State v. Cruz
| Decision Date | 22 July 2005 |
| Docket Number | No. 20020735.,20020735. |
| Parties | STATE of Utah, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. Travis Javier CRUZ, Defendant and Appellant. |
| Court | Utah Supreme Court |
Mark L. Shurtleff, Att'y Gen., Marian Decker, Asst. Att'y Gen., Katherine Bernards-Goodman, Salt Lake City, for plaintiff.
Kent R. Hart, Salt Lake City, for defendant.
¶ 1 Travis Javier Cruz ("Cruz") was convicted of operation of a clandestine drug laboratory and possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute. He asks us to reverse his convictions and to remand his case to the trial court for a new trial. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm.
¶ 2 On September 27, 2000, firefighters responded to reports of a possible house fire in one of South Jordan's residential neighborhoods. South Jordan police officers accompanied the firefighters to perform traffic control duties. Upon arriving at the house, the firefighters saw white smoke spilling out from the eaves and main door of the garage. After unsuccessfully trying to enter the garage through the main door, the firefighters broke down a side door and discovered that the garage itself was full of white smoke. The firefighters entered with breathing equipment in place and, as they made their way through the smoke, Cruz emerged, claiming that there was nothing wrong and that the firefighters could leave. Despite Cruz's assurances, the firefighters asked Cruz to open the main garage door.
¶ 3 Cruz complied. The resulting improvement in visibility allowed the firefighters to make a troubling discovery: two hot plates, plugged in and emitting the same type of smoke that had once filled the garage; a five-gallon bucket of acid; and a venting system made of kitty litter and white flex tubing. After removing their masks, the firefighters also noted a distinctive smell. From their observations, the firefighters suspected that they had stumbled upon a meth lab.
¶ 4 The firefighters shared their suspicions with the police officers who were present. In response to the firefighters' concerns, the officers interviewed Cruz, obtained his personal information, and used that information to determine whether Cruz had any outstanding warrants. The officers also obtained a search warrant for the house. The subsequent search of the house was, to say the least, fruitful, and the officers seized a massive amount of drug-related paraphernalia. They also seized a number of items connecting Cruz to the house.
¶ 5 Cruz denied owning the house, however, and another man present at the scene admitted living there. Some of the seized evidence was consistent with Cruz's denial. For example, police seized a motor vehicle certificate of title, which listed Cruz as the owner of the named vehicle and indicated an address for Cruz that was different from that of the searched premises.
¶ 6 The discovery of the meth lab and the subsequent seizure of the aforementioned property gave rise to two proceedings. First, the State brought a civil action against Cruz, seeking forfeiture of the seized property (the "civil forfeiture action"). In October 2000, Cruz filed a verified answer in the civil forfeiture action in which he admitted owning most of the seized property. Second, on April 10, 2001, the State issued an arrest warrant for Cruz and charged him with operation of a clandestine drug lab, a first degree felony, and possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, a second degree felony. Cruz pleaded not guilty, and the criminal case against him proceeded to trial.
¶ 7 On the first day of trial, after the jury had been selected and sworn in, the trial court distributed to the jurors a set of what it termed "preliminary" jury instructions. Those instructions were in hard copy form, and the jurors retained them throughout the trial. Before the first witness took the stand, the court read the first ten instructions to the jury. Those instructions addressed rules applicable to recesses; the roles of the judge, jury, and lawyers; the structure of the trial; the presumption of innocence; and general rules applicable to evidence. In particular, instruction five noted that "[t]he defendant is presumed to be innocent of the charge." The court concluded its recitation of instructions one through ten at approximately 12:20 p.m. on the first day of trial.
¶ 8 Later that day, Cruz's attorney stated that he had a "concern" that two jurors had discussed the case with one another. Apparently, it had been brought to the attention of Cruz's attorney that one juror had speculated to another juror as to why the first juror had been selected for the jury when members of her family had been arrested and imprisoned for drug-related offenses. Cruz's attorney advised the trial judge that his "only concern" regarding this interchange was that the jurors "were discussing the case somewhat, looking over the information they had been given, and discussing their personal views on the case," in violation of the trial court's instruction that the jurors refrain from discussing the case with each other.
