S-22-0587 State of Nebraska (Appellee) v. Kolton J. Barnes (Appellant)
Appeal from the District Court for Saunders County, Judge Christina M. Marroquin
Attorneys: Matthew J. McDonald (Nebraska Commission for Public Advocacy for Appellant) and Austin N. Relph (Asst. Attorney General for Appellee).
Criminal: Life Imprisonment
Proceedings below: A jury found Appellant guilty of first-degree murder, two counts of use of a deadly weapon to commit a felony, animal cruelty, two counts of negligent child abuse, and tampering with physical evidence, and the district court sentenced him to consecutive terms of life in prison, of forty (40) years to fifty (50) years in prison for each use of a weapon count, to two (2) to three (3) years in prison for animal cruelty, to one (1) year in prison for each negligent child abuse count, and to one (1) year to two (2) years in prison for tampering with physical evidence. Life imprisonment cases are direct appeals to the Supreme Court.
Issues: Appellant makes the following assignments of error: 1) The district court committed prejudicial error violating the due process clause of the 5th and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, the right to a fair trial, and the right to present a defense under the 6th and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, for refusing to issue an order to Aetna Health Insurance to turn over the billing records for K.M., which denied the defense the ability to determine which mental health therapist K.M. was regularly seeing for her mental health issues, which resulted in the defense not being able to request and review her individual mental health records from her therapist resulting in the defense not being able to determine if she discussed having thoughts of killing Appellant’s dog or that she felt homicidal, which would have provided the jury additional information that would have affected the presentation of evidence at trial and the verdicts for Counts I-IV; 2) The district court abused its discretion by allowing evidence under Nebr. Rev. Stat. §§ 27-403 and 27-404 regarding allegations that Appellant threatened a prior girlfriend with a shotgun; 3) The State committed prosecutorial misconduct during trial, prejudicing Appellant, which should result in a new trial; 4) The State violated the Due Process Clause of the 5th and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, by shifting the burden of proof to the defense during trial; 5) There was insufficient evidence to find Appellant guilty of Count I, 1st Degree Murder; 6) There was insufficient evidence to find Appellant guilty of Count I, 1st Degree Murder, based off the evidence at trial that Appellant was acting in self-defense; 7) The trial court errored when it refused to admit Exhibit 458, a document containing research about demonic possession, not allowing the jury to see the extent of K.M.’s mental health issues, which may have led the jury to believe K.M. was the first aggressor related to Count I or that she killed the dog that was charged under Count III; 8) The trial court committed prejudicial error by admitting Exhibit 368, a prosecution investigator’s created document for substantive purposes, when it should have been admitted for only demonstrative purposes with a limiting instruction, which should result in a new trial; and 9) The district court abused its discretion by giving Appellant excessive sentences for Counts II and IV.