Harris v. State1/7/2004
Appellant, Jimmy Dean Harris, was charged inOklahoma County District Court, Case No. CF-1999-5071 , with Count 1:First-Degree Murder (21 O.S.Supp.1998, § 701.7(A)); Count 2: Shooting withIntent to Kill (21 O.S.Supp.1999, § 652); and Count 3: Assault and Battery witha Dangerous Weapon (21 O.S.Supp.1999, § 645).The State filed a Bill of Particulars seeking a sentence of death withregard to Count 1, alleging (1) that Appellant knowingly created a great riskof death to more than one person, and (2) that Appellant constituted acontinuing threat to society. See21 O.S.1991, § 701.7(2), (7). Jury trialwas held August 22 through September 26, 2001, before the Honorable Virgil C. Black, DistrictJudge. The jury found Appellant guiltyas charged on all counts, found that Appellant knowingly created a great riskof death to more than one person, rejected the claim that Appellant posed acontinuing threat to society, and recommended a sentence of death on Count 1,life in prison on Count 2, and ten years imprisonment on Count 3. On October 23, 2001, the trial court sentenced Appellant in accordancewith the jury's recommendation.Appellant timely lodged this appeal.
FACTS
The long-running domestic problems betweenAppellant and his wife, Pamela Harris, culminated on the morning of September 1, 1999, whenAppellant entered Mrs. Harris's workplace, shot and killed her employer , MerleTaylor, and seriously injured Mrs. Harris herself. The evidence at trial showed that Appellantand Mrs. Harris had been involved in a tumultuous relationship for about twentyyears, and married for the last ten.
Both Appellant and his wife had years ofexperience in the automobile transmission business. Appellant was a transmission mechanic bytrade, and Mrs. Harris had experience in dealing with customers and orderingparts. Through the years, the two oftenworked together at various transmission shops in several states. In 1998, Mrs. Harris obtained a job at anAAMCO transmission shop in Oklahoma City, ownedand operated by Merle Taylor. Appellantwas not able to obtain satisfactory employment in Oklahoma City, and worked for a time at a shop in Texas, drivinghome on the weekends. Although Appellanttestified that he worked in Texas becausehe could make better money there than in Oklahoma City, other evidence suggested Appellant was angry that Taylor would nothire him. Mrs. Harris testified that Taylor did notwant to hire Appellant. Taylor was notunsympathetic to the couple's problems, however; in mid-1999, he offered hislake home to the Harrises so they could get away and try to work out theirdifficulties.
During an argument in mid-August 1999,Appellant made serious and specific threats of violence to Mrs. Harris. Having lost his last transmission job in Texas severalmonths before, and unable or unwilling to obtain a new job, Appellant becameincreasingly resentful that his wife's boss would not hire him. Appellant threatened to kill his wife, her parents,their daughter, Mrs. Harris's co-workers, and Merle Taylor. Mrs. Harris took the threat seriously,especially after noticing that a .38 caliber handgun that Appellant kept hiddenin the garage was no longer there. On orabout August 15, 1999, Mrs. Harrisleft the home with their daughter Kristina; she subsequently obtained aprotective order directing Appellant to leave the family home and filed fordivorce. Before leaving the home,Appellant vandalized it, removing most furnishings, cutting and burning Mrs.Harris's clothing, burning holes in the carpet with cigarettes, and writing"Miss AAMCO" on the carpet several times with steak sauce. He then broke the house keys off inside thedoor locks, requiring Mrs. Harris to break down a door to regain entry. Mrs. Harr
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