Appeals court upholds negligent homicide conviction for encouraging suicide by electronic means
A defendant living in Indiana who encouraged a Tennessee woman in online conversations to kill herself for his sexual pleasure can be found guilty of criminally negligent homicide, a Tennessee appeals court has ruled. (Image from Shutterstock)
A defendant living in Indiana who encouraged a Tennessee woman in online conversations to kill herself for his sexual pleasure can be found guilty of criminally negligent homicide, a Tennessee appeals court has ruled.
The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals in Knoxville, Tennessee, upheld the conviction of Hayden Jennings Berkebile in a June 7 opinion noted by the Legal Profession Blog.
The appeals court majority said Berkebile’s conduct fit the definition of criminal negligence, his acts “proximately caused the victim’s death,” and the state had jurisdiction over him.
Tennessee courts have held that a person who convinces another to engage in a highly dangerous activity can be prosecuted for criminally negligent homicide if the victim dies by engaging in such activity.
In Berkebile’s case, the jury was entitled to conclude that his conduct “was a gross deviation from the standard of care that defendant assumed, and that the victim’s death was a natural and probable consequence of such a gross deviation,” the appeals court said.
The state of Tennessee had territorial jurisdiction over Berkebile because he “affirmatively reached out to Tennessee via electronic means and caused the victim’s death to occur in Tennessee,” the appeals court said.
Berkebile had met the victim on an online chat website when she was about age 13 or 14 and he was about age 20 or 21, according to the appeals court opinion. They had a mostly virtual on-again, off-again relationship for about six years.
“Their relationship, however, was a more dark, villainous tale than even their age gap at their meeting might suggest,” the appeals court said. Berkebile and the victim “initially bonded over their mutual suicidal ideations, but their relationship was primarily sexual, marked especially by defendant’s control over and manipulation of the victim.”
In the months before the victim’s death, she and Berkebile communicated primarily through Facebook Messenger and video calls. The relationship included “suicide play” in which the victim would pantomime committing suicide for Berkebile’s sexual pleasure, the appeals court said.
Before the victim fatally shot herself in a video call with Berkebile in September 2019, Berkebile had written, “Will you die for me? … Can you follow orders?”
Evidence at trial, viewed in the light most favorable to prosecutors, showed that Berkebile wanted the victim to play Russian roulette while he watched, but he said it wouldn’t work because the victim could see where the bullet was in the cylinder, the appeals court said.
“The victim offered to use a blindfold or close her eyes, thereby allowing defendant to decide whether she lived or died,” the appeals court said. “The victim told defendant that she trusted him not to let her die.”
Berkebile called 911 to report the suicide about 15 minutes after his video call with the victim ended. No recording of the video was introduced at trial. Berkebile told police that he didn’t want the victim to die, and he “begged her not to” kill herself.
The trial judge who sentenced Berkebile to two years in prison called his alleged conduct “the height of evilness” and said he thought that a longer sentence was warranted if the law permitted it.
