Brett Carroll v. Commonwealth of Kentucky ( 2021 )

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RENDERED: MARCH 25, 2021
NOT TO BE PUBLISHED
Supreme Court of Kentucky
2019-SC-0253-MR
BRETT CARROLL APPELLANT
ON APPEAL FROM WARREN CIRCUIT COURT
V. HONORABLE JOHN GRISE, JUDGE
NO. 15-CR-00518
COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY APPELLEE
MEMORANDUM OPINION OF THE COURT
AFFIRMING
A Warren Circuit Court jury convicted Appellant Brett Carroll of first-
degree manslaughter, two counts of tampering with physical evidence, and of
being a second-degree persistent felony offender (PFO). Carroll was sentenced
to thirty-five years’ imprisonment and now appeals to this Court as a matter of
right. Ky. Const. § 110(2)(b). On appeal, Carroll argues that the trial court
committed palpable error by failing to grant his motion for a directed verdict of
acquittal on all charges. After review, we affirm the trial court.
FACTUAL BACKGROUND
On September 7, 2014, an officer with the Bowling Green Police
Department discovered Shawn Yonko’s body in his apartment while performing
a welfare check. Due to extensive decomposition, Yonko’s cause of death was
not readily ascertainable. An autopsy by the Kentucky Medical Examiner’s
office determined that Yonko died from a stab wound to the chest that
punctured his heart. Based on the volume of blood in the chest cavity, the
medical examiner determined Yonko bled to death shortly after being stabbed
but concluded the wound would not have caused Yonko to be immediately
immobilized. The medical examiner believed Yonko died 3 to 7 days before his
body was found.
The police investigation determined Yonko was last seen alive by a friend
on the evening of August 31, 2014, and that the last outgoing call from Yonko’s
cell phone occurred at 8:23 p.m. that same night. Detective Buss, the lead
homicide detective on the case, turned his investigative attention to Yonko’s
neighbor, Chrystal Wright, after learning she and two men—Robert Wright and
Appellant, Brett Carroll—had been stopped by another officer on the night of
August 31 for driving with a cracked windshield.
Detective Buss first spoke to Robert Wright. He told Buss he had spent
time at Chrystal’s apartment on August 31 with Chrystal, Carroll, and another
woman, Tabitha Robinson, but claimed his girlfriend picked him up that
evening and drove him to Louisville. Buss also contacted Tabitha. Tabitha
made statements to Buss indicating that Robert and Carroll had been involved
in a fight with Yonko. During his investigation, Buss also received a tip from
the mother of Robert’s girlfriend that Carroll and Robert may have been
involved in a crime.
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Armed with this information, Detective Buss confronted Chrystal.
Although she initially denied having any information about Yonko’s death, she
relented and gave police a recorded statement. Chrystal told police that she,
Robert, Carroll, and Tabitha spent the evening of August 31, 2014, drinking at
her apartment. At some time during the evening, Carroll went outside to use
the phone. When he came back inside, he told the others he had “just got into
it outside” with another man. Chrystal stated that Robert, who had been
drinking and was intoxicated, went outside to confront the person with whom
Carroll had an altercation and that she and Carroll followed him.
Outside of the apartment, Crystal observed Robert arguing with her
neighbor Yonko. The altercation between the two men turned physical and
Carroll got involved. Chrystal saw Carroll run toward Yonko and hit him in the
chest. Once Carroll hit Yonko in the chest, the fight ended. Chrystal heard
Yonko make a remark about getting his “heat,” which she understood to mean
his gun, and saw him walk back into his apartment. Chrystal said the group
quickly left in her car after the fight, and Carroll instructed her to drive to his
mother’s house. Once there, the group went into Carroll’s bedroom. In the
bedroom, Chrystal said Carroll told the group he had stabbed Yonko and that
Carroll and Robert changed out of the clothes they were wearing. Carroll took
the clothes outside, and Chrystal overheard his mother ask him why he was
starting a fire. Chrystal said Carroll threatened to kill the others if they told
anyone he had stabbed Yonko.
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After obtaining Chrystal’s statement, Detective Buss again spoke to
Robert, who decided to cooperate with the investigation and provided a
statement. Robert admitted his girlfriend had not taken him to Louisville as he
initially told Buss and gave a statement corroborating much of Chrystal’s
account of the evening of August 31. Thereafter, Carroll was indicted for
murder, two counts of tampering with physical evidence, and with being a
second-degree PFO.
