State v. Brown
| Decision Date | 06 November 2014 |
| Docket Number | 34,531. |
| Citation | 2014 NMSC 038,338 P.3d 1276 |
| Court | New Mexico Supreme Court |
| Parties | STATE of New Mexico, Plaintiff–Appellee, v. Walter Ernest BROWN, Defendant–Appellant. |
Jody Neal–Post, Jorge A. Alvarado, Chief Public Defender, Jeff Rein, Assistant Public Defender, Albuquerque, NM, for Appellant.
Office of the District Attorney, Guinevere Ice, Albuquerque, NM, for Appellee.
{1} The Bill of Rights of the New Mexico Constitution guarantees that “[a]ll persons ... before conviction” are entitled to be released from custody pending trial without being required to post excessive bail, subject to limited exceptions in which release may be denied in certain capital cases and for narrow categories of repeat offenders. N.M. Const. art. II, § 13. Our rules of criminal procedure provide the mechanisms through which we honor this constitutional right to pretrial release. The rules require that a defendant be released from custody on the least restrictive conditions necessary to reasonably assure both the defendant's appearance in court and the safety of the community. See Rule 5–401 NMRA. In this case, Defendant Walter Brown presented the district court with uncontroverted evidence demonstrating that nonmonetary conditions of pretrial release were sufficient to reasonably assure that Defendant was not likely to pose a flight or safety risk. Despite this evidence, the district court ordered that Defendant be held in jail unless he posted a $250,000 cash or surety bond, based solely on the nature and seriousness of the charged offense. We conclude that the district court erred by requiring a $250,000 bond when the evidence demonstrated that less restrictive conditions of pretrial release would be sufficient. We therefore entered an order reversing the district court's pretrial release order and instructing the district court to release Defendant on appropriate nonmonetary conditions. We now issue this precedential opinion to explain the basis for our decision, to clarify the purposes and controlling legal principles for setting bail, and to provide guidance for future pretrial release decisions.
{2} Defendant Walter Brown was arrested on May 26, 2011, and indicted two weeks later on an array of charges, including first-degree felony murder and, alternatively, second-degree murder. The district court imposed a $250,000 cash or surety bond at Defendant's 2011 arraignment. After spending more than two years in pretrial custody awaiting trial because he lacked the financial resources to post such a high bond, Defendant moved the district court to review his conditions of release and to release him under the supervision of the Second Judicial District Court's pretrial services program with appropriate nonmonetary conditions of release. Defendant agreed to accept conditions of release that included monitoring by a GPS device, living with his father, making regular contact with the pretrial services program, and maintaining employment at a local restaurant that had agreed to hire him.
{3} In support of his motion, Defendant provided the district court with extensive information about his personal history and characteristics. Defendant's nineteenth birthday occurred two months before his arrest in this case. An only child who has always lived with one or both of his parents, he cannot live independently due to developmental and intellectual disabilities. He attended special education classes throughout his school years in Albuquerque and has a second-grade comprehension level for math, writing, and reading. Defendant dropped out of high school during his senior year and subsequently worked at several local restaurants. In spite of his disabilities, while in pretrial detention he successfully completed a variety of educational and counseling programs and obtained a high school diploma.
{4} At a hearing on his motion for release on nonmonetary conditions, Defendant presented testimony from Dr. James Harrington, a psychologist with the district court's pretrial services program who had interviewed and evaluated Defendant to determine whether he would be an appropriate candidate for supervised pretrial release. Dr. Harrington characterized Defendant as compliant, cooperative, and honest during the interview. Dr. Harrington concluded that Defendant exhibits none of the factors typically correlated with dangerousness or a risk of flight, such as prior criminal history or a history of mental illness or substance abuse. Dr. Harrington also verified that Defendant has the capacity to understand and comply with the proposed conditions of supervised release. Based on his evaluation, Dr. Harrington opined that Defendant was an appropriate candidate for release under the supervision of the pretrial services program with GPS monitoring.
