State v. Vigil

• Decision Date: 28 June 1990
• Docket Number: No. 18869,18869
• Citation: 110 N.M. 254,794 P.2d 728,1990 NMSC 66
• Parties: STATE of New Mexico, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Janet Elaine VIGIL, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: New Mexico Supreme Court

Page 728

794 P.2d 728

110 N.M. 254

STATE of New Mexico, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Janet Elaine VIGIL, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 18869.

Supreme Court of New Mexico.

June 28, 1990.

[110 NM 255] Phillip A. Martinez, Albuquerque, for defendant-appellant.

Hal Stratton, Atty. Gen., Margaret B. Alcock, Asst. Atty. Gen., Santa Fe, for plaintiff-appellee.

OPINION

RANSOM, Justice.

Janet Elaine Vigil appeals her conviction of first-degree murder in the death of her husband. She argues (1) there was not substantial evidence of premeditation and deliberation to support the jury's verdict. She also argues: (2) SCRA 1986, 14-5171, the Uniform Jury Instruction on justifiable homicide and self-defense, was inadequate to present her battered woman theory of self-defense; (3) SCRA 1986, 14-6008 (Duty to consult) unconstitutionally shifted the burden of proof of not guilty to defendant; (4) defense counsel's failure to present an expert witness on a battered woman defense constituted ineffective assistance of counsel; and (5) the court erred in admitting evidence of a prior extrajudicial statement recanted by the declarant at trial. We affirm.

Substantial evidence supported the jury's guilty verdict. In reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence to establish that defendant acted with deliberate intent, we inquire whether substantial evidence, either direct or circumstantial in nature, exists to support a verdict of guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. See State v. Duran, 107 N.M. 603, 762 P.2d 890 (1988); State v. Sutphin, 107 N.M. 126, 753 P.2d 1314 (1988). "Intent is subjective and is almost always inferred from other facts in the case, as it is rarely established by direct evidence." State v. Sparks, 102 N.M. 317, 320, 694 P.2d 1382, 1385 (Ct.App.1985).

Defendant testified that, while getting ready for work on the morning of the day on which she later had the fatal confrontation with her husband, she discovered her husband had been sexually molesting her daughter by a prior marriage. Upon reaching her office, defendant requested permission to leave work before the noon hour because she had a "family problem" and needed to go home.

Defendant testified she went home at lunch to talk to her husband about his actions and to ask him to get psychological help. She said she had no fear of violence but thought she "could go home and sit down and talk to Steve and discuss the problem with him, like we had many times before." Defendant said she was lying on the bed crying when her husband arrived home. They had an argument. He hit her in the face, punched her in the stomach, kicked her, and knocked her to the floor. Taking a gun from under the bed in order to keep it away from her husband, she jumped over the bed and ran down the hall. Mr. Vigil cut her off and got to the dining room before her. She testified she was frightened because she saw "that look" in her husband's eye indicating the onset of an episode of physical abuse. She pointed the gun at him and told him to stay away. He grabbed her hands and, during the ensuing struggle, the gun went off by accident.

Relying upon State v. Easterwood, 68 N.M. 464, 362 P.2d 997 (1961), and State v. Hermosillo, 88 N.M. 424, 540 P.2d 1313 (Ct.App.1975), defendant argues that, when the only evidence of the crime is circumstantial, it must be incompatible with the innocence of the accused upon any rational theory and incapable of explanation upon any reasonable hypothesis of defendant's innocence. Defendant argues that the most rational explanation of her behavior at the time she killed her husband is that she had gone home simply to confront him with a misdeed and ask him to get psychological help and that the killing was accidental or done in self-defense.