At trial, Chrystal, Tabitha, and Robert all testified for the
Commonwealth. Chrystal’s trial testimony was mostly consistent with her prior
statements to police. Tabitha testified she saw Carroll with a bloody knife in
Chrystal’s car after the group fled the apartment. She also said she observed
Carroll throw something out of Chrystal’s car window. She assumed it was the
knife because she did not see Carroll with the knife after that. While the group
was at Carroll’s mother’s house, Tabitha overheard Carroll say he planned to
burn the clothes he and Robert had been wearing on August 31. Robert
testified Carroll admitted to the others in Chrystal’s car to stabbing Yonko. He
also saw Carroll throw a knife out of Chrystal’s car window. Robert stated
Carroll gave him clothes to change into at his mother’s house, so Carroll could
burn the clothes they had worn during the fight.
Carroll’s sister Lindsey also testified at his trial. Lindsey claimed she
could not recollect Carroll coming to their mother’s house on August 31, 2014,
but the Commonwealth impeached her testimony with a previous statement
she gave to police. In that statement, Lindsey said she remembered a night
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when she was watching movies at her mother’s house and that Carroll, a “Rob
guy,” and “a black girl and some white girl” came in “trashed.” Lindsey said
the group went straight to Carroll’s bedroom when they arrived but emerged
later and burned something.
Carroll’s defense was to cast Robert—not Carroll—as the likely culprit for
Yonko’s death and painted the Commonwealth’s proof as a “contrived story by
three felons.” Although defense counsel elicited concessions that called the
credibility of Chrystal, Robert, and Tabitha’s testimony into question, the jury
disagreed with Carroll’s alternative-perpetrator theory and found him guilty of
first-degree manslaughter,1 two counts of tampering with physical evidence
(one count for throwing the knife out of Chrystal’s car and one count for
burning the clothes), and of being a second-degree PFO. The trial judge
sentenced Carroll to thirty-five years’ imprisonment in accordance with the
jury’s recommendation.
ANALYSIS
Carroll’s sole argument on appeal is that the trial court erred in denying
his motion for directed verdict of acquittal on the charges of first-degree
manslaughter and tampering with physical evidence. As an initial matter,
Carroll concedes that he did not properly preserve this issue for appeal because
he failed to renew his motions at the close of evidence in compliance with CR2
1 Although Carroll was indicted for murder, the trial court also instructed the
jury on first-degree manslaughter, a lesser-included offense.
2 Kentucky Rule of Civil Procedure.
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50.01. Consequently, we review the trial court’s denial of Carroll’s motions for
palpable error under RCr3 10.26. “Palpable error affects the substantial rights
of the party and results in manifest injustice. Furthermore, an appellant
claiming palpable error review must show that the error was more likely than
ordinary error to have affected the jury.” Boyd v. Commonwealth, 439 S.W.3d
126, 129-30 (Ky. 2014). A party claiming palpable error must show a
“probability of a different result or error so fundamental as to threaten a
defendant’s entitlement to due process of law.” Martin v. Commonwealth, 207
S.W.3d 1, 3 (Ky. 2006).
A trial court considers a motion for directed verdict under the standard
set out in Commonwealth v. Benham, 816 S.W.2d 186 (Ky. 1991), which holds:
On motion for directed verdict, the trial court must draw all fair
and reasonable inferences from the evidence in favor of the
Commonwealth. If the evidence is sufficient to induce a reasonable
juror to believe beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is
guilty, a directed verdict should not be given. For the purpose of
ruling on the motion, the trial court must assume that the
evidence for the Commonwealth is true, but reserve[] to the jury
questions as to the credibility and weight to be given to such
testimony.
Id. at 187. “On appellate review, the test of a directed verdict is, if under the
evidence as a whole, it would be clearly unreasonable for a jury to find guilt,
only then the defendant is entitled to a directed verdict of acquittal.” Id.Under KRS 507.030(1)(a), “[a] person is guilty of manslaughter in the
first degree when . . . [w]ith intent to cause serious physical injury to another
3 Kentucky Rule of Criminal Procedure.
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person, he causes the death of such person or of a third person.” Although
Carroll argues that the Commonwealth did not present substantial evidence
that he killed Yonko, we disagree.
“A defendant’s guilt may be established by circumstantial evidence and
any inferences that may justifiably be drawn therefrom.” David v.
