Mraz v. State

• Decision Date: 10 June 2014
• Docket Number: No. S–13–0169.,S–13–0169.
• Parties: Miranda Rose MRAZ, Appellant (Defendant), v. The STATE of Wyoming, Appellee (Plaintiff).
• Court: Wyoming Supreme Court

326 P.3d 931

Miranda Rose MRAZ, Appellant (Defendant),
v.
The STATE of Wyoming, Appellee (Plaintiff).

No. S–13–0169.

Supreme Court of Wyoming.

June 10, 2014.

[326 P.3d 932]

Representing Appellant: Office of the State Public Defender: Diane Lozano, State Public Defender; Tina N. Olson, Chief Appellate Counsel; Eric M. Alden, Senior Assistant Appellate Counsel. Argument by Mr. Alden.

Representing Appellee: Peter K. Michael, Wyoming Attorney General; David L. Delicath, Deputy Attorney General; Jenny L. Craig, Senior Assistant Attorney General; Caitlin F. Young, Assistant Attorney General. Argument by Ms. Young.

Before KITE, C.J., and HILL, BURKE, DAVIS, and FOX, JJ.

KITE, Chief Justice.

[¶ 1] A jury found Miranda Rose Mraz guilty of larceny by bailee. She appeals her conviction claiming the district court erred in excluding alternate suspect evidence and giving an improper jury instruction. She also claims the evidence presented at trial was insufficient to support the conviction. We conclude the evidence was insufficient to support a guilty verdict; we, therefore, reverse the conviction.

ISSUE

[¶ 2] The dispositive issue is whether sufficient evidence was presented to support the jury's verdict.

FACTS

[¶ 3] In July of 2012, the Sheridan County attorney's office charged Ms. Mraz with one count of larceny by bailee in violation of Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 6–3–402(b) and (c)(i) (LexisNexis 2011). The affidavit attached to the charging document stated that Ms. Mraz called 911 at approximately 11:00 a.m. on April 21, 2012, and reported she was opening the Eagles Club in Sheridan where she worked as a bartender when someone robbed the bar and attempted to cut her face. When police arrived at the scene, Ms. Mraz told them she had arrived at the Eagles Club around 10:45 that morning to work, unlocked the back door, entered the building and used her access code to shut off the alarm system when someone came from behind and pushed her head against the wall. She said she did not see the person but thought he or she likely went out the door. Ms. Mraz reported that she went downstairs and saw a light on in the back room where the safe was located. She found the safe door open and called her boss and 911. Police observed scratches across Ms. Mraz's chin and the right side of her jaw. Money bags, cash register tills and a petty cash box were missing from the safe.

[¶ 4] Later, when detectives examined the alarm system activity records, they learned that Ms. Mraz's access code had been used to turn the system off at 10:40 a.m., on at 10:43 a.m. and off again at 10:55 a.m. just before the alleged assault. The detectives also examined surveillance video and saw Ms. Mraz's vehicle traveling from the direction of her home toward the Eagles Club shortly before her access code was used the first time, driving back toward her home a few minutes later and then returning in the direction of the Eagles Club shortly before her access code was used the second time. When confronted with the evidence from the alarm system and surveillance video, Ms. Mraz told the detective that she had been honest and did not take the money. Police arrested Ms. Mraz. Later, in a recorded telephone conversation from jail, Ms. Mraz told her boyfriend she had forgotten to tell police she had been at the Eagles Club earlier, left to go home to change her tampon and then returned to work when she was assaulted. The items taken from the safe were never found.

[¶ 5] Prior to trial, the State filed a motion asking the district court to preclude Ms. Mraz from introducing “alternate perpetrator” evidence unless she first established a direct nexus between another person and the crime. The district court heard argument on the motion at the pretrial conference and

[326 P.3d 933]

took the matter under advisement. The case proceeded to trial.

[¶ 6] The State attempted to show that the night before the theft, the bartender on duty placed money bags, tills and the petty cash box in the safe, locked it and turned the alarm system on before leaving for the night. The next person known to be in the building was the custodian who arrived the next morning and turned the alarm system off while he worked. He testified he did not know the combination to the safe and it was locked when he left between 9:00 and 9:45 a.m. The State asserted Ms. Mraz was the only person known to be in the building on the morning of the theft who had keys to the building, an access code to turn off the alarm system and the combination to the safe. The State showed that the alarm system included a motion sensor which, it asserted, would have detected any motion near the safe when the alarm system was on. Because it detected no motion during the night or after the custodian turned the alarm system back on before leaving the building, the State asserted the theft could only have occurred when Ms. Mraz arrived and turned the alarm system off, meaning it occurred after she entered her access code at 10:40 a.m. The State contended Ms. Mraz lied when she did not tell police she had been in the building then.

