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IMPORTANT NOTICE NOT TO BE PUBLISHED OPINION
THIS OPINION IS DESIGNATED "NOT TO BE PUBLISHED ." PURSUANT TO THE RULES OF CIVIL PROCEDURE PROMULGATED BY THE SUPREME COURT, CR 76 .28(4)(C), THIS OPINION IS NOT TO BE PUBLISHED AND SHALL NOT BE CITED OR USED AS BINDING PRECEDENT IN ANY OTHER CASE IN ANY COURT OF THIS STATE; HOWEVER, UNPUBLISHED KENTUCKY APPELLATE DECISIONS, RENDERED AFTER JANUARY 1, 2003, MAY BE CITED FOR CONSIDERATION BY THE COURT IF THERE IS NO PUBLISHED OPINION THAT WOULD ADEQUATELY ADDRESS THE ISSUE BEFORE THE COURT. OPINIONS CITED FOR CONSIDERATION BY THE COURT SHALL BE SET OUT AS AN UNPUBLISHED DECISION IN THE FILED DOCUMENT AND A COPY OF THE ENTIRE DECISION SHALL BE TENDERED ALONG WITH THE DOCUMENT TO THE COURT AND ALL PARTIES TO THE ACTION.

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DEREK RENE EDMONDS

AS M()f)IFIED: 1W('1.W 3EP 1, 2009 R11,'NI)ERED : N()VF',MBER 25, 2009 N _P X 'D

2007--SC .1)00350-MR

of

V.

ON APPEAL FROM JEFFERSON CIRCUIT COURT HONORABLE JUDITH M('1_)()NALIJ-BURKMAN,,JCJI)(-F, NOS . 04-CR-001 179-001 AND 04. -Cl~-0024, 45-001 APPELLEE

COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY AND _ 2007-SC-000359-MR

TYREESE HALL

APPELLANT

V.

ON APPEAL FROM JEFFERSON CIRCUIT COURT HONORABLE JUDITH MCDONALD-BURKMAN,JUDGE NOS . 04-CR-001179-002 AND 04-CR-002445-003

COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY MEMORANDUM OPINION OF THE COURT AFFIRMING IN PART AND REVERSING IN PART I. INTRODUCTION

APPELLEE

At a jury trial, Appellants Derek Rene Edmonds and Tyreese Hall were convicted of murder, first-degree sodomy, and first-degree robbery . Upon review of the record and Appellants' arguments, we affirm their convictions .

However, with respect to Appellant. Derek Edmonds, we reverse and remand for the limited purpose of entry of an amended judgment on his sodomy conviction. II. BACKGROUND Early in the morning of April 6, 2004, Clifton Agnew, a homeless man sleeping outside near the Salvation Array in Louisville, Kentucky, was beaten, hit with a crock pot, stabbed in the leg, and robbed . While unconscious, he was sodomized with a bottle and two sticks, which were shoved up his rectum, into his abdomen, and through his organs. A police officer saw someone flee the scene, but was unable to catch the suspect. Two police officers then discovered the victim bleeding from his head and rectum. He was barely alive, and EMS took him to the hospital, where he remained unresponsive and in a coma until his death. i A twenty-seven-inch stick and a smaller fifteen-inch stick were recovered from the alley where the attack occurred ; both sticks were covered in the victim's blood . A broken beer bottle with blood around the neck and a knife were also found, and police recovered a crock pot, which was dented, broken, and bloody. Both Appellants were arrested that day. Hall had a swollen hand and blood spatters on his pants . Edmonds had blood-soaked pants and boots .

i After a few weeks, the victim was moved to a nursing home, but he never awakened from his coma.

DNA from the blood on both Appellants' clothing matched the DNA profile of the victim. Hall gave a statement to police that day, claiming to have hit the victim on the leg with the crock pot and admitting t o punching him and stabbing him in the leg with a knife . This statement was recorded and later played at trial . At another time, Hall signed a statement confessing that he alone robbed and sodomized the victim, stating that Edmonds had only kicked the victim and then run away. He later testified that Edmonds pressured him to take the blame, which is why his original written statement only implicated himself. Hall later gave a second statement to a detective over the phone wherein he implicated Edmonds' brother Dewayne in the violence . (He testified at trial that he did this only to get back at Edmonds, who he believed had gotten him arrested, and that the brother had not attacked the victim .) While on the phone, he also admitted to throwing the crock .pot, hitting the victim's head, and claimed that Edmonds had sodomized the victim with a glass bottle. This statement was also recorded and played at trial. Hall also testified at the trial, providing details of the attack. He claimed that Edmonds had been discussing robbing someone that day. Hall, Edmonds, and Edmonds' brother were walking down an alley on the day of the crime when a homeless man awoke and rose up. Hall testified that the man was reaching for something, so he attacked, punching the man in the face and knocking him down. He claimed he kicked the man and then picked up a

crock pot and threw it down on the victim's leg so hard that the crock pot broke. Edmonds' brother picked up the victim's wallet, threw it. down, and then left the alley. Edmonds then started punching and kicking the victim. Hall testified that he walked away and came back several times, eventually asking Edmonds to stop . At that point, the victim was unconscious. Hall claimed he then saw Edmonds . drag the unconscious victim through the gate in a fence, beat him some more, and that he heard Edmonds say, "I'm going to do him like they did our people back in the day," which Hall claimed referred "to racial stuff. "2 He testified that Edmonds then repeatedly sodomized the victim with a stick for about two minutes. Edmonds denied having anything to do with harming Clifton Agnew when interrogated by police. He did not testify at trial, but did present multiple witnesses in his defense . Mark Murray and James Ford testified they heard Hall admit committing the crimes, specifically to robbing Agnew, sodomizing him with a bottle and stick, and hitting him with the crock pot. Another witness, Jeffrey Bryant, who had shared a holding cell with Hall, testified that all Hall claimed that Edmonds had done was come to Hall's rescue after the victim grabbed Hall, kicking the victim several times to get him off Hall. Yet another holding-cellmate testified that Hall had impliedly admitted to sodomizing the victim with a stick and hitting him in the head with the crock pot.

2 Both Appellants are African-Americans, and the victim was Caucasian.

At trial, the victim's doctor and the medical examiner testified about his injuries. Dr. Bill Smock treated the victim in the emergency room, and he testified that the victim was bleeding from several sites on his head, had two stab wounds in his leg, and had "very significant infra-abdominal injuries" and a large amount of blood coming from his rectum. He testified, "Some object had been inserted forcefully into the rectum and beyond that into the abdominal cavity and beyond that up into the left lung area." He said that an object had been inserted into the victim's rectum at least twice . He used a chart to describe the injuries and he demonstrated with a prosecutor how long the stick was in comparison to a person's back. He identified eight photographs of the victim taken at the hospital the day he was admitted showing injuries to his face, eyes, ear, and anus . Dr. Amy Burrows-Beckham performed the victim's autopsy. She testified that the cause of death was "the head injury he sustained when he was assaulted," with a contributing factor of loss of blood due to the extensive injuries to his abdomen and chest. Appellants were convicted after a jury trial. Edmonds was sentenced to life without the benefit of parole or probation on the murder, life without parole on the sodomy, 3 and twenty years on the robbery. Hall was sentenced to life without the benefit of parole or probation for twenty-five years on the murder, twenty-five years on the sodomy, and twenty years on the robbery. Their appeals to this Court, therefore, are a matter of right. Ky. Const.

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