{5} The State declined to cross-examine Dr. Harrington or to present any evidence of its own. Instead, the State simply argued that the $250,000 bond should remain in place due to the serious nature of the criminal charges against Defendant. In support of its argument, the State proffered an undisputed account of the factual circumstances underlying the charges. On the day of the alleged homicide while she was highly intoxicated, Defendant's acquaintance Rebecca Duran got into an altercation with several people at a house. Before leaving the house, Duran threatened to come back and “get even” with the people there. After leaving, Duran sought out Defendant and an acquaintance named Eugene Helfer and asked them to accompany her back to the house, where neither Duran nor Helfer nor Defendant lived, to retrieve Duran's personal belongings. Neither Defendant nor Helfer had been present during the earlier altercation.
{6} When Duran returned to the house with Defendant and Helfer, they knocked on the front door; when there was no answer, they went around to the back of the house and entered by opening a sliding glass door. Once inside, Duran attacked several people and hit the victim in the head with a wrench. As explained by the State, Duran was “the one mostly arguing” and “starting stuff.” At some point the victim pushed Helfer, who is Defendant's friend. Defendant reacted by stabbing the victim once with a folding pocket knife, fatally piercing the victim's heart.
{7} After hearing from Defendant and the State, the district court orally denied Defendant's motion for release on nonmonetary conditions on the ground that Defendant's charge of first-degree felony murder carried a possible life sentence that would require at least thirty years of imprisonment. The district court subsequently filed a written order setting forth detailed factual findings. Based on the evidence presented at the motion hearing, the district court found that the pretrial services program could fashion appropriate conditions of release for Defendant and that Defendant could live with his father and return to his former job if released. The district court also found that Defendant's IQ is 70, that Defendant has longstanding ties in the community, and that Defendant has the support of both of his parents. The district court's findings included Dr. Harrington's conclusions that Defendant has no alcohol or substance abuse issues and no pending criminal proceedings or history of violence outside the allegations in this case. The district court found that Defendant had “been entirely compliant for the entirety of his pretrial incarceration of over 2 years and 4 months” and had “appeared timely and without incident at all scheduled hearings in this case.” The district court called its findings “uncontroverted.” And the district court explicitly found that the State had presented no information indicating that Defendant would commit new crimes, pose a danger to anyone, or fail to appear in court if released from custody. Despite these findings, the district court kept Defendant's $250,000 bond in place due to “the nature and seriousness of the alleged offense.”
{8} After several more months of pretrial confinement, Defendant filed a second motion, again seeking release under the supervision of the pretrial services program with appropriate nonmonetary release conditions. At a hearing on the second motion, defense counsel reiterated the information presented at the first hearing five months earlier and argued that Defendant's unique personal history made him likely to comply with conditions of release and unlikely to commit additional crimes while released. Dr. Harrington testified again that he deemed Defendant to be a good candidate for nonmonetary pretrial release. Defendant also presented the testimony of Patrick Wojtowicz, the pretrial services officer likely to supervise Defendant if released. Mr. Wojtowicz verified that Defendant could live with his father and return to work if released. Mr. Wojtowicz confirmed that Defendant would be capable of using public transportation to get to the pretrial services office for appointments. And Mr. Wojtowicz agreed with Dr. Harrington that pretrial release with GPS monitoring and supervision by the pretrial services program would be a good fit for Defendant. Without specifically controverting the evidence presented at the hearing, the State argued against any change to Defendant's conditions of release on the theory that the seriousness of the charges alone justified the requirement of a $250,000 bond for release pending trial.
{9} After hearing from the parties, the district court judge admitted that he was “absolutely impressed” with Defendant's presentation but “hesitant to act upon it.” The district court orally denied Defendant's second motion to amend the conditions of pretrial release. Defense counsel asked the district court judge to clarify the reasons for his decision. The judge explained that the nature of the allegations and the potential sentence led the judge to believe that releasing Defendant “may present a danger of either flight or to other...
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