State v. Dern, 362 P.3d 566

Background

Defendant Justin G. Dern was charged with two counts each of aggravated indecent liberties and aggravated criminal sodomy for sexual acts with his 3-year-old twin daughters; State’s case relied heavily on Dern’s multiple extrajudicial admissions.
Dern made admissions to his wife, pastor, a VA social worker, and detectives; he later recanted at trial and claimed his confessions were involuntary or false.
The district court denied Dern’s suppression motion (confession admissible) and admitted evidence of prior uncharged sexual misconduct under K.S.A. 60-455; Dern was convicted on all four counts and sentenced to life terms.
The Kansas Court of Appeals affirmed all convictions but agreed one jury instruction improperly included alternative means for sodomy; it nevertheless applied the invited error doctrine and upheld those sodomy convictions.
The Kansas Supreme Court granted review and: (1) affirmed the two aggravated indecent liberties convictions and sentences; (2) reversed both aggravated criminal sodomy convictions because the jury was instructed on alternative means unsupported by evidence and the invited error doctrine did not apply.

Issues

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Voluntariness / suppression of confession	State: confession was voluntary; investigators gave warnings and interview was short and fair	Dern: was suicidal/medically unstable, coerced by wife and detectives, and thus confession involuntary	Court held confession voluntary under totality of circumstances and admissible
Admissibility of prior uncharged sexual misconduct (K.S.A. 60-455)	State: prior admissions probative of intent, credibility, and disposition; admissible under §60-455	Dern: evidence prejudicial and made his recantation less believable; should be excluded	Court held admission proper; probative value outweighed undue prejudice under abuse-of-discretion review
Jury instruction — alternative means for aggravated criminal sodomy / invited error	State/Court of Appeals: defense invited or failed to object to instruction so invited error doctrine bars reversal	Dern: didn't propose or request the overbroad sodomy-definition language and thus did not invite error	Court reversed sodomy convictions — alternative-means instruction unsupported by evidence required reversal and invited-error did not apply here
Corpus delicti for charge involving C.D. (child who gave only a vague statement)	Dern: no independent evidence corroborates his confession re: C.D.; formal corpus delicti rule requires independent proof	State: confession plus corroboration of related acts against F.D. make confession trustworthy to establish corpus delicti	Court applied a "trustworthiness" approach (consistent with Kansas precedents/exceptions) and held confession sufficiently corroborated by related, independent evidence to satisfy corpus delicti for C.D.

Key Cases Cited

State v. Brown, 295 Kan. 181 (Kan. 2012) (statutory language for aggravated indecent liberties does not create alternative means)
State v. Herbel, 296 Kan. 1101 (Kan. 2013) (challenged reasonable-doubt instruction legally appropriate)
State v. Prine, 297 Kan. 460 (Kan. 2013) (K.S.A. 60-455 permits admission of other sexual misconduct evidence)
State v. Waddell, 255 Kan. 424 (Kan. 1994) (discussing corpus delicti requirement and corroboration)
Cardwell v. State, 90 Kan. 606 (Kan. 1913) (early Kansas recognition that admissions plus corroboration can establish corpus delicti when best attainable proof is limited)
Long v. State, 189 Kan. 273 (Kan. 1962) (multiple-crimes/corroboration across closely related offenses may validate confession-based proof)
Smith v. United States, 348 U.S. 147 (U.S. 1954) (federal trustworthiness standard: corroboration need only make confession reliable)
Opper v. United States, 348 U.S. 84 (U.S. 1954) (corroboration must tend to establish trustworthiness of confession)
Griffin v. United States, 502 U.S. 46 (U.S. 1991) (limitations on treating alternative-means errors as harmless)