Crowe v. State

• Citation: 441 P.2d 90,84 Nev. 358
• Decision Date: 17 May 1968
• Docket Number: No. 5440,5440
• Parties: Johnny Wayne CROWE, Appellant, v. STATE of Nevada, Respondent.
• Court: Supreme Court of Nevada

Page 90

441 P.2d 90

84 Nev. 358

Johnny Wayne CROWE, Appellant, v. STATE of Nevada, Respondent.

No. 5440.

Supreme Court of Nevada.

May 17, 1968.

Alfred Becker, Las Vegas, for appellant.

Harvey Dickerson, Atty. Gen., Carson City, George E. Franklin, Jr., Dist. Atty., Las Vegas, for respondent.

OPINION

ZENOFF, Justice.

Johnny Wayne Crowe seeks reversal of his conviction for the sale of narcotics on three grounds: (1) that the opinion testimony of a probation and parole officer as an expert on narcotics addiction should not have been admitted; (2) that the trial court should have permitted a voir dire examination of the jury after the publication of a newspaper article relating to Crowe's former narcotics trials; and (3) that the trial court should not have allowed the conviction to stand because the only material evidence was the testimony of a police informer, himself a narcotics user. We agree that reversal is required.

James Alexander became a police informer and a user of narcotics 'in the public interest,' in order to serve the community, as he stated, to do something about the narcotics problem. From marijuana he stepped up to heroin and LSD during the years he acted as an informer. He became a steady user of heroin although professing that he was not an addict, maybe 'emotionally but not physically.'

The police set Alexander up to make a 'score' (a purchase) of heroin from Crowe, a suspected 'pusher' (seller) in the Las Vegas area. They gave Alexander $42 in cash making careful note of the serial numbers on the bills and that Alexander had no other money on him. Alexander made the preliminary steps to meet with Crowe, advised the police, and did in fact meet with him, but the police never did see the two of them together. The only material and relevant testimony of the transaction was the word of Alexander the informer against Crowe the defendant. Alexander testified that he and Crowe and two other companions took 'shots' in a restroom of a service station, using heroin purchased from Crowe, saving some which he turned over to the police. He said that instead of taking a 'shot' he put the needle entirely through his skin so that the dope came out from the needle onto his arm instead of into his vein, a stunt according to him he had learned from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Crowe in defense admitted that he, Alexander and two companions each took the 'shots,' but testified the heroin used had been supplied by Alexander who had purchased it from someone other than Crowe. No money, particularly the marked bills, was found on Crowe when he was arrested three weeks after the incident. The companions did not testify nor was there any explanation of their absence. The only witnesses at the trial for the state were a chemist, Alexander, one of the two police officers who set up Alexander for the purchase, and James Gerow, a parole and probation officer, who was used to testify that Alexander was not an addict.

1. We reject the contention of the appellant that the subject of narcotics addiction be deemed a medical matter singularly within the province of testimony of expert medical witnesses. We believe the use of non-medical testimony is neither erroneous nor prejudicial. People v. Mack, 169 Cal.App. 825, 338 P.2d 25 (1959); People v. Smith, 61 Cal.Rptr. 557 (Cal.App. 1967).

However here the trial court did not rule whether Gerow qualified as an expert, but left it to the jury to determine whether his testimony was to be considered as that of an expert or layman and the weight to be accorded such testimony. This was error. It is the function of the trial judge to first determine, when the question is presented, whether or not a witness is qualified to testify as an expert, Hardison v. State, 84 Nev. ---, 437 P.2d 868 (1968), but in this instance is much ado about nothing. Lay witnesses, such as Gerow, who are sufficiently trained and experienced, may testify at the discretion of the trial court relative to the use and influence of narcotics or the addiction thereto. See People v. Chrisman, 64 Cal.Rptr. 733 (Cal.App. 1967); People v. Mack, supra; People v. Smith, supra; State v. Chavez, 77 N.M. 274, 421 P.2d 796 (1966). Furthermore, under cross-examination he admitted that he had observed Alexander (who was on probation) only a few minutes each month and that he partly relied on statements of other staff members for his conclusion that Alexander was not an addict. When Alexander testified he freely related his long use of narcotics from which the jurors could assess their own values. Thus, while it was error for the court not to rule whether or not Gerow qualified as an expert, the failure was not so material to warrant a reversal since he could properly testify as a lay witness in the trial court's discretion and no prejudice resulted. State v. Jiles, 258 Iowa 1324, 142 N.W.2d 451 (1966).

