State v. Brown

• Decision Date: 04 March 1977
• Docket Number: No. 11719,11719
• Citation: 560 P.2d 880,98 Idaho 209
• Parties: The STATE of Idaho, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Dennis L. BROWN, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: Idaho Supreme Court

Page 880

560 P.2d 880

98 Idaho 209

The STATE of Idaho, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Dennis L. BROWN, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 11719.

Supreme Court of Idaho.

March 4, 1977.

Darrel W. Aherin and Stephen C. Rice, Lewiston, for defendant-appellant.

Wayne L. Kidwell, Atty. Gen., P. Mark Thompson, Asst. Atty. Gen., Boise, for plaintiff-respondent.

BAKES, Justice.

The defendant appellant Dennis L. Brown was charged with the crime of grand larceny. He was accused of stealing approximately 800 feet of 5/8 inch cable and approximately 2,000 feet of 1/2 inch cable from a logjammer owned by one of his former employers. The principal prosecution witnesses at trial were Monte N. and Margaret Thompson, who testified that they had been his accomplices in the theft. The Thompsons claimed that they had been in Brown's company during the late evening hours of November 29, 1973, and the early morning hours of November 30, 1973, during which time they drove from Superior, Montana, to a logging area in Clearwater County, Idaho, where the logjammer was parked, took the cable from the logjammer, and returned to Superior.

Brown denied that he had been with the Thompsons during those hours and denied taking the cable. He called one witness, Larry Severson, who testified that he had been with Brown until approximately 10:00 or 11:00 p. m. on the night of the 29th, and that he had seen Brown at breakfast the following morning. Brown testified that after leaving Severson's company he had spent the next several hours with his friend Sharon Bird, not with the Thompsons. Bird, who was living outside of the state in Superior, Montana, at the time of trial, was not present to testify. ¹ Accordingly, Brown had no alibi witness at trial to testify that Brown had been in Sharon Bird's company during substantially all of the hours that the Thompsons had testified Brown was with them.

During trial Brown's trial counsel learned that a deputy from the Clearwater County Sheriff's office had traveled to Superior, Montana, and taken a statement from Sharon Bird. At that time Brown's trial attorney asked to see the statement, but the prosecutor resisted the subsequent motion to produce it on the ground that he 'ha(d) nothing to show or tend to show nothing in my possession, or that has come to my attention that has tended to show the innocence of this man, or to exculpate him from the offense with which he is charged.' (Clk.Tr., Vol. 1, p. 109). The court then denied the defendant's motion on the ground that 'if you (the prosecutor) don't have any such evidence, then obviously there is no point in ordering you to produce it . . ..' Id. The trial continued without the defense obtaining Sharon Bird's statement.

The jury returned a verdict finding Brown guilty of grand larceny. After receiving the verdict, the court ordered a presentence investigation and scheduled a sentencing hearing sixteen days later. At the sentencing hearing Brown informed the court that he no longer wished to be represented by the court appointed counsel who had been his trial attorney, but instead wished to be represented by another counsel. However, Brown had not been able to complete arrangements for a new counsel. The district court, who informed Brown that he intended to sentence him that day even if he was not represented by an attorney, then asked Brown whether he had any objection to the court allowing appointed counsel, who was present in the courtroom, to withdraw. Brown did not. The sentencing hearing then continued. Although court appointed counsel apparently remained present in the courtroom, he did not take part in the sentencing hearing because he had been allowed to withdraw at Brown's request.

At the close of the hearing the court sentenced Brown to an indeterminate term not to exceed five years. Brown has appealed. He argues upon appeal that he was denied his constitutional right to counsel when he was sentenced without being represented by counsel at the sentencing hearing and was denied his constitutional due process right to a fair trial when he was unable to examine the statement of Sharon Bird. We vacate the sentence and remand this matter to the district court to: (1) examine the statement of Sharon Bird and conduct a hearing concerning whether Brown's case was prejudiced when Bird's statement was not made available when requested at trial; and (2) conduct a new sentencing hearing at which Brown will be represented by counsel. We take these actions for the following reasons. First, regarding the right to counsel issue, Art. 1, § 13, of the Idaho Constitution provides that, 'In all criminal prosecutions, the party accused shall have the right . . . to appear and defend in person and with counsel.' Criminal defendants in the state courts also enjoy a similar right under the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States interpreting the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the federal Constitution. Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335, 83 S.Ct. 792, 9 L.Ed.2d 799 (1963); Mempa v. Rhay, 389 U.S. 128, 88 S.Ct. 254, 19 L.Ed.2d 336 (1967). By sentencing the defendant when he was not represented by counsel, the district court violated his right to counsel.

