Teen Son were leaving with her. Smith simply said, "Okay," and asked where they were going, along with who would pay rent on the family house. Shawntell replied that rent "would be his responsibility." Smith calmly turned off his computer, walked to the master bedroom, and looked in the closet for his keys despite always keeping them on the dresser. Shawntell followed him and asked if she could help him find anything. Smith asked if Teen Son had known of her plan to leave, and Shawntell replied that only the older children had known beforehand.

¶5 Despite being "distraught" at the news his wife was leaving and he "was the last one to know," Smith did not reach for any of the guns he kept in a chest on one of the bedroom dressers. Instead, he got his car keys and walked out of the bedroom, leaving the house at about 5:30 p.m. in a "calm" mood Smith decided to take Shawntell’s car rather than the Suburban that was packed up, inferring she was taking the Suburban. He drove down the street to the bank and asked for a specific employee to help him withdraw $15,000 in cash. Smith opted to wait for that employee, who was busy with another customer. The employee suggested that a cashier’s check would be safer than carrying around so much cash. Smith refused and told the employee he was not concerned about safety because he was a retired police officer.

¶6 Smith drove home, arriving at approximately 5:45 p.m. A box truck that Adult Son had brought to help move was taking up most of the driveway, so Smith changed his mind about parking there, reversed the car, and found another parking spot. Neighbor observed Smith driving "at kind of a high rate of speed that just led [him] to believe that [Smith] was agitated." Neighbor tried "to defuse the situation in some manner" by saying hello. Smith replied, "Get the fuck off my property" and Adult Son, who overheard Smith, said to Neighbor, "My dad’s true colors shining through."

¶7 Smith walked into the house and went straight to the master bedroom, where he put the cash in a dresser drawer. Smith then saw a friend of Shawntell’s packing up her things from the closet and "forcefully" told her to leave. According to Smith, he "wanted to shoot" himself at that point, so he took out a 45 caliber pistol from the gun chest on his dresser and ammunition from the closet, and he went to the bathroom and sat on the toilet to load the gun. Smith claimed he felt "foggy" and "extremely out of it," so when he tried to load the magazine, he did it the wrong way. He realized his mistake and then properly filled the magazine with seven bullets.

¶8 Deciding to kill himself in the backyard, Smith first went to find his sons, intending to ask them "if they wanted [him] around." What he ended up asking, though, was whether they were okay with Shawntell’s plan to leave and take them. When they said they were, Smith said it felt like a slap in the face.

¶9 At approximately 5:52 p.m., Smith walked down the hallway to the back door and saw Shawntell with her back to him, her attention focused on doing something in a kitchen drawer. Smith thought to himself, "Okay. It’s her fault." Lifting his gun, Smith aimed it at Shawntell and pulled the trigger seven times, hitting her each time. According to the medical examiner, the bullets penetrated Shawntell’s lungs, heart, kidney, bowel, and wrist. Smith watched Shawntell fall, face down, on the kitchen floor. He then went and sat on the couch, placing the gun on the nearby hutch.

¶10 Hearing gunshots from the driveway, Adult Son cried out and ran into the house, where he and Daughter found their mother lying on her stomach. Neither of them saw Smith near their mother, but Adult Son noticed Smith going into the master bedroom and followed, physically attacking him and asking, "Why? Why would you do this?" Smith responded, "I have nothing left." Meanwhile, Daughter called 911 and attempted CPR.

¶11 When the police arrived, Teen Son ran out of the house, and the officers directed him to stay near them as another officer (Officer) "took a tactical position in front of the house," The other two children came out, looking "frantic." Adult Son exclaimed, "I beat the fuck out of my dad. He shot her. The gun is empty. And he’s sitting on the couch." Officer ordered Smith to exit the house with his hands up. Smith calmly complied and was arrested. The polite asked where the gun was, and Smith told them it was inside.' Upon entering the house, the officers found Shawntell’s dead body surrounded by blood and seven 45 mm shell casings. After searching for "a long time," the officers found the gun Smith used in the master closet, under a bloody American flag and "tucked" by the wall.

¶12 Smith was taken to the police station, where he received medical treatment for injuries caused by Adult Son. At the beginning of his first police interview, Smith was "pretty calm" but had "periods where he would become emotional." Smith claimed to have memory gaps in the events leading up to the murder, so the police interviewed him a second time to ascertain whether he "recalled or was able to recall anything." During the second interview, Smith claimed he did not remember shooting Shawntell, but he also "never denied that he shot her" and made statements such as, "I don’t deny that I’m not innocent" and, "I probably shot my wife."

¶13 A few days later, the State charged Smith with murder. He pleaded not guilty. Out of an abundance of caution, Smith’s appointed counsel (Trial Counsel) requested a competency evaluation. The court granted the request, and Smith was later found competent to proceed. In mid-October, the parties agreed they would be ready for trial if it were set for the following month. On October 29, the State moved to preclude a jury instruction on an extreme emotional distress (EED) defense, contending the evidence would not support the defense under the new governing statute, which requires (among other things) evidence that the defendant had an "overwhelming reaction of anger, shock, or grief’ to a "highly provoking act" by the victim, which reaction both (a) "cause[d] the defendant to be incapable of reflection and restraint" and (b) "would cause an objectively reasonable person to be incapable of reflection and restraint." Utah Code § 76-5-205.5(1)(a)(i).² The court heard argument and deferred ruling until trial.

¶14 Two business days before trial, Smith...