Putnam v. State
| Decision Date | 16 October 2020 |
| Docket Number | S-20-0027 |
| Citation | 474 P.3d 613 |
| Parties | Ty PUTNAM, Appellant (Defendant), v. The STATE of Wyoming, Appellee (Plaintiff). |
| Court | Wyoming Supreme Court |
Representing Appellant: Office of the State Public Defender: Diane Lozano, State Public Defender; Kirk A. Morgan, Chief Appellate Counsel; David E. Westling, Senior Assistant Appellate Counsel.
Representing Appellee: Bridget Hill, Wyoming Attorney General; Jenny L. Craig, Deputy Attorney General; Joshua C. Eames, Senior Assistant Attorney General; Catherine M. Mercer, Assistant Attorney General.
Before DAVIS, C.J., and FOX, KAUTZ, BOOMGAARDEN, and GRAY, JJ.
[¶1] A jury found Ty Putnam guilty of two counts of aggravated felony child abuse for injuries he inflicted on a minor child, PS, on November 2 and November 3, 2018. On appeal, Mr. Putnam claims that the district court erred in admitting evidence related to an incident on September 10, 2018, in which Mr. Putnam admitted to law enforcement officers that he threw a bottle at PS and bruised her head. Mr. Putnam argues that because this evidence related to a charge dismissed at the preliminary hearing, it was improper to admit it under Wyoming Rule of Evidence 404(b). We affirm.
[¶2] Mr. Putnam presents one issue on appeal, which he states as follows:
Did the trial court abuse its discretion when it allowed W.R.E. 404(b) evidence from misconduct that was originally charged but dismissed by the circuit court?
[¶3] In August 2018, Mr. Putnam began living with Morgan Stubblefield and her then four-month old daughter (hereinafter referred to as "PS"). Shortly thereafter, PS suffered several injuries, and by November 3, 2018, she was brought to the emergency room at Star Valley Health in Afton not breathing, and with no vital signs. Dr. Noel Stibor, a full-time emergency room physician at Star Valley Health, described PS's condition at the time as "[p]robably moments from death."
[¶4] Examination of PS revealed that there was recent trauma to her brain, which resulted in respiratory arrest. There was also old trauma to the brain, which the radiologist described as subacute, suggesting a finding of child abuse or non-accidental trauma. Due to bleeding on the brain, which would have caused death within minutes to days if it continued, PS was life-flighted to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah.
[¶5] Dr. Larissa Hines, a child abuse specialist, was called in to evaluate PS at Primary Children's. She found bruising on PS's left and right side of her neck, left forehead, the bottom of her left foot, left forearm, inside of her left ear, and scratches or abrasions on the top left side of her head. Dr. Hines also found two separate impacts to the skull, which caused a skull fracture on the right side, and also caused a subdural hematoma and pooling of blood, as well as a subdural hematoma on the left side of PS's forehead area. She also found bleeding on the brain, retinal hemorrhaging, severed veins connecting the brain and skull, and a healing fractured collarbone.
[¶6] Dr. Hines diagnosed PS with abusive head trauma, inflicted trauma or child abuse, which is non-accidental abuse of a child. Dr. Robert Hoffman, Chief of Pediatric Ophthalmology at Primary Children's Hospital, opined that if PS's injuries were accidental, then she "would have had to have been an unrestrained passenger in a 60 mile an hour, head-on, motor vehicle accident or a fall off a building two stories or higher on to concrete."
[¶7] Agent Roy Warren was employed by the Lincoln County Sheriff's Department, but he was assigned to the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation as a task force officer. On November 4, 2018, he was called to Primary Children's Hospital because of the suspicious nature of PS's injuries. Upon arrival at the hospital, Agent Warren met with hospital personnel and interviewed Ms. Stubblefield and Mr. Putnam separately. Agent Warren also seized Mr. Putnam's and Ms. Stubblefield's cellphones as authorized by a search warrant.
[¶8] At the hospital, Mr. Putnam and Ms. Stubblefield were unable to identify any accidents or other causes for PS's injuries. Mr. Putnam explained that "he had no idea" how any of PS's injuries occurred. He said he was not aware of any accidents, falls or drops that could have caused any of her injuries. Mr. Putnam instead began to hypothesize what might have happened to cause PS's skull fracture, and "said that she had to either have been hit or slammed to the floor," but could not offer any explanation as to who might have done that. He did admit that he had caused two injuries to PS, one at the end of October by accidentally bumping PS's head trying to get her out of the car, and one in September when he tore PS's tongue flap as he tried to give her a pacifier.
[¶9] On November 9, 2018, Agent Warren consulted with Detective Travis Lanning with the Sublette County Sheriff's Office about the investigation. He asked Detective Lanning to perform an extraction of the content of the cellphones seized from Mr. Putnam and Ms. Stubblefield. Detective Lanning found two images saved in separate places on Mr. Putnam's phone. The two images were the same photograph, each depicting Ms. Stubblefield holding PS, who was wrapped in a blanket with visible bruising on her head. However, one image was modified to add writing to it. It was taken by Ms. Stubblefield and found in a text message thread that was sent from Ms. Stubblefield's phone to Mr. Putnam's phone on September 10, 2018 at 6:29 p.m. The second image was found in an application, identified by law enforcement as the secret calculator application, in a folder on Mr. Putnam's phone. It was a reproduction or screen shot of the first image, but with writing stating, "aftermath of a beat down."
[¶10] The first image was saved on Mr. Putnam's phone at 6:29 p.m., and the second image or screen shot was saved on Mr. Putnam's phone two minutes later at 6:31 p.m. The screen shot was created while Mr. Putnam's phone was connected to a phone call with Ms. Stubblefield's cellphone. Mr. Putnam's phone at the time of the call and when the image was saved appeared to have been located where he worked out of town for a tow company, based on cellular tower data.
[¶11] After obtaining the images and executing the search warrant for the cellphone tower data associated with Mr. Putnam's phone, Agent Warren interviewed Mr. Putnam for a second time on January 15, 2019. During this interview, Mr. Putnam was told that he was not under arrest and that he was free to leave at any time, but he was also advised of his rights. Initially, Mr. Putnam repeated that he did not know how PS was injured or of any accidents or falls that could have caused injury. He also stated initially that he had never dropped PS and that she had never fallen while he was around.
[¶12] As the interview progressed, Mr. Putnam continued to deny that he had any knowledge of how PS suffered her injuries until he was shown the second (modified) photograph.
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