Mattern v. State

• Decision Date: 13 February 2007
• Docket Number: No. 05-218.,05-218.
• Parties: Steven Christopher MATTERN, Appellant (Defendant), v. The STATE of Wyoming, Appellee (Plaintiff).
• Court: Wyoming Supreme Court

151 P.3d 1116

2007 WY 24

Steven Christopher MATTERN, Appellant (Defendant), v. The STATE of Wyoming, Appellee (Plaintiff).

No. 05-218.

Supreme Court of Wyoming.

February 13, 2007.

Representing Appellant: Kenneth M. Koski, State Public Defender; Donna D. Domonkos, Appellate Counsel; Marion Yoder, Senior Assistant Appellate Counsel; and Tina N. Kerin, Senior Assistant Appellate Counsel. Argument by Ms. Yoder.

Representing Appellee: Patrick J. Crank, Attorney General; Paul S. Rehurek, Deputy Attorney General; D. Michael Pauling, Senior Assistant Attorney General; and Dee Morgan, Senior Assistant Attorney General. Argument by Ms. Morgan.

Before VOIGT, C.J., and GOLDEN, HILL, KITE, and BURKE, JJ.

VOIGT, Chief Justice.

[¶ 1] A jury found the appellant guilty of attempted first-degree murder, and the district court sentenced him to life in prison. This appeal raises questions concerning jury selection, uncharged misconduct evidence, the adequacy of the jury instructions, and the sufficiency of the evidence. We affirm.

ISSUES¹

[¶ 2] 1. Did the State engage in purposeful discrimination when it exercised peremptory challenges to exclude two Hispanics from the jury?

2. Was character evidence improperly admitted at trial?

3. Did the district court properly instruct the jury as to the elements of the crime of attempted first-degree murder?

4. Was there sufficient evidence for the jury to find the appellant guilty of attempted first-degree murder?

FACTS

[¶ 3] The appellant and Jenny Abeyta lived together in Rawlins, Wyoming, for about two months before he moved out at her request after a dispute. On the night of September 10, 2004, the appellant went to Abeyta's house and asked her to join him at a bar later that night. She did not do so. Several hours later, the appellant and his brother, James Mattern, returned to Abeyta's house. Before getting out of his car, the appellant retrieved his single-action Colt .45 automatic pistol and hid it in his waistband. Inside the house were Abeyta, her two children, and her mother's boyfriend, Tim Snow.

[¶ 4] As he entered the house, the appellant was already angry that Abeyta had not come down to the bar.² He became more angry when he saw that Snow was there, because he thought Snow and Abeyta "did drugs" together and that Snow had "tried to hit on her" in the past. Almost immediately, an argument erupted among the appellant, Abeyta, and Snow. It began with the Appellant and Abeyta shouting at one another, and escalated to include Snow when the appellant accused Snow of "saying something." The confrontation began in the bedroom, proceeded outside, where the appellant and Snow intended to fight at the appellant's suggestion, and then went back up the front steps to the front door. Snow retreated into the bedroom, at which time the appellant reached past Abeyta and shot Snow. The appellant and his brother fled the scene. Snow was taken by air ambulance to Casper for treatment. The appellant was arrested several weeks later in Tucson, Arizona.

DISCUSSION

Did the State engage in purposeful discrimination when it exercised peremptory challenges to exclude two Hispanics from the jury?

[¶ 5] We will begin this discussion with an analysis of the context in which peremptory challenges occur. All jury trials begin, of course, with the voir dire process, where jurors are examined by counsel for the following purposes:

Pursuant to W.R.Cr.P. 24(c)(1), the purpose of voir dire is to choose jurors who will be fair and impartial:

In Wyoming, the purpose of voir dire is to seek to establish grounds for challenge for cause; assess any individual bias as to each member of the panel; and to arrive at a determination of the potential jurors' ability to decide a case fairly. . . .

In accordance with the rule, voir dire is subject to the supervision and control of the trial judge. The rulings of the trial judge are given deference within the permissible bounds. The authority of the trial court is discretionary and "[t]he only inhibition regarding the discretion of the trial court is that it must be exercised subject to the essential demands of fairness." Jahnke [v. State, 682 P.2d 991,] 999 [(Wyo.1984)].

Law v. State, 2004 WY 111, ¶ 32, 98 P.3d 181, 192-93 (Wyo.2004) (quoting Vit v. State, 909 P.2d 953, 960 (Wyo.1996)).

