State v. Baca
| Decision Date | 07 April 1993 |
| Docket Number | No. 13634,13634 |
| Parties | STATE of New Mexico, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Nathan BACA and Eddie Chavez, Defendants-Appellants. |
| Court | Court of Appeals of New Mexico |
These consolidated appeals arise out of an incident at the New Mexico Boys' School in which Defendants stabbed another resident of the Boys' School. Defendants appeal their convictions for aggravated battery, conspiracy to commit aggravated battery, and possession of a deadly weapon by a prisoner. They raise two issues on appeal: (1) whether the trial court erred in denying their motion for release of the victim's master file; and (2) whether they received effective assistance of counsel. Defendants have expressly waived other issues listed in the docketing statement but not briefed. See State v. Fish, 102 N.M. 775, 701 P.2d 374 (Ct.App.), cert. denied, 102 N.M. 734, 700 P.2d 197 (1985). Regarding the first issue, we determine that the trial court did not err in denying the motion, because the court granted broad discovery of matters within the file and the only limitation Defendants argue as error on appeal concerned inadmissible propensity evidence. In making this determination, we hold that specific instances of a victim's prior conduct are not admissible to prove that the victim was the first aggressor, see SCRA 1986, 11-405, and that the Supreme Court opinion in State v. Baca, 114 N.M. 668, 845 P.2d 762 (1992), is not to the contrary. Regarding the second issue, we determine that Defendants have not established a prima facie case of ineffective assistance of counsel requiring remand for an evidentiary hearing. Therefore, we affirm.
FACTS.
Correctional officer trainee Charles Howard was on duty in the sleeping area on the night of the incident. After the lights were turned off for the night, Howard heard Baca snap his fingers and call out to him. While the officer looked toward Baca to see what he needed, he caught glimpses of movement to his right. Howard saw Chavez get out of bed and approach the victim's bed. Chavez was hitting the victim in an up and down motion. Howard turned on the lights, and saw both Defendants at the victim's bed. Baca was also hitting the victim in an up and down motion. Each Defendant was carrying a blood-covered knife, or "shank." Howard heard the victim say that he had been stabbed. Defendants went into the day room, refusing to give up their weapons. Chavez said "You fink, you'll never snitch again," apparently referring to the victim. Defendants surrendered themselves and the shanks after about a one-hour standoff with school officials.
The victim testified that he awakened when he felt he was being poked. He realized he was bleeding and had been stabbed. The victim saw both Defendants by his bed holding shanks. He heard Chavez say "That's what they do to rats." Both Defendants testified. Neither denied stabbing the victim, although Baca said he didn't know whether he stabbed the victim. Neither Defendant was injured.
The State's theory of the case was that Defendants stabbed the victim to punish him for "snitching" on them about some stolen keys. There was evidence that, about two weeks prior to the incident, the victim had accused Defendants of stealing his keys. A staff member confronted Chavez about the keys. Chavez denied any involvement.
Defendants claimed that they acted in self-defense, and the jury was so instructed. Chavez testified that he went to talk to the victim "man to man" about the keys. During their conversation, the victim pulled a shank and tried to stab Chavez. Baca then came to Chavez's aid. The victim pulled a second shank, and tried to stab Baca.
Defendants presented considerable evidence tending to show their apprehension of the victim and that he was the first aggressor. The victim admitted on cross-examination that he had been sent to the Boys' School because of an adjudication for aggravated assault with a firearm. He also admitted that he had spent the earlier part of the day of the stabbing in maximum security after a fight with another resident. Julio Rodriguez, another resident, testified that about a week before the stabbing, he heard the victim threaten that he wanted to get Baca by himself.
The victim testified that he told Defendants prior to the stabbing that he would " 'get them by themselves and beat the holy shit out of them.' " He claimed Defendants hit him almost every day for no reason. The victim and Defendants also had a dispute prior to the stabbing concerning the victim's refusal to join a gang. Rodriguez testified that he warned Baca about the victim's threats on the day of the stabbing. He told both Defendants to be careful. Chavez testified that he had heard rumors that the victim wanted to fight him over the key incident. On the night of the stabbing, he said that he tried to talk to the victim about the incident, but the victim was abusive and pulled out a knife. Baca testified that he went to Chavez's aid when he heard him yell for help. According to Baca, the victim threatened him and came at him with another knife. Baca claimed that the victim still had one of the knives when he and Chavez retreated to the day room. Baca also related his efforts to defuse the problems before the stabbing. He testified that he approached a staff member prior to the stabbing concerning the victim's threats.
THE MASTER FILE.
During a pretrial motion hearing, Defendants asked that the district judge order the State to release the victim's master file. Defense counsel explained that the Boys' School compiled a "master file" of each boy and that such master file contains
Defense counsel specifically stated several times that he did not know what was in the file. Additionally, defense counsel did not know specifically how anything in the victim's master file would aid in his clients' defense. The district judge ordered the State to release almost all the records defense counsel requested. In fact, the district judge, explaining that because the victim's character was at issue due to Defendants' self-defense claim, ordered the release of "any kinds of reports or evaluations of the child and his character," in addition to any forensic evaluations of the victim and any investigative reports of the stabbing incident. The district judge, however, did not require the State to release any reports in the master file that detailed specific instances of the victim's prior conduct in which Defendants were not implicated.
Defendants concede that release of a witness's arrest record under SCRA 1986, 5-501(A)(5) (Repl.1992), is discretionary with the trial court. See State v. Smith, 92 N.M. 533, 539-40, 591 P.2d 664, 670-71 (1979). Nonetheless, they argue that the State was constitutionally required to produce the information pursuant to SCRA 5-501(A)(6). See Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963). On appeal Defendants make two arguments that the trial court erred in ruling on their motion. First, Defendants argue that the trial court prevented them from presenting a defense, and second, Defendants argue that the trial court's order was contrary to New Mexico's discovery rule, which requires the State to disclose "any material evidence favorable to the defendant which the state is required to produce under the due process clause of the United States Constitution." SCRA 5-501(A)(6); Brady, 373 U.S. at 87, 83 S.Ct. at 1196-97.
In order for either of Defendants' arguments to support reversal, the trial court's order must have prejudiced the defense. SCRA 1986, 5-113(A) (Repl.1992) (). Defendants in effect argue that they were prejudiced because the limitations imposed by the trial court excluded exculpatory information that would have been admissible.
The narrow, dispositive issue in this case, then, is whether specific instances of a victim's prior conduct of which the Defendants were not aware would have been admissible to support Defendants' theory of the case. We believe the answer depends on whether Defendants would have been entitled to offer such evidence to prove the victim was the first aggressor in the incident material to this appeal.
The State argues that the trial court properly exercised its discretion in excluding evidence of specific acts of violence by the victim which were not known by Defendants, because that evidence would have been immaterial, cumulative, and more prejudicial than probative. See Baca, 114 N.M. at 671, 845 P.2d at 765. We think this argument assumes that the excluded evidence would have been admissible. We hold it would not have been admissible.
A. The Admissibility of Evidence of Specific Incidents of Violence to Prove that the Victim Was the First Aggressor.
The State's argument treats Baca, decided while this case was pending on appeal, as holding that Defendants were entitled to offer evidence of specific incidents involving violence other than those of which they were aware. See State v. Lamure, 115 N.M. 61, 846 P.2d 1070 (Ct.App.1992) (No. 13,255) (Hartz, J., specially concurring) (under Baca, evidence of specific acts to establish violent disposition may be admissible). While the State's view is understandable, see Baca, 114 N.M. at 671-72, 845 P.2d at 765-66 (...
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