[¶ 7] Ms. Mraz's theory of defense was that law enforcement made a “rush to judgment” by deciding she had taken the money from the safe without properly investigating other possibilities. Defense counsel presented evidence that other employees of the Eagles Club had keys to the back door and access codes to shut off the alarm system. He also showed that other employees knew the safe combination and it had not been changed even after the Eagles Club fired one employee. The defense presented evidence that the bartender on duty the night before noticed some unusual phenomena when she was closing after everyone else had gone, including noises upstairs. The defense also showed the alarm system was turned off for two hours the next morning while the custodian was working. Part of that time, he was at the other end of the bar from where the safe was located running a vacuum cleaner and could not have heard if someone entered or was in the building. The defense also presented evidence that the motion sensor did not work if an item, such as a hat, was placed over it. Defense counsel showed that a service door to the building was not connected to the alarm system and could be opened from the outside with a coin. The defense contended law enforcement never investigated these possibilities but instead jumped to the conclusion that Ms. Mraz had taken the money. The defense also asserted Ms. Mraz did not lie to police; rather, she forgot to tell them she had arrived at work earlier, left to go home and had just returned when the assault occurred.

[¶ 8] On the second day of trial, the State called the bartender who worked the last shift the night before Ms. Mraz discovered the open safe. During cross-examination, defense counsel asked the witness whether she noticed anything that concerned her when she was closing after everyone else had left. The State objected and asked to approach the bench. The bench conference was not recorded; ¹ however, the witness was

[326 P.3d 934]

thereafter allowed to testify that as she was closing she heard a noise coming from upstairs that scared her and she noticed that someone had closed a closet door that was usually left open so employees could see inside the closet. The witness was not allowed to testify that she spoke to police the next morning about the noise and the closet or her suspicion that someone may have been hiding in the building that night.² She also was not allowed to testify that a small door into the coal room was always unlocked.

[¶ 9] After three and a half days of trial, the jury returned a verdict finding Ms. Mraz guilty. The district court entered judgment on the verdict and sentenced Ms. Mraz to two to eight years imprisonment, suspended the sentence and placed her on supervised probation for eight years. Ms. Mraz timely appealed from the judgment and sentence.

DISCUSSION

[¶ 10] We begin our discussion by considering the sufficiency of the evidence because a finding that the evidence was insufficient to support the conviction would require remand to the district court for entry of an acquittal. Ken v. State, 2011 WY 167, ¶ 17, 267 P.3d 567, 572 (Wyo.2011). Our review is governed by the following standards:

[W]e examine and accept as true the State's evidence and all reasonable inferences which can be drawn from it. We do not consider conflicting evidence presented by the defendant. We do not substitute our judgment for that of the jury; rather, we determine whether a jury could have reasonably concluded each of the elements

[326 P.3d 935]

of the crime was proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

Id., ¶ 19, 267 P.3d at 572, quoting Daves v. State, 2011 WY 47, ¶ 30, 249 P.3d 250, 259 (Wyo.2011).

[¶ 11] The statute under which Ms. Mraz was charged provided as follows:

§ 6–3–402. Larceny; ... penalties.

....

(b) A bailee, a public servant as defined by W.S. 6–5–101(a)(vi) or any person entrusted with the control, care or custody of any money or other property who, with intent to steal or to deprive the owner of the property, converts the property to his own or another's use is guilty of larceny.

(c) ... larceny is:

(i) A felony punishable by imprisonment for not more than ten (10) years, a fine of not more than ten thousand dollars ($10,000.00), or both, if the value of the property is one thousand dollars ($1,000.00) or more; ... ³

[¶ 12] The material elements of larceny by a bailee are that the defendant has custody or possession of the property with consent and, while in possession, the defendant converts the property to his own or another's use. Powell v. State, 2012 WY 106, ¶ 8, 282 P.3d 163, 165 (Wyo.2012). Unlike other crimes involving theft, larceny by bailee does not require a trespassory taking; instead, it requires unlawful conversion of property by a person having rightful possession of it. Id., ¶ 10, 282 P.3d at 166.

[¶ 13] It was undisputed that Ms. Mraz was...