State Of Haw.‘i v. Mattson
| Decision Date | 18 March 2010 |
| Docket Number | No. 29170.,29170. |
| Citation | 122 Hawai'i 312,226 P.3d 482 |
| Parties | STATE of Hawai‘i, Respondent/Plaintiff-Appellee,v.Joseph MATTSON, III, Petitioner/Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | Hawaii Supreme Court |
Susan L. Arnett (James S. Tabe, on the application), Deputy Public Defenders, for petitioner/defendant-appellant.
Anne K. Clarkin, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, for respondent/plaintiff-appellee.
On October 14, 2009, this court accepted a timely application for a writ of certiorari, filed on September 9, 2009, by petitioner/defendant-appellant Joseph Mattson, III, seeking review of the Intermediate Court of Appeals' (ICA) June 12, 2009 judgment on appeal, entered pursuant to its May 21, 2009, summary disposition order (SDO). Therein, the ICA affirmed the Circuit Court of the First Circuit's 1 April 22, 2008 judgment, convicting Mattson of and sentencing him for one count of terroristic threatening in the first degree, in violation of HRS §§ 707-715 (1993) 2 and 707-716(1)(e) (Supp.2008).3 Oral argument was held on December 3, 2009.
Briefly stated, Mattson was arrested and charged based on an incident that occurred between Mattson and his son, Joey Hayashi, on the night of October 13, 2007. During the three-day jury trial, the witnesses testified to conflicting versions of the events that occurred on the night in question, including Mattson, who testified on his own behalf. During its closing argument, respondent/plaintiff-appellant State of Hawai‘i (the prosecution) commented on the fact that Mattson had a chance to sit through all of the evidence presented at trial prior to testifying and argued that Mattson knew he had to “make his story gibe [sic]” with the evidence. Mattson was convicted and subsequently appealed, arguing inter alia, that the prosecution's comments during its closing argument violated his federal and state constitutional rights to be present at trial and to testify on his own behalf. The ICA held that the prosecutor's comments were not improper under the federal and state constitutions and affirmed Mattson's conviction.
On application, Mattson contends that the ICA erred in holding that the prosecutor's remarks were not improper under the Hawai‘i Constitution. Mattson maintains that such remarks constituted a direct and impermissible attack on his constitutional right to be present at trial and to testify on his own behalf guaranteed by the confrontation clause of the Hawai‘i Constitution. Mattson further contends that the ICA erred in concluding that the trial court did not commit plain error when it failed to instruct the jury that Mattson “had a constitutional right to be present throughout the trial and [that] the jury must not draw any unfavorable inference regarding Mattson's credibility simply on the basis of his presence at trial.” Based on the discussion below, we adopt the reasoning of the dissent in Portuondo v. Agard, 529 U.S. 61, 120 S.Ct. 1119, 146 L.Ed.2d 47 (2000), and hold that it would be improper, under article I, section 14 of the Hawai‘i Constitution for a prosecutor to make generic accusations during closing argument that a defendant has tailored his or her testimony based solely on the defendant's exercise of his or her constitutional right to be present at trial. Accordingly, we also hold that, inasmuch as the prosecutor's closing argument in the instant case did not constitute a “generic accusation” of tailoring based solely on Mattson's presence at trial, the prosecutor's comments were not improper under the Hawai‘i Constitution. Consequently, we affirm the ICA's judgment on appeal that, in turn, affirmed the trial court's judgment of conviction and sentence.
On October 24, 2007, Mattson was charged-via complaint-with one count of terroristic threatening in the first degree and one count of abuse of family or household members, in violation of HRS § 709-906(1) and (5) (Supp.2008), arising out of an incident that occurred between Mattson and his adult-son, Hayashi, on the night of October 13, 2007. A jury trial commenced on January 9, 2008 and lasted three days, until January 11, 2008. The following evidence was adduced at trial.
Hayashi testified that, around the time of the incident, he had been staying at Mattson's apartment in Wahiawa for about two weeks in order to do a short-term construction job in nearby Haleiwa. Hayashi indicated that, during that time, he was borrowing Mattson's cell phone because he had left his own cell phone at his house in Waianae.
Hayashi stated that, on October 13, 2007, he got off work, went back to Mattson's apartment, and consumed at least two vodka and soda cocktails. When Mattson came home, he and Hayashi watched television while Hayashi waited for his friend, “Josh,” to pick him up. Hayashi indicated that Mattson's roommate, Valerie Kumia, was also at the apartment and that, by 9:00 or 9:30 p.m., he, Mattson, and Kumia had all “had a drink or two.”
Hayashi explained that, at some point during the evening, Mattson's cell phone rang, but the caller hung up when Mattson answered. The caller identification (ID) on Mattson's cell phone indicated the call was from Hayashi's friend, Josh. Because Mattson apparently heard the sound of a female talking when he answered the phone, Mattson assumed that Josh had a girl with him. At that point, Mattson started yelling and swearing at Hayashi, saying “vulgar” things about his friend, apparently because he believed Josh had hung up on him. Hayashi suspected that it was his girlfriend who had called and that Josh's number appeared because they had called at the same time. Hayashi then grabbed the phone from Mattson and tried to call Josh to determine whether he had called and hung up, but Mattson took the phone away from Hayashi. Hayashi tried to take the phone back when a “scuffle” ensured. Hayashi put Mattson in a headlock. Mattson then screamed for Kumia to come and help him. Kumia came into the room, yelled at Hayashi to let go of Mattson, and Hayashi complied.
