State v. Doyle

• Decision Date: 28 December 2018
• Docket Number: No. 20170024-CA,20170024-CA
• Citation: 437 P.3d 1266
• Parties: STATE of Utah, Appellee, v. Travis Lee DOYLE, Appellant.
• Court: Utah Court of Appeals

437 P.3d 1266

STATE of Utah, Appellee,

v.Travis Lee DOYLE, Appellant.

No. 20170024-CA

Court of Appeals of Utah.

Filed December 28, 2018

Diana Pierson, Maren E. Larson, and Sarah J. Carlquist, Attorneys for Appellant

Sean D. Reyes and Kris C. Leonard, Salt Lake City, Attorneys for Appellee

Judge Jill M. Pohlman authored this Opinion, in which Judges Gregory K. Orme and Michele M. Christiansen Forster concurred.

Opinion

POHLMAN, Judge:

¶1 Travis Lee Doyle appeals his conviction for aggravated assault. He contends that there was insufficient evidence to disprove his claim of self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt. We affirm.

BACKGROUND¹

¶2 On Christmas Eve 2010, Victim went to a party with his girlfriend (Girlfriend). The party was hosted by Girlfriend's uncle (Uncle) and included about two dozen guests, mostly Girlfriend's family. Uncle also invited Doyle, who attended the party with two friends. Girlfriend knew Doyle growing up, but Victim had never met him.

¶3 While Doyle, Girlfriend, and Victim were together in Uncle's kitchen, Girlfriend introduced Victim and Doyle. Victim, who had been keeping to himself, looked up as Girlfriend introduced him as her "old man." Victim smiled and said, "Hello," and Doyle responded, "Are you looking at me funny?" or, "You looking at me crazy fool?" Victim shook his head and said, "No," looking down to avoid a confrontation. According to Girlfriend, all three of them looked away and she thought they "were all cool."

¶4 The next thing Victim remembered was waking up on the kitchen floor. He did not remember getting punched but felt pain "shooting through [his] eye and the left side of [his] face." At trial, Girlfriend recalled that Doyle "cold clocked" Victim after they had all looked away. The punch knocked Victim "out cold," and Girlfriend testified that Doyle started hitting and kicking Victim while he lay unconscious on the floor. Girlfriend tried to stop the assault, but Doyle's two friends joined the attack and she was eventually pulled out of the kitchen by her cousin. In the fracas, Girlfriend was punched and had a tooth knocked out, but she did not know who hit her. Girlfriend later testified that the beating of Victim lasted for, what seemed to her, two to three minutes.

¶5 The other partygoers heard the commotion coming from the kitchen, and Girlfriend's family rushed to the scene and helped Victim. As people moved out of the kitchen, Uncle confronted Doyle to figure out what happened. Doyle was "hyped up" and "[r]eally aggressive" and told Uncle that Victim had disrespected him and "was giving him dirty looks" when the two were introduced. Doyle did not claim that Victim had acted aggressively toward him or that Doyle was defending himself.

¶6 Girlfriend's cousin also confronted Doyle, asking him if he hit Girlfriend. Doyle made "some cocky ass response" like, "You know I did." Sensing additional impending trouble, another partygoer (J.G.) stepped between them to prevent another fight. But when J.G. turned his back to Doyle, Doyle punched him in the back of the head. Another fight started, and Doyle's two friends again joined the fray. Someone called the police, and Doyle and one of his friends left, leaving the other friend behind.

¶7 Doyle was not gone for long. J.G. went outside to escape the "craziness" with his girlfriend, who was eight months pregnant. As she and J.G. were talking, Doyle and his friend approached them and started "talking crazy." J.G. and the pair again exchanged blows, and the friend took a swing at the girlfriend's stomach. J.G. was able to block the swing but was knocked down. Doyle yelled, "I'm going to try to catch a murder charge," and then he jumped in the car with his friend and left. The police arrived less than one minute later.

¶8 Victim later returned home, deciding not to go to the hospital that night because it was Christmas Eve. The next morning, he woke up and had Christmas with his kids but was in "an extreme amount of pain." Girlfriend took him to the emergency room, where he was referred to a plastic surgeon (Doctor). Doctor found that Victim had suffered numerous bone fractures around his left eye, but delayed surgery for more than two weeks due to swelling. When Doctor was able to perform the surgery, it took eleven hours to repair the damage to Victim's face and position three permanent titanium plates and one biodegradable plate. Doctor later testified at trial that, although it was possible Victim's injuries were caused by a single punch, it would have required a "significant amount of force." Based on his experience, Doctor was ultimately unsure how many times Victim was hit.