The standard of review, however, requires us to consider the evidence and all reasonable inferences therefrom in support of the verdict and not the merit of evidence that may have supported a verdict to the contrary. See Duran, 107 N.M. at 605, 762 P.2d at 892; Sutphin, 107 N.M. at 130-31, 753 P.2d at 1318-19. We note that the rule from Easterwood "is really nothing more than an application of the substantial evidence rule." Hermosillo, 88 N.M. at 426, 540 P.2d at 1315. Indeed, contrary to defendant's assertion, Easterwood requires only that circumstantial evidence relied upon to support the verdict be incompatible with any rational theory of defendant's innocence, i.e., that the evidence supporting the verdict provide a sufficient basis upon which to infer guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. 68 N.M. at 466, 362 P.2d at 997-98; see also Hermosillo, 88 N.M. at 426, 540 P.2d at 1315 (circumstantial evidence relied upon to establish guilt must be incompatible with any rational theory of the innocence of the accused).

The evidence specifically relied upon by the state as being sufficient to uphold the verdict is as follows: The shooting occurred at approximately 11:35 in the morning. Defendant left work at or about 11:00, and her husband left his work about fifteen minutes later. Various tests indicated he barely would have had time to reach home when the shooting occurred. All of the witnesses who arrived on the scene immediately after the shooting testified that defendant showed no signs of injuries or a struggle. She was described as neatly dressed, her hair "almost perfect." The detective who transported her to the detention center said he saw no marks or abrasions on defendant's face or hands. A neighbor, the first to arrive at the scene, testified that defendant "looked very nice" and did not have any visible injuries.

Neighbors and officers testified that the Vigils' home was in good order and there was no indication that a struggle had taken place. (Defendant did testify at trial that she had straightened up the bed while she was waiting for the ambulance to arrive.) According to an investigating officer, defendant did not mention the fight in the bedroom when he questioned her. Rather, she stated that she went to the bedroom to get the gun after the argument began and came back into the living room and dining room area.

There was also evidence that, in order to fire the gun, the hammer would have to be pulled back manually, and there was no damage to the gun that might indicate a blow to the hammer had caused it to discharge. An expert testified that the muzzle of the gun was more than two feet but less than seven feet from Mr. Vigil at the time he was shot.

We conclude this constituted substantial evidence of the offense charged. This evidence would support a finding that no struggle took place between the time of Mr. Vigil's arrival home and his death, that the gun was intentionally rather than accidentally discharged, that defendant was motivated to kill by the fact that her daughter had been molested, and that defendant had acted deliberately rather than in the heat of passion or out of fear for her life or her physical safety. In short, it is sufficient to establish the prosecution's version of the events leading up to Mr. Vigil's death rather than that of defendant.

Trial court did not abuse its discretion in failing to give requested jury instructions--On self-defense. The jury was instructed that evidence had been presented to show defendant killed her husband while defending herself, and that a killing was in self-defense if there was an appearance of immediate danger of death or great bodily harm to the defendant, if she were in fact put in fear by the apparent danger of immediate death or great bodily harm, and if she killed her husband because of that fear. See SCRA 1986, 14-5171.

Defendant argues that the self-defense instruction given to the jury was inadequate for them to understand that they were to place themselves in her shoes and evaluate the reasonableness of her actions from her point of view. See State v. Gallegos, 104 N.M. 247, 252, 719 P.2d 1268, 1273 (Ct.App.1986), cert. quashed; State v. Allery, 101 Wash.2d 591, 593-95, 682 P.2d 312, 314-15 (1984). Defendant requested that the court instruct the jury that it should consider her state of mind and should consider her past and present knowledge of Mr. Vigil, their relative size and strength, and the history of their relationship in a subjective manner.

When we consider the jury instructions as a whole, we conclude the instructions given adequately explained the law to be applied in this case and that, consequently, the trial court did not err in refusing to give the instruction requested. See State v. Ramirez, 79 N.M. 475, 444 P.2d 986 (1968). We agree with the trial court that the standard instruction did not preclude defendant from arguing nor the jury from considering past history as relevant to present perceptions and fear. In this regard we note the extensive testimony concerning previous...