2. We cannot say the same however for the second assignment of error. The refusal of the trial court to exercise appropriate procedural safeguards that have many times been ruled essential to a fair trial necessitates a new trial for Crowe.

The jury was selected in the afternoon and permitted to separate until the trial commenced the following morning. The afternoon newspaper of that day and the morning edition the following day carried a three-column news story which stated in the headline, 'IN NARCOTICS TRIAL DISTRICT ATTORNEY SUFFERS BIG DEFEAT.' In the first three paragraphs Crowe was mentioned by name as the defendant in narcotics proceedings which ended in three mistrials and then an acquittal. The district attorney, the article read, was 'reeling from a stinging not guilty verdict rendered against him,' and a deputy district attorney was quoted, 'You might as well forget about presenting sale of narcotics charges.'

Immediately when this present trial convened Crowe's counsel moved the court to interrogate the jurors concerning the news article. Despite the suggestive atmosphere generated by the news article the trial court refused to conduct a voir dire examination of the jury to determine if they had read the article and, if so, what effect, if any, it had upon them. We said in Pacheco v. State, 82 Nev. 172, 414 P.2d 100 (1966), if the issue of guilt or innocence is close and the jurors have been exposed to a publication about the defendant, a new trial may be inevitable, so we advised that the trial judge augment his statutory admonition to the jurors with a caution that they not read news articles or listen to news accounts of the trial. That 'suggestion' was made statutory by the 1967 legislature. ¹

The state and the defendant both agree that the article was prejudicial, the state because it was critical of the prosecutor, and the defendant because the deputy district attorney's statement placed, in his view, a feeling upon the jury that it must bring in a guilty verdict as a command performance. Without a voir dire examination neither had the opportunity to find out.

However we are not here concerned with the nature or the character of the article, since the only question we deem important is whether the trial court employed adequate procedural safeguards to protect the defendant's right to a fair and impartial jury trial against the possible prejudicial effect of news accounts. The trial judge has large discretion in ruling on the issue of possible prejudice resulting from news articles concerning a defendant on trial and each case must turn on its special facts. Marshall v. United States, 360 U.S. 310, 79 S.Ct. 1171, 3 L.Ed.2d 1250 (1959). However a news account, possibly prejudicial, may indeed have a greater effect on a jury when it is 'not tempered by protective procedures.' Id. at 313, 79 S.Ct. 1173. Therefore, procedural safeguards are to be employed by the trial judge to control the conditions within his province, the courtroom, rather than to control freedom of the press. Estes v. State of Texas, 381 U.S. 532, 85 S.Ct. 1628, 14 L.Ed.2d 543 (1965); Sheppard v. Maxwell, 384 U.S. 333, 86 S.Ct. 1507, 16 L.Ed.2d 600 (1966). It is the trial court's function to endeavor to prevent even the probability of unfairness in keeping with due process requirements. In re Murchison, 349 U.S. 133, 75 S.Ct. 623, 99 L.Ed. 942 (1955); Tumey v. State of Ohio, 273 U.S. 510, 47 S.Ct. 437, 71 L.Ed. 749 (1927).

And while it is true that most claims of due process deprivations require a showing of identifiable prejudice to the accused, nevertheless at times, a probability that prejudice will result is deemed inherently lacking in due process. Estes v. State of Texas, supra; Rideau v. State of Louisiana, 373 U.S. 723, 83 S.Ct. 1417, 10 L.Ed.2d 663 (1963); Turner v. State of Louisiana, 379 U.S. 466, 85 S.Ct. 546, 13 L.Ed.2d 424 (1965).

In the instant case, no adequate procedural protections were taken to insure a fair trial. The court did not permit inquiry of the jury, gave no admonitions that they were to avoid news accounts, and did not instruct them prior to deliberation that news stories should be disregarded. These are procedures normally utilized by trial courts to reduce the appearance of possible prejudicial material and to protect the jury from outside influence. Failure to take these precautions total reversible error.

In certain circumstances when it is brought to the trial court's attention that news accounts concerning the defendant have appeared during the course of the trial there is an 'imperious necessity' to ascertain the fact of exposure and whether prejudice was created in the minds of the jury. Adjmi v. United States, 346 F.2d 654 (5th Cir. 1965); Coppedge v. United States, 106 U.S.App.D.C. 205, 272 F.2d 504 (1959); Mares v. United States, 383 F.2d 805 (10th Cir. 1967); People v. Cain, 36 Ill.2d 589, 224 N.E.2d 786 (Ill. 1967); Trombley v. Langlois, 91 R.I. 328, 163 A.2d 25 (1960). This rule has been applied to instances where other extrajudicial matters are concerned. Remmer...