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State v. Cookson12/1/2003
Reporter of Decisions
Argued: September 10, 2003
Jeffery A. Cookson appeals from a judgment entered in the Superior Court (Penobscot County, Cole, J.), after a jury trial, convicting him of two counts of murder (17-A M.R.S.A. ยง 201(1)(A) (1983)). Cookson contends that testimony from a nurse practitioner should not have been admitted because the testimony was not relevant and the witness was not qualified. He also argues that he is entitled to a new trial because evidence from a firearms expert, tying Cookson to the alleged murder weapon, was false and, therefore, denied him due process. Cookson further claims that the court erred in refusing to grant him a new trial on the ground of newly discovered evidence that consisted of: (1) the recovery of the murder weapon after the trial; (2) another person confessed to committing the murders; and (3) the erroneous evidence given by the firearms expert. Additionally, Cookson appeals his consecutive life sentences, arguing that the court misapplied sentencing principles and abused its discretion. We reject Cookson's arguments and affirm his convictions and sentences.
I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
The bodies of Mindy Gould, age twenty, and Treven Cunningham, age twenty-one months, were discovered in Gould's sister's home in Dexter on the morning of December 3, 1999. Gould had been residing in her sister's home, and that morning Gould was baby-sitting Treven, the son of her best friend. Both Gould and Treven were found lying face down on a bed with pillows over their heads. They died from single gunshots to their heads, through the pillows, from a 9mm gun.
The police investigation immediately centered on Cookson. Gould and Cookson had resided together, off and on, from the time Gould was seventeen. They had lived at Cookson's mobile home in New Gloucester, and they had resided together for a short time at Gould's sister's home in Dexter. Gould had attempted to separate from Cookson, and a month before her death, she obtained a temporary protection from abuse order against Cookson following an incident in which he threatened her and the police were called. In spite of the protection order, which prohibited Cookson from having any contact with Gould, he stalked her. After a court hearing on November 30, 1999, at which Gould and Cookson appeared, the court issued a final protection order which was served on Cookson. Treven's mother testified at the protection hearing for Gould. At Cookson's murder trial, several witnesses described the relationship between Cookson and Gould and testified about Cookson stalking Gould. The jury was also given evidence of the temporary and final protection orders.
As of the time of Cookson's trial, the police had been unable to locate the murder weapon, but they learned that Cookson had been given a 9mm gun two years earlier. The police traced the ownership of that 9mm gun, learned that it was a Taurus Model PT-99-AF, and obtained the serial number for the gun. They retrieved spent bullets and shell casings from previous owners and from the home of Cookson's father, which were examined by firearms expert Brian Bachelder. It was his opinion that the Taurus Model PT-99-AF, known to have been possessed by Cookson, was the gun that killed Gould and Treven. Evidence of the chain of ownership of the Taurus Model PT-99-AF, the shell casings, and Bachelder's opinion were presented at trial.
Additionally, the police located three spent bullets in the yard of Cookson's mobile home in New Gloucester. Firearms expert Charles Helms determined that one of the New Gloucester bullets had been fired from the same gun that fired the bullets obtained from the
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