|
GRATUITOUS
VIOLENCE FINDING UPHELD
State v. Ceja (Ceja II), 115 Ariz. 413, 565 P.2d
1274 (1977)
PRE-GRETZLER CASE
Two victims were shot several times by the defendant.
Victim Linda Leon was shot twice in the chest, dragged to another room, and shot four more
times in the head. Victim Randy Leon was shot several times and then kicked in the head.
This "barrage of violence" beyond what was necessary to kill or steal indicates
a cruel or depraved nature apart from the usual or norm.
State v. Ceja
(Ceja III), 126 Ariz. 35, 612 P.2d 491 (1980)
PRE-GRETZLER CASE
Same reasons as for Ceja II.
State v. Bishop
(Bishop II), 127 Ariz. 531, 622 P.2d 478 (1981)
PRE-GRETZLER CASE
After striking the victim several times in the head with a
hammer, the defendant removed items from the victim, tied his legs together, and dragged
him to the edge of a mineshaft. The defendant then threw rocks on top of the victim as he
lay twitching at the bottom of the mineshaft.
State v. Vickers
(Vickers I (Ponciano murder)), 129 Ariz. 506, 633 P.2d 315 (1981)
PRE-GRETZLER CASE
The Arizona Supreme Court found that the evidence of the
numerous stabbings, in addition to the carving of the word "Bonzai" in the
victim's back reflected a mental state "marked by debasement." The cause of
death was strangulation and the body sustained ten to twelve puncture wounds.
State v. Ortiz,
131 Ariz. 195, 639 P.2d 1020 (1981)
PRE-GRETZLER CASE
The Court upheld this finding without discussion. The
victim may have been strangled, was stabbed, and was set on fire by the defendant. He then
stabbed the victim's two young daughters and tried to set the house on fire. The two girls
and the baby were able to escape. The Court found this murder to be "far more heinous
and depraved than the norm of first degree murders."
State v.
Woratzeck, 134 Ariz. 452, 657 P.2d 865 (1983)
PRE-GRETZLER CASE
The Court found this murder to be heinous or depraved. The
violence committed against the victim was well beyond the point necessary to fulfill a
plan to steal or even to kill. The victim suffered from Huntington's disease, lacked
coordination, and had the mental capacity of a fifteen-year-old. She had been strangled,
stabbed three times, struck on the head twice, and her house and body burned.
State v. Jeffers,
135 Ariz. 404, 661 P.2d 1105 (1983)
Defendant climbed on top of dead victim and hit her in face
several times, which eventually resulted in additional wounds and bleeding.
State v. Harding
(Wise, Concannon murders), 137 Ariz. 278, 670 P.2d 383 (1983)
Right side of victim's face was severely bruised and
abraded; right ear lobe was nearly severed; jaw was broken, with bone fragments, and it
was displaced from its normal position; injuries sustained required a number of blows to
victim's face while stationary; second victim was perversely gagged.
State v.
Summerlin, 138 Ariz. 426, 675 P.2d 686 (1983)
Several blows to victim's head were far more than needed to
kill her.
State v. McCall
(McCall I), 139 Ariz. 147, 677 P.2d 920 (1983)
Court appears to have made an alternative finding of
mutilation or gratuitous violence; however, Court used mutilation language and
stated that throat cutting at, near, or shortly after death was intended as a warning to
others.
State v. Fisher
(Fisher I), 141 Ariz. 227, 686 P.2d 750 (1984)
Victim suffered three separate blows to head with a claw
hammer; each blow would have been fatal; violence was more than necessary to rob and even
kill victim.
State v. Chaney,
141 Ariz. 295, 686 P.2d 1265 (1984)
Gratuitous violence finding not specifically made, but
Court found high-powered weapon was repeatedly fired at the victim.
State v.
Villafuerte, 142 Ariz. 323, 690 P.2d 42 (1984)
Court does not specify which facts were relied upon to find
gratuitous violence; Court did note "perverse gagging" of victim with a ball of
cloth in her nasal pharynx.
State v.
