State v. St. Clair
| Decision Date | 30 April 2003 |
| Docket Number | No. 25281.,25281. |
| Citation | 101 Haw. 280,67 P.3d 779 |
| Parties | STATE of Hawai`i, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Stephen Keith ST. CLAIR, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | Hawaii Supreme Court |
Michael M. McPherson, Kamuela, for defendant-appellant.
Linda L. Walton, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, for plaintiff-appellee.
MOON, C.J., LEVINSON and NAKAYAMA, JJ., Circuit Judge DEL ROSARIO, in place of ACOBA J., who is unavailable, and Circuit Judge CHANG, assigned by reason of vacancy.
The defendant-appellant Stephen Keith St. Clair appeals from the judgment of the third circuit court, filed on August 5, 2002, the Honorable Ronald Ibarra presiding, adjudging him guilty of manslaughter, in violation of Hawai'i Revised Statutes (HRS) § 707-702(1)(a) (1993),1 operating a vehicle under the influence of an intoxicant (DUI), in violation of HRS § 291E-61(a)(1) (Supp.2002),2 and driving without no-fault insurance, in violation of HRS § 431:10C-104 (Supp.2002).3 Specifically, St. Clair contends that the circuit court erred: (1) in partially granting the prosecution's motion to allow evidence of Canadian convictions, on the bases (a) that he was not afforded the protections of the Hawai'i Constitution in the Canadian proceedings and (b) that the evidence was inadmissible pursuant to Hawai'i Rules of Evidence (HRE) Rules 403 (1993) and 404(b) (Supp. 2002);4 (2) in denying St. Clair's motion for dismissal with prejudice due to prosecutorial misconduct, on the basis that the deputy prosecuting attorney (DPA) improperly questioned St. Clair regarding certain facts pertaining to a prior DUI incident in Canada; and (3) in denying St. Clair's motion for a new trial, on the basis that there was a reasonable possibility that the foregoing prosecutorial misconduct contributed to his conviction.
For the reasons discussed infra in Section III, we believe that St. Clair's arguments are without merit. Accordingly, we affirm the circuit court's judgment.
On February 25, 2002, St. Clair was charged by complaint with: (1) manslaughter, in violation of HRS § 707-702(1)(a) (Count I), see supra note 1; (2) negligent homicide in the first degree, in violation of HRS § 707-702.5(1) (1993) (Count II);5 (3) DUI, in violation of HRS § 291E-81 (Count III);6 (4) reckless driving of a vehicle, in violation of HRS § 291-2 (Supp.2002) (Count IV);7 (5) reckless endangering in the second degree, in violation of HRS § 707-714(1) (1993) (Count V); (6) driving without no-fault insurance, in violation of HRS § 431:10C-104 (Count VI), see supra note 3; and (7) failure to drive on right side of roadway, in violation of HRS § 291C-41 (1993) (Count VII).8 The charges arose out of an incident that occurred on February 23, 2002, in which the vehicle that St. Clair was driving while intoxicated struck and killed a pedestrian, Jane O'Brien.
On May 3, 2002, the prosecution filed a motion to allow evidence of Canadian convictions arising out of proceedings in which St. Clair was represented by counsel at trial and at sentencing. Specifically, the prosecution sought to admit evidence of the factual bases for two prior DUI convictions in Canada in order to show that, in the present matter, St. Clair acted with a conscious disregard of a substantial and unjustifiable risk that he would injure someone, because he had first-hand experience that "when he drove after drinking substantial amounts, he was not in sufficient control of his faculties to drive in an appropriate manner."
On May 13, 2002, St. Clair filed a memorandum in opposition to the prosecution's motion, in which he argued (1) that, because the prosecution "admits that it seeks to use prior convictions to establish mens rea for manslaughter," the evidence was inadmissible pursuant to HRE Rule 404(b), see supra note 4, and (2) that, because the evidence was not probative of truth or veracity, it should not be admitted for impeachment purposes pursuant to HRE Rule 609(a) (1993).9
On June 10, 2002, the circuit court conducted a hearing regarding the prosecution's motion, during which Larry Stein, Assistant Crown Counsel for the province of Alberta, Canada, testified regarding St. Clair's Canadian convictions and Canadian legal procedures. Stein testified that the records of the Canadian proceedings involving St. Clair showed, inter alia, that St. Clair had pled guilty to driving on April 15, 1998 with too much alcohol in his blood. Stein read the factual basis for St. Clair's plea, which St. Clair had admitted in a colloquy with the Canadian court and which indicated that St. Clair had failed to negotiate a curve in the road while DUI and had struck another vehicle.
St. Clair did not advance any new arguments in opposition to the prosecution's motion during the hearing, but defense counsel noted that the Canadian court did not conduct a colloquy with St. Clair when it accepted his guilty plea, in order to determine whether or not he understood the rights that he was waiving by not proceeding to trial, as defense counsel believed was required by the United States and Hawai'i Constitutions.10
The circuit court granted the prosecution's motion in part, "to the extent that the [April 15, 1998] incident may be used by the [prosecution] at trial, although the fact of conviction may not be introduced, and reference to defendant attempting to back away after the accident may not be used. In its written order, the circuit court concluded: (1) that the strength of the evidence of the prior bad act was high, because, inter alia, the prosecution produced certified copies of all court records relating to the April 15, 1998 incident, St. Clair was represented by counsel at all significant stages of the proceeding, and St. Clair's conviction had not been based on any of his own statements, "but rather on the observation of witnesses and police officers"; (2) that the time that had elapsed since the April 15, 1998 incident was not great; (3) that the need for the evidence was great and the efficacy of alternative proof small, inasmuch as the prosecution could only prove St. Clair's state of mind—specifically, that he "perceived and disregarded the risk that he would commit a driving error when he drove intoxicated, and [thereby] injure or kill people"—by circumstantial evidence; and (4) that the prior bad act was unlikely to arouse the jury to overmastering hostility, because it was "of no worse a nature than the act for which [St. Clair] is being tried."
The circuit court also concluded, however, that St. Clair's other Canadian conviction, which "ha[s] not been shown to involve [a] collision [ ] while intoxicated, ... [is] not sufficiently relevant or necessary to be considered by the jury in this case." (Emphasis added.)
In light of the circuit court's ruling, St. Clair agreed to stipulate to the facts regarding the April 15, 1998 incident that he had admitted in his plea, rather than have the Canadian prosecutor testify at trial regarding the facts that he admitted in the Canadian proceedings.
St. Clair's jury trial commenced on June 12, 2002. St. Clair stipulated that, "on or about February 23rd, 2002, in Kona, County and State of Hawai'i, [he] caused the death of another person, Jane O'Brien, by operation of a vehicle which struck her." In addition, St. Clair testified on his own behalf and admitted that he had consumed at least twelve beers immediately prior to the accident. The prosecution introduced evidence that St. Clair's blood alcohol content (BAC) was 0.211 gram per one hundred milliliters of blood immediately following the accident. St. Clair also stipulated that:
Thus, the only factual issue disputed at trial that is pertinent to St. Clair's present appeal was his state of mind when he killed O'Brien.
The DPA cross-examined St. Clair, in relevant part, as follows:
The following bench conference subsequently ensued:
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