State v. Draper
Decision Date | 13 September 2011 |
Docket Number | No. 34667.,34667. |
Citation | 261 P.3d 853,151 Idaho 576 |
Court | Idaho Supreme Court |
Parties | STATE of Idaho, Plaintiff–Respondent, v. Brian L. DRAPER, Defendant–Appellant. |
Molly Huskey, State Appellate Public Defender, Boise, for appellant.
Hon. Lawrence G. Wasden, Attorney General, Boise, for respondent.John McKinney argued.
Cassie Jo Stoddart(Stoddart) was murdered during the night of September 22nd to 23rd, 2006.Brian Draper(Draper), who was sixteen years-old at the time of Stoddart's murder, and Torey Adamcik(Adamcik), who was also a juvenile, were arrested and charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder, tried as adults, and convicted during separate trials.Draper was sentenced to a term of fixed life imprisonment for the murder charge and a life sentence with thirty years fixed for the conspiracy charge.Draper now appeals, raising seven issues.He argues that a) the jury instructions for both murder and conspiracy relieved the State of proving all elements of the crimes and violated his right to due process of law; b) Draper's fourth police interview should have been suppressed as his parents were not present at the interview; c) the jury instructions and the district court's failure to suppress the interview, even if individually harmless, cumulatively constitute reversible error; d) the sentences should be vacated because the investigator's presentence report was biased; e) Draper's fixed life sentence for murder violated the Idaho and U.S. Constitutions' prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment; f) the district court's sentences constituted an abuse of discretion; and g) the district court's denial of Draper's motion under Idaho Criminal Rule 35 to modify his sentences constituted an abuse of discretion.We affirm.
Around August 31, 2006, eighteen-year-old Joe Lucero received a call from Torey Adamcik asking if he would buy some knives for him.Together Adamcik and Lucero went with Draper to a local pawn shop to buy the knives.On the way, they stopped at an ATM so that Draper could withdraw money and, of the $45 paid for the knives, Draper provided $40.Adamcik pointed out one knife and Draper selected three others.
Draper and Adamcik had also begun videotaping snippets of themselves talking about killing.This videotape was later recovered with other evidence used in the murder and, at trial, Draper's counsel argued that this tape was part of a horror movie that Draper and Adamcik were making.Portions of the transcript from the video include the following, from the night before Stoddart's murder:
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State v. Ish
...a plea for leniency, and this Court will then review a denial or grant of the motion for an abuse of discretion." State v Draper, 151 Idaho 576, 601, 261 P.3d 853, 878 (2011) (alteration in original) (citing State v. Farwell, 144 Idaho 732, 735, 170 P.3d 397, 400 (2007)). "When presenting a......