Clabourne (Clabourne I), 142 Ariz. 335, 690 P.2d 54 (1984)
Victim near death after strangulation; stabbing unnecessary
to accomplish murder; victim stabbed twice, once through heart.
State v. Gillies
(Gillies II), 142 Ariz. 564, 691 P.2d 655 (1984)
Victim raped repeatedly, taken into mountains to edge of
embankment, kicked over edge; when victim didn't die, defendants struck her in head with
rock repeatedly; victim died of blood loss and crushed skull.
State v. Carriger
(Carriger III), 143 Ariz. 142, 692 P.2d 991 (1984)
Victim's head was mutilated; defendant struck victim with a
skillet so hard that victim's brain was jelled loose; struck victim with a pointed object;
used victim's tie to strangle victim.
State v. Bracy,
145 Ariz. 520, 751 P.2d 464 (1985)
see State v. McCall.
Court found infliction of gratuitous violence or
mutilation because victim shot twice in head then had throat slashed at or shortly after
time of death; throat slashing intended as message to warn others.
State v. Hooper,
145 Ariz. 538, 751 P.2d 482 (1985)
see State v. Bracy.
see State v. McCall.
State v. Rossi
(Rossi I), 146 Ariz. 359, 706 P.2d 371 (1985)
Defendant used special bullets designed to inflict greater
tissue damage than typical ammunition.
State v. Wallace
(Wallace I), 151 Ariz. 362, 728 P.2d 232 (1986)
Defendant continued to strike victims in head after they
collapsed to floor; one victim's brain matter spattered on floor and wall; defendant
shoved a jagged portion of a broken baseball bat through another victim's throat after
beating her; Court noted that a less violent alternative was readily available; defendant
did not use loaded gun because noise would have alerted neighbors of crime.
State v.
Walter LaGrand, 153 Ariz. 21, 734 P.2d 563 (1987)
Twenty-four stab wounds; bank manager bound and gagged;
"callous disregard for human worth."
State v. Comer,
165 Ariz. 413, 799 P.2d 333 (1990)
Stabbed victim in throat after shooting victim; autopsy
confirmed that victim was stabbed at a time when he was already dead, or almost dead.
State v. Hinchey
(Hinchey I), 165 Ariz. 432, 799 P.2d 352 (1990)
Defendant used three separate instruments in the attack: a
gun, a large bottle and a large knife; used more force than what was necessary to kill;
victim shot twice in face; returned to beat victim over head with large bottle; returned
third time and stabbed victim repeatedly, leaving knife protruding from abdomen.
State v. Jiménez,
165 Ariz. 444, 799 P.2d 785 (1990)
Court found both gratuitous violence and mutilation
based on numerous postmortem stab wounds.
State v.
Amaya-Ruiz, 166 Ariz. 152, 800 P.2d 1260 (1990)
Twenty-three stab wounds and contact gunshot wound to
victim's head show gratuitous violence beyond that necessary to kill.
State v. Cook,
170 Ariz. 40, 821 P.2d 731 (1991)
Torture; first victim was cut with a knife, beaten with
fists, burned with cigarettes, sodomized, and had his genitals mutilated.
State v. Brewer,
170 Ariz. 486, 826 P.2d 783 (1992)
Defendant had sexual intercourse with victim after she was
dead.
State v. Rossi (Rossi
III), 171 Ariz. 276, 830 P.2d 797 (1992)
Defendant used special bullets designed to inflict greater
tissue damage than typical ammunition.
State v. Medrano
(Medrano I), 173 Ariz. 393, 844 P.2d 560 (1992)
Numerous stab wounds.
State v. Kiles,
175 Ariz. 358, 857 P.2d 1212 (1993)
Found as to two victims. Girlfriend: knocked unconscious
with one blow; bludgeoned with jack stem after regaining consciousness; fractured skull;
shattered teeth; broken arm.
Nine-month-old baby: struck with jack stem approximately
fourteen times; skull completely shattered; blood spread on four walls and ceiling of
bedroom.
State v.
Samuel Lopez, 175 Ariz. 407, 857 P.2d 1261 (1993)
Multiple stab wounds in chest and abdomen; throat cut;
knife wounds to face; sexual assault; bound victim's eyes; gagged victim's mouth.