[¶ 6] Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 7-11-105 (LexisNexis 2005) sets forth the limited bases upon which a venire member may be challenged for cause. In addition, Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 7-11-103(a) (LexisNexis 2005) and W.R.Cr.P. 24(d)(1) allow the State and each defendant in a non-capital felony criminal jury trial eight peremptory challenges. Traditionally, peremptory challenges could be exercised for any reason or for no reason:

Appellant acknowledges the holding in Swain v. State of Alabama, 380 U.S. 202, 85 S.Ct. 824, 13 L.Ed.2d 759 (1965), to the effect that a defendant could not question a prosecutor's use of peremptory challenges in a particular case even if the peremptory challenge was allegedly used to discriminate against a particular group of persons. The court there said:

The essential nature of the peremptory challenge is that it is one exercised without a reason stated, without inquiry and without being subject to the court's control. State v. Thompson, 68 Ariz. 386, 206 P.2d 1037 (1949); Lewis v. United States, 146 U.S. 370, 378, 13 S.Ct. 136, 139, 36 L.Ed. 1011 [(1892)]. While challenges for cause permit rejection of jurors on a narrowly specified, provable and legally cognizable basis of partiality, the peremptory permits rejection for a real or imagined partiality that is less easily designated or demonstrable. Hayes v. State of Missouri, 120 U.S. 68, 70, 7 S.Ct. 350, 351, 30 L.Ed. 578 [(1887)]. It is often exercised upon the `sudden impressions and unaccountable prejudices we are apt to conceive upon the bare looks and gestures of another,' Lewis, supra 146 U.S., at 376, 13 S.Ct., at 138, upon a juror's `habits and associations,' Hayes v. State of Missouri, supra, 120 U.S., at 70, 7 S.Ct., at 351, or upon the feeling that `the bare questioning [a juror's] indifference may sometimes provoke a resentment,' Lewis, supra, 146 U.S., at 376, 13 S.Ct., at 138. It is no less frequently exercised on grounds normally thought irrelevant to legal proceedings or official action, namely, the race, religion, nationality, occupation or affiliations of people summoned for jury duty.

Evans v. State, 653 P.2d 308, 309-10 (Wyo. 1982).

[¶ 7] The "any reason or no reason" rule came to an end, however, with the publication of Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986), overruled in part by Powers v. Ohio, 499 U.S. 400, 111 S.Ct. 1364, 113 L.Ed.2d 411 (1991). Batson, a black man, was convicted by an all-white jury, of certain theft offenses, after the prosecutor exercised his peremptory challenges to strike all four blacks from the venire. Relying upon Strauder v. West Virginia, 10 Otto 303, 100 U.S. 303, 25 L.Ed. 664 (1880), where the Supreme Court held that the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution prohibits states from excluding blacks from service as jurors, the Court in Batson declared that the Equal Protection Clause likewise prohibits state prosecutors from peremptorily challenging members of the venire "solely on account of their race or on the assumption that black jurors as a group will be unable impartially to consider the State's case against a black defendant." Batson, 476 U.S. at 89, 106 S.Ct. at 1719.

[¶ 8] A "Batson challenge," as it has come to be called, follows a three-step process: First, the defendant must establish a prima facie showing of purposeful discrimination in the State's exercise of peremptory challenges. This prima facie showing may be met by combining a showing that the defendant is a member of a racial group capable of being singled out for differential treatment, with proof of systematic exclusion of that racial group from juries over time, or with proof that the facts of the particular case show purposeful racial discrimination. Id., 476 U.S. at 93-97, 106 S.Ct. at 1721-23. If the defendant makes such a prima facie showing, the State must then come forward with a "neutral explanation" for the exercise of its peremptory challenges. While such neutral explanation need not rise to the level of justifying a challenge for cause, it must go beyond the assumption that a juror of the same race as the defendant would not be impartial, and it must be related to the particular facts of the case. Id., 476 U.S. at 97-98, 106 S.Ct. at 1723-24. As the third step in the process, the trial judge then determines whether the defendant has established purposeful discrimination. Id., 476 U.S. at 98, 106 S.Ct. at 1724.

[¶ 9] The Batson principles have been refined over time. In Hernandez v. New York, 500 U.S. 352, 364-69, 111 S.Ct. 1859, 1868-71, 114 L.Ed.2d 395 (1991), for instance, the Supreme Court made clear that in reviewing a state trial court's findings on the issue of discriminatory intent, the deferential "clearly erroneous" standard would apply. Further, the Court re-emphasized that what Batson forbids is discriminatory intent, rather than discriminatory effect. Id., 500 U.S. at 362, 111 S.Ct. at 1867. In Purkett v. Elem, 514 U.S. 765, 768, 115 S.Ct. 1769, 1771, 131 L.Ed.2d 834 (1995), the Court held that, at the second step in the Batson process, the State's explanation of its intent need not be persuasive, or even plausible. In other words, all that is required is an explanation that is facially valid. Id. It is not until the third step — where the judge is called upon to determine whether the defendant has carried his burden of proving purposeful discrimination — that the judge must choose whether to believe or disbelieve the State's explanation. That is because the ultimate burden of proof regarding motivation rests with, and never shifts from, the defendant. Id., 514 U.S. at 768, 115 S.Ct. at 1771. Quite...