The state argues, however, that the defendant knowingly waived his right to counsel at the sentencing hearing. We disagree. The transcript of the sentencing hearing clearly shows that the district court informed the defendant that he would be sentenced that day even though his attempt to obtain new counsel had not resulted in anyone being present that day to represent him. The defendant's acquiescence under these circumstances was not a voluntary waiver of the right to counsel. Johnson v. Zerbst, 304 U.S. 458, 58 S.Ct. 1019, 82 L.Ed. 1461 (1938). We agree with the state that a defendant may not indefinitely postpone trial or sentencing by continually changing counsel or arriving for hearings unrepresented by counsel. United States v. Casey, 480 F.2d 151 (5th Cir. 1973); United States ex rel. Davis v. McMann, 386 F.2d 611 (2d Cir. 1967), cert. denied, 390 U.S. 958, 88 S.Ct. 1049, 19 L.Ed.2d 1153 (1968). However, in the absence of a knowing, intelligent and voluntary waiver of the right to counsel, the district court may not proceed with the sentencing hearing when the defendant is not represented by counsel without some evidence or finding that the defendant has discharged his counsel in order to delay or hinder the judicial process. The record here does not support such a conclusion. The record does disclose that before trial Brown had been displeased with his court appointed counsel but had been unable to retain other counsel. After trial he had asked to have his appointed counsel discharged and to retain other counsel. Under these circumstances he should have been granted a reasonable continuance to allow for new counsel to be retained and to be present at the sentencing hearing. The trial court could not proceed to sentence the defendant who was not represented without a showing of a voluntary waiver. Accordingly, the sentence is vacated and the matter remanded for a sentencing hearing at which Brown will be represented by counsel.

Brown's other assignment of error deals with the question of the potential prejudicial effect of denying him access to Sharon Bird's statement. The state argues that because Sharon Bird's statement was not covered by Brown's pretrial discovery requests, the state had no obligation to disclose it. This is not necessarily the case. Even when the defense has made no specific request for discovery, the prosecutor has a constitutional duty to disclose evidence that would create a reasonable doubt of guilt that did not otherwise exist. United States v. Agurs, 427 U.S. 97, 96 S.Ct. 2392, 2401, 49 L.Ed.2d 342 (1976); Brady v. State of Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963). 'The suppression of . . . exculpatory evidence by a prosecutor (is) a denial of due process.' State v. Harwood, 94 Idaho 615, 617, 495 P.2d 160, 162 (1972). But this was not a case where there was no request to see Bird's statement. During trial defense counsel clearly asked to see the statement when he first learned of its existence. In this circumstance, a stricter rule applies; as the Supreme Court of the United States said in Agurs:

'Although there is, of course, no duty to provide defense counsel with unlimited discovery of everything known by the prosecutor, if the subject matter of such a request is material, or indeed if a substantial basis for claiming materiality exists, it is reasonable to require the prosecutor to respond either by furnishing the information or by submitting the problem to the trial judge. When the prosecutor receives a specific and relevant request, the failure to make any response is seldom, if ever, excusable.' 427 U.S. at 106, 96 S.Ct. at 2399.

In this case, brown testified that he had been in Bird's company during the time that he was accused of stealing the cable. She was the only person whom Brown could call who could be an alibi witness consistent with Brown's own testimony. Brown certainly had a substantial basis for claiming materiality of her statement, both for its content and for a current address of the witness Bird so that she could be subpoenaed to testify. Based upon Brady and Agurs, which established the constitutional standard which we must now follow, the court should have ordered the prosecutor to present the statement to the court for its examinationn and, in the absence of a compelling reason, ² to make the statement available to the defendant.

The dissenting opinion quotes extensively from United States v. Agurs, supra, in support of the conclusion that no disclosure was required. However, the portion quoted was taken from that portion of the opinion which sets...