The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed the conviction of Robert William Rainford for the murder of his neighbor in Muskogee and remanded his case back to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma for a new trial in the death of musician Trent Scoggins.
Rainford had appealed his conviction, arguing the federal jury was improperly instructed on how to consider his involuntary intoxication defense, which involved a twice-the-recommended-dosage prescription for Adderall that he said spurred delusions and caused him to shoot Scoggins in the back.
On Dec. 9, a three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit agreed with Rainford’s argument that the jury instructions wrongly characterized the legal standard for whether he ignored “warnings about the drug.”
“The jury heard expert testimony that Rainford believed his delusions to be real and would not have attributed any change in his behavior to his Adderall consumption,” Judge Richard Federico wrote for the appellate court. “As such, there was a basis in the evidence for the jury to find that Rainford might have had warnings and yet did not actually understand the psychological effects of Adderall.”
Four years prior, on Dec. 12, 2021, Rainford knocked on the back door of his “friendly next-door neighbor” Scoggins, who stepped out on the patio intending to show Rainford his rock garden. When Scoggins turned his back on Rainford for a moment, Rainford shot Scoggins from behind 10 times before standing over his body and cursing at him. Police later arrested him “hiding behind a tree in front of his house,” according to the court’s recitation of events.
During his interrogation, Rainford said he believed Scoggins had been inside his home and had sexually assaulted his daughter. However, there “was no evidence that Scroggins had ever been inside Rainford’s house or harmed his daughter.” When police asked Rainford why he did not shoot Scoggins when he was inside his home, Rainford responded, “I think I did, probably.”
After the interview, Rainford was taken to Saint Francis Hospital in Muskogee where a doctor noted Rainford’s “last use of methamphetamine was today” and that he had a prescription for amphetamine. Urine received there tested positive for amphetamines, but the test could not differentiate between legal amphetamines and illegal methamphetamines. Rainford denies ever using methamphetamine, and no evidence of drug use was found at his home, according to court documents.
From 2019 to 2020, Rainford — a truck driver — was prescribed Adderall at a dosage of 60 mg per day, the maximum recommended dose. In September 2020, he started seeing Dr. Kenneth J. Kirk and was prescribed Adderall at a dosage of 90 mg per day. In March 2021, his prescription was increased to 120 mg per day, plus additional 30 mg extended release tablets “to take as needed.”
“For most of 2021, Rainford was taking Adderall as prescribed at twice the recommended limit,” Federico wrote in a 50-page opinion that misspells Scoggins‘ name as “Scroggins” 40 out of 43 times.
Jury instructions on involuntary intoxication lead to new trial
At trial, Rainford argued he was involuntarily intoxicated by his Adderall prescription, while prosecutors alleged — and his ex-wife testified — that he had a history of recreational drug use. Prosecutors argued Rainford “sought out” the amphetamine “to abuse it and as a stimulant and bodybuilding aid.”
The jury was instructed that a defense of “involuntary intoxication” would not apply if “Rainford was using Adderall along with illegal drugs like methamphetamine” or if “Rainford had knowledge or should have had knowledge based on warnings or prior experience, of the possible intoxicating effects of Adderall.”
On appeal, the 10th Circuit panel unanimously found the instruction regarding “knowledge” of a medication’s effects was overly broad and that jurors should have been able to determine whether the Adderall made Rainford “involuntarily intoxicated” even if they believed he used illegal drugs in addition.
“Rainford only argues that the jury instructions were erroneous because they stated that knowledge of Adderall’s effects and any illegal drug use while taking Adderall were dispositive. He acknowledges that both factors may still be probative of whether intoxication was involuntary. Although this distinction may seem subtle, it is far from harmless,” Federico wrote. “By incorrectly instructing that these factors categorically barred a finding of involuntary intoxication, the district court improperly took this decision away from the jury. Without this error, we cannot say beyond a reasonable doubt that the jury would have reached the same verdict. Because of the erroneous instruction on involuntary intoxication, we reverse and vacate the district court’s judgment and remand for a new trial.”
The trial court had also denied a jury instruction for involuntary manslaughter as an alternative to murder based on the imperfect defense of another. Rainford had argued that because his psychosis made him “subjectively, though unreasonably” believe he was defending his daughter, he should have been afforded him the alternate defense, and the appellate court agreed.
“Even if Rainford intentionally abused Adderall or other drugs, he may still have had drug induced delusions that he perceived to be real,” Federico wrote. “If the jury believed that voluntary drug abuse caused Rainford to subjectively believe that he needed to defend his daughter, it could have found involuntary manslaughter based on imperfect defense of another even while finding no involuntary intoxication.”
Dr. Kenneth Kirk’s disciplinary history complicates case
While Rainford heads back to trial, Scoggins’ family is preparing to relive the process.
“I’m not exactly sure what’s going to happen and won’t know until the end of the month, but it would appear we are going to be having another trial, and given the options, that’s the best one,” Rhonda Scoggins, Trent’s widow, wrote in a Dec. 10 Facebook post. “So here we go again, but this time I know what to expect. I’m stressed, it’s going to be hard to live it again but I’m gonna do whatever I can to get justice, again.”
Meanwhile, the Oklahoma State Board of Medical Licensure still lists Rainford’s former prescribing physician — Dr. Kenneth J. Kirk — as being licensed to practice, with a state location of Great Plains Recovery in Tulsa and hospital privileges with the Muscogee Nation Hospital in Okmulgee.
Kirk is not listed as a team member on the Great Plains Recovery website, but the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services website lists Kirk’s affiliation with the Muscogee Nation’s hospitals and clinics, as well as Access Medical and two other provider groups. It is unclear from court filings where Kirk was employed when he wrote prescriptions to Rainford.
Despite maintaining an active physician license, Kirk has an fairly extensive disciplinary history with the Oklahoma Medical Board.
According to a 2004 complaint filed by the board against Kirk, he lied on his initial application to the state board in 1985, checking that he had never “been charged with or convicted of a crime directly or indirectly related to [his] practice of medicine” despite the fact he was charged with possession of marijuana with intent to distribute during medical school.
While Kirk sought professional help at least three times in the 1980s and 1990s for drug and alcohol abuse, his symptoms worsened in the 2000s, according to board filings. By June 2003, he was regularly taking some mixture of 20 phentermine, one liter of vodka, 10 Xanax, 15 phendimetrazine, two-to-four Ambien, four Sonata and eight-to-10 hydrocodone per day.
In April 2004, he was fired from Omni Medical Group of Tulsa for violating company policy by prescribing controlled substances to a fellow employee, who ultimately died from an overdose. Kirk’s license was terminated in May 2005, his reapplication was denied in May 2006 and he was probationarily reinstated in July 2006.
In July 2008, his license was suspended for 30 days for issuing approximately 300 prescriptions that violated his probationary license’s terms and his probation was made indefinite. In May 2011, his probation was modified to allow him to issue prescriptions for controlled substances “to hospital inpatients only.” In November 2013, it was modified again to allow him to prescribe to outpatients. In March 2015, the board gave him permission to work up to 55-hour weeks.
In April 2017, Kirk applied to end his probation, and by May 2021 he was fully licensed again in Oklahoma.
