## Facts

- Malcolm C. Donley and his wife, Linda K. Donley, lived in base family housing at McGuire Air Force Base with their daughter amid months of serious marital conflict.
- Linda sought to separate from Donley and created a plan to convince him they were being evicted so he would move out first while she remained eligible for base housing.
- Linda told her mother, Mrs. Brown, about the plan; Mrs. Brown later testified that Linda had begun packing and that Mrs. Brown heard Linda discuss with Donley an impending move, separation, and division of property.
- The next night, Donley killed Linda by repeatedly striking her with a hatchet and a meat cleaver and cutting her neck with a knife.
- Donley did not dispute the killing but claimed he acted in the heat of passion after allegedly finding Linda in bed with another man.
- The government presented evidence supporting that Linda was asleep when attacked and used Mrs. Brown’s testimony to support motive and premeditation.
- After a jury convicted Donley of first-degree murder under 18 U.S.C. § 1111, the district court imposed a life sentence under the then-new federal Sentencing Guidelines.

## Issues

1. Whether the district court erred by admitting Mrs. Brown’s testimony recounting Linda’s statements about her plan to move and separate under Fed. R. Evid. 803(3).
2. Whether the Sentencing Guidelines required and were properly applied to impose life imprisonment for first-degree murder.

## Decision

- The Third Circuit affirmed the conviction and the life sentence.
- The court held that Linda’s statements describing her intent and plan to leave and move were admissible under Rule 803(3) as evidence of the declarant’s then-existing state of mind.
- The court rejected objections that the testimony was improperly used to prove Donley’s conduct or knowledge, was unfairly cumulative, or lacked proof Donley heard the statements.
- The court upheld the district court’s application of the Sentencing Guidelines treating life imprisonment as required for the first-degree murder conviction absent a valid basis for departure.

## Legal Principles

- Under Fed. R. Evid. 803(3), statements expressing a declarant’s then-existing intent, plan, motive, or design are admissible to prove that state of mind, including in homicide cases where the victim’s contemporaneous plans bear on disputed narratives.
- State-of-mind statements admitted under Rule 803(3) are permissible when offered to show the declarant’s intentions and the existence of the plan, not to prove another person’s future conduct as the truth of the matter asserted.
- The prosecution may introduce more than one witness to prove a central fact when the evidence is relevant to contested elements such as motive and premeditation.
- When the Sentencing Guidelines set a life-imprisonment range for first-degree murder and no departure ground is established, a life sentence may be treated as required.

## Conclusion

The Third Circuit affirmed Donley’s first-degree murder conviction and Guidelines life sentence, holding that the victim’s pre-death statements about her intent and plan to separate and move were properly admitted under Rule 803(3) to show her then-existing state of mind and to support the government’s premeditation theory.


United States v. Donley, 878 F.2d 735 (3d Cir. 1989)