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State v. Flake8/5/2003
Facts
As stated, the primary issue in this appeal is whether the jury erroneously rejected the insanity defense. In determining a defendant's sanity, jurors may consider the facts surrounding the crime as well as the testimony of lay and expert witnesses; therefore, the proof offered at trial is summarized in detail hereafter.
On March 19, 1997, the defendant, twenty-five-year-old Christopher Flake, applied to purchase a Jennings Model J-25 automatic pistol at Guns and Ammo in Memphis, Tennessee. State law mandated a background check and a fifteen-day waiting period. The defendant completed the required paperwork, providing background information that indicated he was not addicted to drugs or alcohol and had never been hospitalized or treated for mental illness. The application was processed; the retailer received the Sheriff's Department clearance for the defendant's application; and on April 4, 1997, the day on which the mandatory waiting period expired, the defendant returned to Guns and Ammo and retrieved the weapon. The defendant completed another form, and in response to specific questions, again indicated that he had not used drugs and had not been committed to a mental institution. The next day, Saturday, April 5, 1997, the defendant committed these murders.
The defendant was a friend and part-time employee of the first victim, thirty-one-year-old Mike Fultz. Angela Fultz, the victim's wife, had no knowledge of animosity between her husband and the defendant. The defendant was one of the last names she gave the police as possible suspects. She said her husband was kind to the defendant, explaining that the victim hired Flake, often gave him rides to work, and occasionally socialized with the defendant.
Mike and Angela Fultz spent the day at their home on April 5, 1997. At approximately 7 p.m., Angela Fultz took a bath in the back of the house and left the television on in the adjoining bedroom. Afterwards, she called for her husband to help with the laundry. She looked for him when he did not respond and found her husband in the garage lying unconscious in a pool of blood. She called for emergency assistance, believing he had fallen and injured his head. The medical technicians discovered that Mike Fultz had been shot five times. Arriving on the scene at approximately 7:55 p.m., Officer Jason Pagenkopf of the Shelby County Sheriff's Department found five .25 caliber shell casings inside the Fultzes' garage.
Prior to the shooting, Anthony Turner, a neighbor of the Fultzes, noticed a man in an unfamiliar car parked near his residence. When the car remained in the same location for approximately thirty minutes, Turner decided to approach the car and ask the man's purpose. However, as Turner approached, the car pulled away and parked in front of the Fultzes' home. Turner returned to his home, believing the man in the car knew the Fultzes. After the shooting, Turner identified the car he had seen as that owned by the defendant and identified the defendant as the driver of the car. Another neighbor, Bernard Leo Miller, was working in his garage that evening when he heard what he believed to be five or six fireworks shots. A short time later, Miller saw a light-colored car with metallic paint and tinted windows drive away from the Fultzes' house.
That same evening, between 7:55 and 8 p.m., the second victim, seventy- year-old Fred Bizot, was shot in the parking lot of the Church of the Holy Apostle in Memphis. Bizot regularly attended the 8 p.m. Alcoholics Anonymous ("A.A.") meeting at that location. Testimony indicated that Bizot had been active in A.A. for approximately seventeen years and that he was particularly helpful and
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