According to Hayashi, Mattson then got up, ran to a table behind Hayashi, and grabbed a knife. Mattson opened the knife, came toward Hayashi, and “started slashing it” at him. As Hayashi started backing away from Mattson, he tripped and fell over something on the floor. Mattson swung the knife at Hayashi and missed, stabbing some cardboard behind Hayashi. Mattson continued to swing the knife in front of him and toward Hayashi's legs, coming within a few inches of Hayashi's body. Hayashi testified that, while Mattson was wielding the knife, he swore and said things like, “You tried to kill me, and I'm going to kill you now.” Hayashi tried to defend himself and told Mattson to drop the knife and “fight him like a man.” At one point, Hayashi grabbed Mattson's arm that was holding the knife, and Mattson punched Hayashi in the face with his free hand.
At that point, Mattson's cell phone rang again, and the caller ID indicated that it was Hayashi's girlfriend. Mattson threw the phone at Hayashi, who answered it, but Mattson continued to stand over him, swearing and saying threatening things about Josh. Just then, the headlights of a vehicle appeared through the window. Mattson stepped away from Hayashi and walked toward the door. Hayashi got up and tried to stop him, believing it was Josh who was outside, but Mattson swung the knife at him again, so Hayashi backed off. Mattson then walked outside. Hayashi looked out the window, noticed that it was not Josh's car, and closed and locked the front door while Mattson was still outside.
Hayashi then ran to Kumia and told her to call the police and lock the back door. Hayashi went into Kumia's room and saw Mattson reaching through an open window with the knife in his hand. According to Hayashi, Mattson had cut the window screen and was attempting to pull out the louvers of the jalousie windows so he could get into the apartment. Kumia came into the room and tried to close the window, but Mattson slashed the knife at her. Hayashi tried to help Kumia, but Mattson continued to slash the knife at both of them.
Hayashi went to the living room and grabbed a gun that he knew was not loaded. He testified that he did not load the gun because he was only trying to scare Mattson and did not intend to hurt or injure him. He also picked up a hatchet before going back to Kumia's room. Once near the open window, Hayashi pointed the gun at Mattson and told him to get away from the window, but Mattson just laughed at Hayashi, telling him he was going to get arrested for using a gun. Hayashi put the gun down and walked to the window to help Kumia close it, but Mattson continued to swing his knife at them. Hayashi then took the hatchet and started hitting Mattson's hand with the back of the hatchet. After being hit by the hatchet, Mattson pounded on the window, demanding to be let in. Hayashi ran to the living room, and, at that point, the police arrived and placed Mattson under arrest.
On cross-examination, Hayashi admitted that he spoke to Honolulu Police Department (HPD) officers Ashley Gormley and Theodore Merrill, but did not tell them that he had brandished a gun. Hayashi additionally testified that, in a telephone interview with HPD Detective Thomas Smith, he told Detective Smith about the argument with Mattson, the knife, and Mattson's threatening remarks, but did not mention his use of the gun. Hayashi admitted that he did not mention that a gun was involved until he received a second phone call from Detective Smith, specifically asking him if he had pointed a gun at Mattson. Hayashi also admitted on cross-examination that, on the night in question, he was involved in a heated argument with Mattson about the cell phone and that he had used “vulgar” and “hurtful” words toward Mattson. Further,...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
State v. Weatherspoon
...law. See, e.g., Martinez v. People , 244 P.3d 135, 140–42 (Colo. 2010) (generic tailoring arguments are improper); State v. Mattson , 122 Haw. 312, 327–28, 226 P.3d 482 (2010) (generic tailoring arguments in closing argument are improper under state constitution); Commonwealth v. Gaudette ,......
-
State v. Graham
...of tailoring, it was specific tailoring argument (emphasis omitted; internal quotation marks omitted)); see also State v. Mattson , 122 Hawai'i. 312, 327, 226 P.3d 482 (2010) (because prosecutor referred to specific evidence presented at trial, in addition to referring to defendant's presen......
-
State v. Tetu
...by law or for the promotion of justice in matters pending before them.HRS § 603–21.9(1), (6) (1993).33 See alsoState v. Mattson, 122 Hawai'i 312, 342 n.6, 226 P.3d 482, 512 n.6 (2010) (noting that this court could invoke its inherent supervisory authority to prohibit a broad category of imp......
-
State v. Acker
...standard and, thus, exercises its own independent constitutional judgment based on the facts of the case." State v. Mattson, 122 Hawai‘i 312, 321, 226 P.3d 482, 491 (2010) (citation, brackets, and internal quotation marks omitted). B. Evidentiary Rulings The appellate court applies "two dif......