State v. West,
176 Ariz. 432, 862 P.2d 192 (1993)
Victim tied up; repeatedly struck in face; many broken
bones in face; hard palate detached.
State v. Gallegos
(Gallegos I), 178 Ariz. 1, 870 P.2d 1097 (1994)
Injuries to rectum of eight-year-old girl; defendant
believed he committed necrophilia; naked, bruised, and battered body discarded under a
tree.
State v. Maturana,
180 Ariz. 126, 882 P.2d 933 (1994)
Court commingles factors for gratuitous violence and
mutilation. Victim shot at least twelve times in head and chest; some bullets
caused multiple entrance wounds; defendant watched as codefendant repeatedly hacked body
with machete; victim's jugular severed; defendant attempted to sever victim's head; body
dumped in well.
State v. Stokley,
182 Ariz. 505, 898 P.2d 454 (1995)
Stabbing in eyes of victims and stomping on bodies could
not have been thought to cause death and, therefore, constituted gratuitous violence.
State v.
Aryon Williams, 183 Ariz. 368, 904 P.2d 437 (1995)
Body broken, crushed, torn, scraped, shot, dragged, beaten,
and bruised; shot three times; blunt force injuries; internal injuries consisting of
pierced and torn organs; fractured right femur; ribs fractured in thirty-one places;
pelvic bone fractures; run over with car at least twice.
State v. Walden,
183 Ariz. 595, 905 P.2d 974 (1995)
Bruises on arms and legs; scraping or cutting injuries to
neck, chest, and breast; gash on head; strangled; two deep cuts on throat.
State
v. Roger and Robert Murray, 184 Ariz. 9, 906 P.2d 542 (1995)
Numerous gunshot wounds with different weapons.
State v.
Gulbrandson, 184 Ariz. 46, 906 P.2d 579 (1995)
Victim brutally beaten with knives, scissors, and wooden
salad fork; stabbed thirty-four times; blunt force injuries; broken nose; kicked or
stomped on; asphyxiated due to probable strangulation.
State v. Danny
Jones, 185 Ariz. 471, 917 P.2d 200 (1996)
Male victim hit with initial blows, regained consciousness,
climbed on work bench, tried to flee, struck twice more in head with baseball bat, fell to
ground, struck in head once more, where each successive blow was sufficient to cause
death; female victim hit twice with baseball bat, which was sufficient to cause death,
then pillow placed over her head, suffocated and/or strangled.
State v. Hyde,
186 Ariz. 252, 921 P.2d 655 (1996)
Beat male victim until skull bone visible and bleeding
profusely; female victim suffered eight blows to head and inhaled blood; blows delivered
with sufficient force not only to shatter bone, but to cut and tear brain tissue with bone
fragments.
State v. Miller,
186 Ariz. 314, 921 P.2d 1151 (1996)
Cutting or pulling out victim's hair constituted gratuitous
violence. See "Researcher's Commentary" in full Case Summary.
State v. Detrich
(Detrich II), 188 Ariz. 57, 932 P.2d 1328 (1997)
Three fatal stab wounds left thirty-seven unnecessary and
excessive stab wounds.
State v. Chad Lee
(Drury murder), 189 Ariz. 608, 944 P.2d 1222 (1997)
Victim shot in shoulder, cheek, neck, and top of head;
defendant then lifted counter top, walked around corner, and fired two shots into victim's
right temple; since shot to top of head fatal, additional shots were gratuitous.
State v.
Rienhardt, 190 Ariz. 579, 951 P.2d 454 (1997)
Gratuitous violence alone was sufficient to support a
finding of heinous or depraved. Gratuitous violence is violence beyond that necessary to
kill. Severe beating with butt of gun; shooting at close range with shotgun; dropping at
least one boulder on victim's skull; rage perpetrated on victim was "shockingly
evil."
State v.
