R v Turmaine

[2004] QCA 75

SUPREME COURT OF QUEENSLAND

CITATION:

R v Turmaine [2004] QCA 75

PARTIES:

R
v
TURMAINE, Kalvin James
(appellant)

FILE NO/S:

CA No 309 of 2003
SC No 518 of 2002

DIVISION:

Court of Appeal

PROCEEDING:

Appeal against Conviction

ORIGINATING COURT:

Supreme Court at Brisbane

DELIVERED ON:

19 March 2004

DELIVERED AT:

Brisbane

HEARING DATE:

15 March 2004

JUDGES:

McMurdo P and Davies and McPherson JJA
Separate reasons for judgment of each member of the Court, each concurring as to the order made.

ORDER:

Appeal against conviction dismissed

CATCHWORDS:

CRIMINAL LAW – APPEAL AND NEW TRIAL AND INQUIRY AFTER CONVICTION – APPEAL AND NEW TRIAL – PARTICULAR GROUNDS – UNREASONABLE OR INSUPPORTABLE VERDICT – OTHER CASES – where appellant convicted of murdering month-old son – where medical evidence could not point to cause of death – where prosecution case centred on appellant’s admissions of guilt – whether confessions were reliable – whether it was open to the jury on the evidence to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt of the guilt of the appellant

CRIMINAL LAW – EVIDENCE – CONFESSIONS AND ADMISSIONS – STATEMENTS – VOLUNTARY STATEMENTS – GENERALLY – where evidence against accused rested on confessions made to different people at different times – where appellant was very drunk at time of making first confession – whether confessions were reliable – whether learned trial judge’s directions to jury were adequate

M v The Queen (1994) 181 CLR 487, applied
R v Arnold; ex parte A-G (Qld) [2002] QCA 357; CA No 287 of 2001; CA No 293 of 2001; 17 September 2002, cited
R v Baker [2001] QCA 326; CA No 35 of 2201; 10 August 2001, cited
State of Washington v Aten 900 P2d 579 (Wash App Div 2 1995), not followed

COUNSEL:

A J Rafter SC for the appellant
L J Clare for the respondent

SOLICITORS:

Legal Aid Queensland for the appellant
Director of Public Prosecutions (Queensland) for the respondent

1. McMURDO P:  The appellant was convicted after a jury trial in the Supreme Court at Brisbane on 4 September 2003 of murdering his four week old son, Liam James Turmaine, on 10 February 2001.  He contends that the conviction was unreasonable and cannot be supported having regard to the evidence[1] which turned on the appellant's admissions of guilt, which the appellant argues were unreliable.

   [1]Section 668E, Criminal Code.

1. This ground of appeal requires a review of the whole of the relevant evidence.

The evidence

(a)The prosecution witnesses         

1. The appellant, who was 22 years old, resided with the deceased child and the child's mother, Katherine Grainger, at Beachmere.  Ms Grainger gave birth to Liam on 11 January 2001.  The child was not a difficult baby initially but after the third or fourth week he cried more and slept less; he developed thrush on his tongue.  Because he was so unsettled, his parents changed his sleeping arrangements from a cot in the second bedroom to a pram in the main bedroom, which Ms Grainger shared with the…