Commonwealth, 795 S.W.2d 942, 947 (Ky. 1990). While it is true that the exact
time of Yonko’s death is not known, the medical examiner estimated his death
fell within a range of days that was circumstantially consistent with other
evidence presented by the Commonwealth that supported that Yonko likely
died on the evening of August 31 as a result of being stabbed by Carroll. Police
investigation found that Yonko last used his cell phone the night of August 31,
the same night he was last seen alive by a friend. Witnesses for the
Commonwealth testified that Carroll was involved in a fight with Yonko on the
night of August 31, hit Yonko in the chest, and later confessed to stabbing
Yonko. Witnesses observed Carroll with a bloody knife after the fight. All trial
testimony was consistent with the medical examiner’s conclusion that Yonko
bled to death after being stabbed in the chest. There was sufficient evidence to
convince a reasonable juror that Carroll acted with intent to cause serious
physical injury to Yonko and, did in fact, cause his death. KRS 507.030(1)(a).
Similarly, Carroll was not entitled to a directed verdict on the charges of
tampering with physical evidence. KRS 524.100(1)(a) states in relevant part:
(1) A person is guilty of tampering with physical evidence when,
believing that an official proceeding is pending or may be instituted,
he:
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(a) Destroys, mutilates, conceals, removes or alters physical
evidence which he believes is about to be produced or used in the
official proceeding with intent to impair its verity or availability in
the official proceeding;
...
At Carroll’s trial, Tabitha and Robert testified that they saw Carroll with
a knife following the altercation with Yonko and that he threw the knife out of
Chrystal’s vehicle after leaving the scene. Chrystal, Tabitha, and Robert all
provided testimony that Carroll burned the clothes he and Robert wore during
the fight. The Commonwealth elicited testimony from Carroll’s sister that
Carroll burned “something” at their mother’s house the night of the fight with
Yonko. The Commonwealth presented more than sufficient evidence for a jury
to conclude that Carroll was guilty of tampering with physical evidence.
Carroll’s argument that the trial court’s failure to grant his directed
verdict motion constituted palpable error because the Commonwealth’s case
was built upon testimony of unreliable witnesses is belied by black letter
Kentucky law. The Court has long held that “matters of credibility and of the
weight to be given to a witness’s testimony are solely within the province of the
jury.” Minter v. Commonwealth, 415 S.W.3d 614, 618 (Ky. 2013). Carroll was
afforded the opportunity to fully cross-examine the witnesses who testified that
he stabbed Yonko, disposed of the knife, and burned the clothes he was
wearing. He does not claim that he was prohibited in any way from attacking
their credibility by pointing out to the jury that they were felons who had lied
previously to police. It was the province of the jury to decide whether those
witnesses were telling the truth.
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Finally, though there may have been some conflicting evidence at trial
pertaining to the tampering charges, that in and of itself does not require
reversal. Some witnesses testified that Carroll had a knife, and some did not
see one. Some witnesses saw blood on the knife, and some did not. There were
eyewitnesses to Carroll starting a fire, while others merely overheard him say
he was going to start a fire. Again, Carroll had ample opportunity to cross-
examine the witnesses and highlight for the jury that there were
inconsistencies in their testimony. As noted above, the weight and credibility to
assign to a witness’s testimony is exclusively within the jury’s province. Id. A
juror may believe all or any part or none of the testimony of any of the
witnesses Robinson v. Commonwealth, 325 S. W. 3d 368, 271 (Ky 2010).
In ruling on Carroll’s directed verdict motion, the trial court was required
to construe conflicting evidence in the light most favorable to the
Commonwealth. Benham, 816 S.W.2d at 187. The amount and character of
evidence presented in this case was more than sufficient for the
Commonwealth’s case to survive a motion for directed verdict, even had that
motion been properly preserved. Carroll was not denied due process, and it was
not unreasonable for the jury to conclude Carroll committed all of the offenses
for which he was charged. Accordingly, the trial court did not err in denying
Carroll’s motion for directed verdict of acquittal on all charges.
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CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the Warren Circuit Court.
All sitting. All Concur.
COUNSEL FOR APPELLANT:
Robert Chung-Hua Yang
Assistant Public Advocate
COUNSEL FOR APPELLEE:
Daniel J. Cameron
Attorney General of Kentucky
Robert Lee Baldridge
Assistant Attorney General
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