¶9 Due to his injuries, Victim did not return to work for nearly two months, lived off a liquid diet for two weeks, and was unable to communicate without pain and discomfort. To this day, Victim suffers from migraines and vision loss, conditions he never had before the incident.

¶10 The State charged Doyle with aggravated assault resulting in serious bodily injury, a second degree felony, and included an in-concert enhancement.² At trial, Doyle argued self-defense, claiming that Victim threatened him with a beer bottle. Doyle testified that immediately after Girlfriend introduced them, Victim "turned around and grabbed a bottle off the counter" and raised it above his head in a threatening manner. To defend himself, Doyle hit Victim one time and then was "jumped" by Girlfriend's family. At the end of trial, Doyle moved for a directed verdict, arguing that the State did not meet its burden of disproving self-defense. The trial court denied the motion and found that there was a "disputed issue" as to self-defense that should go to the jury. The court instructed the jury on self-defense, explaining that the prosecution had the burden to "prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defense [did] not apply." After a two-day trial, the jury found Doyle guilty of aggravated assault but rejected the in-concert enhancement. Doyle appeals.

ISSUE AND STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶11 Doyle asks us to reverse his conviction for aggravated assault, contending that the trial court should have granted his motion for a directed verdict because there was insufficient evidence to disprove his claim of self-defense. "We review a trial court's ruling on a motion for directed verdict for correctness." State v. Gonzalez , 2015 UT 10, ¶ 21, 345 P.3d 1168.

When a party moves for a directed verdict based on a claim of insufficiency of the evidence, we will uphold the trial court's decision if, upon reviewing the evidence and all inferences that can be reasonably drawn from it, we conclude that some evidence exists from which a reasonable jury could find that the elements of the crime had been proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

State v. Hirschi , 2007 UT App 255, ¶ 15, 167 P.3d 503 (quotation simplified).

ANALYSIS

I. Preservation

¶12 Doyle's insufficiency challenge has two components: first, that the evidence supporting his conviction and disproving his self-defense claim was "inconclusive and speculative"; and second, that in evaluating the sufficiency of the evidence against Doyle, the trial court should have disregarded Girlfriend's testimony as "inherently improbable." The State counters that these issues were unpreserved. It acknowledges that Doyle moved for a directed verdict in the trial court but argues that he did not preserve his sufficiency challenges "because his blanket objections below ... were not specific to the claims he now raises."

¶13 To preserve an issue for appeal, a party must present it "to the trial court in such a way that the trial court has an opportunity to rule on that issue." State v. Gallegos , 2018 UT App 112, ¶ 14, 427 P.3d 578 (quoting 438 Main St. v. Easy Heat, Inc. , 2004 UT 72, ¶ 51, 99 P.3d 801 ). This means that a party must raise the issue "specifically" and "in a timely fashion," and support the argument with "evidence or relevant legal authority." Id. (quotation simplified). There is no dispute that Doyle's motion for a directed verdict was timely, but we must decide whether the issues were specifically raised and supported by relevant authority.

¶14 We conclude that Doyle's motion for a directed verdict preserved his inconclusive-and-speculative challenge but did not preserve his distinct claim that Girlfriend's testimony should have been disregarded in its entirety as inherently improbable.

A. Inconclusive and Speculative

¶15 On appeal, Doyle contends that the evidence relevant to his self-defense claim was "inconclusive and speculative," raising several arguments in support. See infra Part III. To support his claim that these arguments were preserved, Doyle relies principally on State v. Gonzalez , 2015 UT 10, 345 P.3d 1168, and State v. Gallegos , 2018 UT App 112, 427 P.3d 578. Under those cases, Doyle maintains that his arguments regarding the sufficiency of the evidence to disprove self-defense were clear from the context of the directed verdict motion. See Gonzalez , 2015 UT 10, ¶ 26, 345 P.3d 1168 ("When the specific ground for an objection is clear from its context, the issue is preserved for appeal."). And although he makes more developed arguments on appeal, he asserts that the arguments below "were not ‘so tangential that [they do] not mirror [the] specific arguments on appeal.’ " (Quoting Gallegos , 2018 UT App 112, ¶ 16, 427 P.3d 578.) The State, in response, relies primarily on State v. Bosquez , 2012 UT App 89, 275 P.3d 1032, and contends that Doyle's "general assertions" below failed to "assert the specific argument[s] raised on appeal." (Quoting Bosquez , 2012 UT App 89, ¶ 8, 275 P.3d 1032.)

¶16 Regarding Doyle's more generalized argument challenging the self-defense evidence as inconclusive and speculative, we agree that this case more closely resembles Gonzalez and Gallegos than Bosquez . As in Gallegos , Doyle's arguments on appeal merely present the self-defense argument from below "with more flesh on the bone." See 2018 UT App 112, ¶ 16, 427...