Tankersley, 191 Ariz. 359, 956 P.2d 486 (1998)
Court found both mutilation and gratuitous
violence but did not distinguish which facts supported each finding individually. Victim
strangled by her own oxygen tubes, physically and sexually assaulted while alive or at
point of death; defendant caused feces to be smeared on victim's body and chewed off parts
of victim's flesh while she was still alive.
State v. Doerr,
193 Ariz. 56, 969 P.2d 1168 (1998)
The medical examiner testified that the victim died of
multiple blunt force trauma. In addition, she was sodomized with a metal pipe and a broom
handle such that her rectal and vaginal cavities were ruptured. Her nose was fractured and
face beaten so severely that family members could not identify her. One laceration was so
deep it exposed the skull. The victim also suffered numerous knife slashes, bruises and
injuries beyond that necessary to kill.
State v. Medina,
193 Ariz. 504, 975 P.2d 94 (1999)
The medical examiner testified that the victim had been run
over twice by a car, and that he died after the first pass. The defendant told his
girlfriend that he had run over the victim three times and that the victim's head turned a
different way with each pass.
State v.
Pandeli, 200 Ariz. 365, 26
P.3d 1136 (2002)
The victim died from a single deep knife
slash to the throat. But forensic evidence also showed the defendant
attempted to strangle the victim, and also inflicted numerous blows to the
head and blows to the chest that fractured the victim’s sternum. The
absence of defensive wounds undermined Pandeli's contention that a
struggle had occurred; his actions thus were beyond that required to kill.
State
v. (Antoin) Jones, 205 Ariz. 445, 72 P.3d 1264 (July 7, 2003) (Ring)
Physical
evidence that 12-year-old victim received at least nine blows to the
head, shattering bone and exposing brain matter, was stabbed twice in
the throat, had multiple abrasions on her face and chest, and had been
sexually assaulted vaginally and anally, was sufficient to establish
gratuitous violence beyond a reasonable doubt.
State
v. (John Edward) Sansing,
206 Ariz. 232, 77 P.3d 70
(Sept. 24, 2003) (Ring)
Stipulated
and uncontroverted facts established that Sansing struck the victim on
the head with a club using enough force to break the club into two
pieces and lacerate the victim’s scalp.
He later dragged her into his bedroom and raped her while her
arms and legs were bound. At
some point he blindfolded her, gagged her with a sock in her mouth,
and stabbed her in the abdomen three times.
Sansing’s wife observed Sansing “grind” the knife into
the victim’s abdomen. The
victim was also found with ligature marks around her neck.
There was swelling and bruising on her forehead and left
orbital region. He face
and lips were swollen and her frenulum was severed, which was
attributed by the medical examiner to blunt force trauma to the mouth.
In all, the rape, facial wounds, neck ligatures, gagging,
blind-folding, and grinding of the knife constituted, beyond a
reasonable doubt, violence “beyond that necessary to kill.”
State v.
(Patrick Wade) Bearup, 2009 WL 2060231__ Ariz. __, __ P.3d __ (July
17, 2009)
Bearup cut off the victim’s finger to retrieve a ring.
Although it was not clear when the victim died, if Bearup cut off
his finger when the victim was alive, he inflicted gratuitous violence;
if he did so after the victim’s death, he mutilated a corpse.
GRATUITOUS VIOLENCE FINDING REVERSED
State v. Richmond
(Richmond II), 136 Ariz. 312, 666 P.2d 57 (1983)
Three justice plurality held gratuitous violence was not proven beyond a reasonable
doubt where victim was killed by being run over twice by an automobile because there is no
evidence that defendant knew victim was dead after first pass of car.
State
v. Bernard Smith, 146 Ariz. 491, 707 P.2d 289 (1985)
Defendant shot victim only once and inflicted no further violence upon victim.
State v.
Styers, 177 Ariz. 104, 865 P.2d 765 (1993)
Use of hypervelocity bullet did not constitute gratuitous violence because no evidence
was presented that defendant used to bullets with intent of inflicting greater damage on
victim.
State v.
Scott, 177 Ariz. 131, 865 P.2d 792 (1993)
Medical evidence suggests that at least two of three wounds were fatal; firing one or
two unnecessary shots does not necessarily constitute gratuitous violence.
State v.
