Pendleton v. State
| Decision Date | 31 March 1987 |
| Docket Number | No. 16771,16771 |
| Citation | 734 P.2d 693,103 Nev. 95 |
| Parties | Daniel Thomas PENDLETON, Appellant, v. The STATE of Nevada, Respondent. |
| Court | Nevada Supreme Court |
Martin H. Wiener, Reno, for appellant.
Brian McKay, Atty. Gen., Carson City, Mills Lane, Dist. Atty., Robert E. Wieland, Timothy G. Randolph, Deputys, Reno, for respondent.
This is an appeal from the judgment of conviction of one count of felony driving while under the influence, NRS 484.3795. 1 The appellant was convicted of driving while having a prohibited blood alcohol content and breaching a duty imposed by law, proximately causing substantial bodily harm to one Valerie Osborne. He was sentenced to one year in the Nevada State Prison. This appeal followed.
Pendleton alleges three errors on appeal. Each will be discussed in turn. Because we agree that the facts show sufficient juror misconduct to warrant a new trial, we reverse and remand for a new trial.
Pendleton was driving his employer's somewhat decrepit pickup truck along a dirt road in the hills of Sun Valley, Washoe County. He was in search of a place to dump a load of refuse. He passed a motorcycle and continued to the top of the hill. There he turned and headed back down the hill, driving in the center of the road. As he approached the motorcycle, the truck veered to the left and grazed the motorcyclist. The motorcycle slid along the side of the truck as the truck went up an embankment at the side of the road. The motorcyclist, Valerie Osborne, lost control and slid under the truck. The truck then rolled back down the embankment and over Mrs. Osborne, injuring her severely.
Pendleton stopped and helped Mrs. Osborne into the cab of the truck. As she sat there, her husband, Mike Osborne, arrived with another man. A fight ensued wherein Pendleton was severely beaten by Mr. Osborne. The beating stopped when a passerby fired a shotgun into the air.
Police and ambulance crews arrived near the end of the fight. Pendleton and the Osbornes were transported to a hospital. At the hospital, Pendleton was questioned by officer Straits. After observing signs of intoxication, officer Straits determined to arrest Pendleton but did not act on his decision or inform Pendleton of the decision because he was waiting to see if Mrs. Osborne was sufficiently injured to warrant felony charges.
Officer Blakeslee was dispatched to the hospital to investigate the battery upon Pendleton. Blakeslee asked Pendleton to describe the incident. During the conversation, describing the circumstances leading up to the battery, Pendleton admitted having some alcohol to drink prior to the accident. This statement later became the subject of a suppression motion.
At trial, Pendleton's theory of defense was that it was not his driving behavior that was the cause of the injury to Mrs Osborne. Instead, according to the defense theory, even had he been driving slower and to the right of the center, the rough road and poor condition of the truck would have resulted in the accident.
During the trial, some seventeen months after the accident, and when the road conditions were different from the conditions of the day of the accident, one of the jurors visited the scene with another person. As a result of her investigation, she determined that Pendleton's theory of causation was unbelievable. She related the results of her investigation to the other jurors.
The parties concede that the incident took place on land owned by the United States Bureau of Land Management. Pendleton argues that the courts of this state have no jurisdiction to try such a case. We disagree. The district court has jurisdiction over crimes committed in the county except for crimes committed where the United States has exclusive jurisdiction. NRS 171.010. We find no evidence in the record to support the conclusion that the United States has exclusive jurisdiction over the land in question.
A review of the Nevada Admission Acts reveals no retention of jurisdiction by the United States over the land in question. Therefore, the only way in which the United States could attain exclusive jurisdiction involves an affirmative cession of jurisdiction by the State of Nevada and an affirmative acceptance of jurisdiction by the United States. Fort Leavenworth R.R. Co. v. Lowe, 114 U.S. 525, 5 S.Ct. 995, 29 L.Ed. 264 (1885). See also, United States v. Gliatta, 580 F.2d 156 (5th Cir.1978). Furthermore, in Nevada, no cession of jurisdiction is effective until it is recorded in the County Recorder's office. NRS 328.110.
Because there is no evidence that Nevada has ever ceded exclusive jurisdiction over the lands in question to the United States, Pendleton's argument must fail. The defendant has the burden of showing the applicability of negative exceptions in jurisdictional statutes. State v. Buckaroo Jack, 30 Nev. 325 (1908); State v. Mendez, 57 Nev. 192, 209, 61 P.2d 300, 305 (1936). Once the state produces evidence that the crime took place in the county, it is incumbent upon the defendant to prove that the incident took place on lands over which the United States has exclusive jurisdiction. Id. There being no such evidence in the record, we conclude that the courts of this state had jurisdiction to try Pendleton.
Pendleton next contends that the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress the statements made to officer Blakeslee. Specifically, he argues that the statements should have been suppressed because they were obtained as a result of custodial interrogation before he was advised of his right to remain silent. See Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966).
It is undisputed that Pendleton was not advised of his right to remain silent prior to speaking with Blakeslee. The question we are presented with, then, is whether the statements were the product of custodial interrogation. We agree with the district judge that the statements were not the product of custodial interrogation.
We note first that there is substantial evidence in the record of the hearing on the motion to support the conclusion of the district judge that the questioning did not amount...
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