¶ 9 The trial court responded by characterizing the jurors' comments as mere "speculati[on] about the reasons why they were not the targets of peremptory challenges" and "speculati[on] about certain evaluations that the lawyers may have made about them and about the way that they might approach this case." According to the trial court, that speculation suggested neither that the jurors were biased nor that they were improperly discussing the case.
¶ 10 When Cruz's attorney raised his "concern" about the jurors, the trial court had not yet read preliminary instructions eleven through eighteen to the jury. It did so at approximately 9:00 a.m. on the second day of trial. By that time, four witnesses had finished testifying and a fifth was in the process of doing so.
¶ 11 That second batch of preliminary instructions contained four instructions pertinent to this appeal. Instruction fifteen, entitled "Who Is Responsible to Convince the Jury," read:
The prosecution has the burden of proof. It is the one making the accusations in this case. The defendant is not required to prove innocence—you must start by assuming it. According to our law, the defendant is presumed to be innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. This is a humane provision of the law intended to guard against the danger of an innocent person being unjustly punished.
Instruction sixteen, entitled "How Convinced Must the Jury Be Before Deciding the Defendant Is Guilty," read:
Before you can give up your assumption the defendant is innocent, you must be convinced that the defendant's guilt has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Proof beyond a reasonable doubt is that degree of proof which satisfies the mind and convinces the understanding of reasonable persons who are bound to act conscientiously upon it.
Instruction seventeen, entitled "What Is a Reasonable Doubt," read:
A reasonable doubt is one based upon reason and common sense rather than speculation, supposition, emotion or sympathy. It is the kind of doubt that would make a reasonable person hesitate to act. It must be real and not merely imaginary. It is such as would be retained by reasonable men and women after a full and impartial consideration of all the evidence, and must arise from the evidence or lack of evidence in the case.
Finally, instruction eighteen, entitled "How to Evaluate Doubt," read:
If after such full and impartial consideration some possible doubt exists, you must determine whether such doubt is reasonable in light of all the evidence. Ask yourselves if the doubt is consistent with reason and common sense. The law does not require that the evidence dispel all possible or conceivable doubt, but rather that it dispel all reasonable doubt. That is what is meant by the phrase "proof beyond a reasonable doubt."
¶ 12 At about 11:00 a.m. on the third day of trial, after the parties had completed their presentation of the evidence, the court gave the jury the remaining twenty-five instructions. Those instructions dealt predominantly with procedures for jury deliberation and the substantive elements of the crimes with which Cruz was charged. The instructions enumerating the elements of Cruz's alleged offenses noted that the jury must find each element proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Cruz objected to neither the substance nor the timing of these instructions. Instead, he merely objected to the lack of a lesser included offense instruction.
¶ 13 After the court finished reading the remaining instructions, the attorneys for the parties delivered their closing arguments, and the jury left to deliberate. The jury returned with convictions on both of the counts with which Cruz was charged. Cruz appeals. We have jurisdiction pursuant to Utah Code section 78-2-2(3)(i) (2002).
¶ 14 Cruz identifies three reasons why he should receive a new trial. First, he argues that the trial court's reasonable doubt instructions were constitutionally infirm because they failed to conform to the standards articulated in State v. Robertson, 932 P.2d 1219 (Utah 1997), overruled on other grounds by State v. Weeks, 2002 UT 98, 61 P.3d 1000, and because the trial court failed to reread all of the jury instructions at the close of evidence. Second, Cruz argues that he properly raised an allegation of jury bias and that the trial court erred in failing to investigate that allegation. Third, Cruz argues that his attorney rendered ineffective assistance by counseling Cruz to falsely admit ownership of the seized property in the civil forfeiture action and, then, by not withdrawing as counsel during the criminal trial. Cruz contends that his attorney's withdrawal would have enabled his attorney to take the stand and testify as to the falsity of the admissions Cruz made in the civil forfeiture action...
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