People v. Anderson

Margaret Armstrong was accused of molesting two girls who resided in a camp area near Eureka. A group of people, including Ron Kiern, the father of one of the girls, and the defendant, confronted Armstrong at the camp. Members of the group dragged Armstrong to a nearby field, beat her, put duct tape over her mouth, tied her to a bush naked, and abandoned her.

Later, Kiern and the defendant saw Armstrong running naked down the street. The two grabbed Armstrong, forced her into a car, and drove away. They then put Armstrong into a sleeping bag, wrapped the bag with duct tape, and placed her, screaming, into the trunk. They then killed her with a large rock, and disposed of Armstrong’s body by rolling it down a ravine. Kiern and defendant later commented to others that Armstrong was dead.

At trial, the defendant testified that he had tried to convince Kiern to take Armstrong to the hospital. However, at Kiern’s instruction, the defendant opened the trunk and Kiern put Armstrong inside. Kiern told defendant to retrieve a certain rock the size of a cantaloupe. Defendant said, “Man, you are out of your mind for something like that.” Kiern responded, “Give me the rock or I’ll beat the shit out of you.” Defendant gave him the rock because Kiern was bigger than he and he was “not in shape” to fight. When asked what he thought Kiern would have done if he had said no, defendant replied: “Punch me out, break my back, break my neck. Who knows.”

A jury convicted him of first degree murder and kidnapping. He appealed, arguing that the court erred in refusing to allow duress as a defense. He argued that he only helped Kiern because he was threatened by him. The Court of Appeals affirmed his conviction, holding that duress is not a defense to first degree murder.