Richmond (Richmond III), 180 Ariz. 573, 886 P.2d 1329 (1994)
see State v. Richmond II.
State v.
Soto-Fong, 187 Ariz. 186, 928 P.2d 610 (1996)
Gratuitous violence was found as an alternative to cruelty by trial court; Arizona
Supreme Court held that alternative findings do not reach "beyond a reasonable
doubt" standard; shots to body shortly after shot to head would probably not
constitute gratuitous violence.
State v. Lacy,
187 Ariz. 340, 929 P.2d 1288 (1996)
Three gunshot wounds; evidence not sufficient to know which shot was fatal and
therefore can't prove that one or more were gratuitous.
State v.
Chad Lee (Reynolds, Lacey murders), 189 Ariz. 590, 944 P.2d 1204 (1997)
Court record did not establish time frame or sequence of four shots; did not establish
beyond a reasonable doubt that violence was beyond that necessary to kill.
State v.
Schackart, 190 Ariz. 238, 947 P.2d 315 (1997)
Majority of injuries to victim's head and neck connected with strangulation; one blow
that chips tooth and lacerates tongue not sufficient for gratuitous violence.
State v. Canez (I), 202 Ariz. 133, 42 P.3d
564 (2002)
Defendant attempted to strangle the victim, stabbed him six times and
delivered 10 blunt force injuries to the head and 11 other blunt force injuries.
He used his fists, a frying pan, a laundry bag and a knife. The Court
found that the violence was not beyond that necessary to kill because Canez simply escalated his attacks until he succeeded in killing the victim.
State v. (Robert Joe) Moody, 208 Ariz. 424, 94 P.3d 1119 (August 9, 2004) (Ring)
In the first case,
Moody accosted the victim with a knife, cut her, beat her, and shot her
repeatedly with a .22 caliber rifle, reloading each time.
In the second case, after binding the victim and driving to the
bank to withdraw money using the victim’s bankcard, he returned to
slit the victim’s throat, stab her in the back and bludgeon her to
death with hedge clippers. Because no expert could pinpoint exactly which injuries caused the death
of each victim and the State never attempted to establish that Moody
knew which shots or blows caused each death, the court could not
conclude that no reasonable jury would have failed to find this element
beyond a reasonable doubt.
State v. (Frank Winfield)
Anderson, 210 Ariz. 327, 111P.3d 639 ( 2005) Jury Trial/Indep.
Review
The court conceded that
in the cases of the two victims, Robert & Wear, to whom this factor
was applied, gratuitous violence was a “closer question.”
Both Robert and Wear were subjected to “prolonged and varied
attacks before they succumbed. [Robert] had his throat slashed, a knife
pounded into his ear, and his head beaten with a rock.
Wear was shot through the jaw, hit over the head with a rifle
butt and a lantern, and then killed by blows to the head from a cinder
block. While these multiple
attacks were reprehensible, they d[id] not meet the (F)(6) test of
gratuitous violence. Each
attack came in an attempt – albeit clumsy – to kill the victim, not
to engage in violence beyond that necessary to kill.”
State v. Bocharski,
218 Ariz. 476, 189 P.3d 403 (2008)
The victim was stabbed twenty-four times on the face and neck in less
than one minute. These blows certainly involved considerable violence
and were not necessary to cause death, supporting the conclusion that
the defendant inflicted more violence than that necessary to kill.
However, the state must also show that the defendant continued to
inflict violence after he knew or should have known that a fatal action
had occurred. Because the medical examiner expressed uncertainty about
when in the sequence the fatal wound occurred, the state failed to make
this showing and gratuitous violence was not established.
State v.
Wallace, 219 Ariz. 1, 191 P.3d 164 (2008)
The victim was hit four or five times to the head with a pipe wrench
over a relatively brief period. The medical examiner was unable to opine
as to which blow was fatal, let alone whether sufficient injury to kill
had already been inflicted before the final blow. Although the assault
on the victim was brutal and reprehensible, it came in an attempt to
kill her, not to engage in violence beyond that necessary to kill.)
Continue to
Mutilation | Back to
Top |