State v. Egelhoff, 93-405

• Citation: 900 P.2d 260,52 St.Rep. 548,272 Mont. 114
• Decision Date: 27 October 1994
• Docket Number: No. 93-405,93-405
• Parties: STATE of Montana, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. James Allen EGELHOFF, Defendant and Appellant. . Heard
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Montana

Page 260

900 P.2d 260

272 Mont. 114

STATE of Montana, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. James Allen EGELHOFF, Defendant and Appellant.

No. 93-405.

Supreme Court of Montana.

Heard Oct. 27, 1994.

Submitted Feb. 23, 1995.

Decided July 6, 1995.

Ann C. German, Amy Guth, Lincoln County Public Defender, Libby, for appellant.

Joseph P. Mazurek, Atty. Gen., Pamela P. Collins, Asst. Atty. Gen., Helena, Scott B. Spencer, Lincoln County Atty., Libby, for respondent.

WEBER, Justice.

James Allen Egelhoff (Egelhoff) appeals his conviction in the District Court of the Nineteenth Judicial District, Lincoln County, on two counts of deliberate homicide for the shooting deaths of his two companions following a day of drinking. Egelhoff was sentenced to forty years on each count and an additional two-year term for use of a weapon on each count, a total of eighty-four years, to run consecutively. The District Court also designated him as a dangerous offender for parole purposes. We reverse and remand.

The following issues are presented on appeal:

I. Was Egelhoff denied due process by a jury instruction that voluntary intoxication may not be taken into consideration in determining the existence of a mental state which is an element of the offense?

II. Did the District Court err in permitting a lay witness to give opinion testimony?

III. Are the jury verdicts finding Egelhoff guilty of two counts of deliberate homicide supported by substantial evidence?

IV. Did the District Court err in designating Egelhoff a dangerous offender for purposes of parole?

We conclude that Issue I is dispositive.

Egelhoff was convicted by a jury of two counts of deliberate homicide for the July 12, 1992 shooting deaths of Roberta Pavola (Pavola) and John Christianson (Christianson). At approximately midnight on July 12, 1992, their bodies were found in the front seat of the station wagon belonging to Christianson and Egelhoff was found in the rear cargo area, alive but intoxicated.

Egelhoff and a friend from Helena went to the Yaak area near Troy to pick mushrooms in early July 1992. Egelhoff had no transportation and no personal effects apart from some clothing and a .38 caliber handgun which he kept in a holster on his right hip.

Pavola and Christianson, also in the Yaak area to pick mushrooms, camped in an area near the place where they picked mushrooms. Egelhoff and his companion camped in the same area as Christianson and Pavola and became acquainted with them. Egelhoff's companion departed prior to the day Pavola and Christianson were killed.

Egelhoff, Pavola and Christianson sold their mushrooms on Sunday, July 12, 1992 and then bought beer and went to a party at a Troy apartment. They spent most of the day drinking at the party and in bars. The trio left the party sometime after 9:00 p.m. in Christianson's station wagon with Christianson driving, Pavola in the front passenger seat and Egelhoff in the rear.

Much of what occurred after they left the party that evening is unknown. Testimony at trial indicated that Egelhoff and Christianson were seen in an IGA grocery store at approximately 9:20 p.m. and that Christianson's station wagon was seen being driven in an erratic manner on Highway 2 west of Troy a while later. Christianson's vehicle was also observed going off the road into a ditch several times. Law enforcement officers later located five places in the area where a vehicle had gone off the highway.

Numerous witnesses testified about their observations during this period of time. Two of the witnesses who observed the Christianson vehicle reported a possible drunken driver to the Lincoln County Sheriff's department shortly before midnight. When the station wagon came to its final stop and the sheriff's officers arrived, it was situated in a ditch, Pavola and Christianson were dead and Egelhoff was yelling obscenities from the rear of the vehicle.

Both Pavola and Christianson died from gunshot wounds. Pavola had been shot in the left temple area and Christianson was shot in the right back side of his head. Pavola's body remained in the passenger seat near the window and Christianson's body was found in the middle of the front seat close to Pavola with his legs on the floorboards in front of the passenger's seat and Pavola's upper body slumped over his legs. Egelhoff's gun was found on the floorboard near the brake pedal on the driver's side and Egelhoff was in the back of the station wagon where the back seat had been laid flat. Egelhoff's revolver was found with four loaded rounds and two empty casings. Egelhoff was lying on his right side with his head towards the back of the cargo area.

Detective Clint Gassett responded to a call about 1:00 a.m. on July 13, 1992, and came to the Libby hospital where Egelhoff had been brought by officers. He testified that Egelhoff was intoxicated, combative and cursing profusely. Detective Gassett, another officer and others attempted to physically restrain Egelhoff by holding him down on the table by his arms and chest. Detective Gassett testified that Egelhoff continued to act wildly during the five to six hours Gassett was at the hospital. Egelhoff would calm down at times only to repeatedly flare up again.

According to the testimony of Detective Gassett, at one point when another detective was preparing to take Egelhoff's photograph, Egelhoff looked directly at the detective, pulled his leg back and kicked the camera out of the detective's hands with the flat of his foot, knocking the camera to the floor. Detective Donald Bernall testified that he thought Egelhoff's coordination was good and he was surprised to learn that Egelhoff's blood alcohol content was .36 percent.

Egelhoff testified that he did not remember much of what happened on the evening of July 12, 1992, his last memory being that he was at the party at the Troy apartment and that the sun had not gone down. He testified he did not remember leaving the party, being in the station wagon, shooting the gun, or kicking Detective Bernall at the hospital. He further testified he remembered that at one point in the evening the station wagon was parked somewhere, and he and Christianson were sitting on a hill or a bank passing a bottle of Black Velvet back and forth between them. He had no recollection of Pavola being with them at that time.

Forensics testing identified gunshot residue on Egelhoff's hands. The bullet that killed Pavola entered her head at the left temple, exited the right back side of her head and was never found. Testimony by the State's firearms examiner indicated that the bullet which killed Christianson could have come from thousands of guns with characteristics like Egelhoff's gun.

At trial, Egelhoff contended that because he had been found unconscious and suffering from intoxication measured at .36 one hour after being brought to the hospital, his level of intoxication precluded him from having driven the car or undertaking the physical tasks necessary to have done what the prosecution claimed he had done. He contended that he suffered from an alcohol-induced amnesia (blackout) which prevented him from recalling the events of the night in question.

When ambulance attendants came to take him to the hospital, Egelhoff kept asking questions like, "Did you find him?" When he sobered up the next day, Egelhoff did not recall asking the questions or to whom he may have been referring when he asked them. Part of Egelhoff's theory which he presented at trial was that there was a fourth person in the car who had disappeared before officers arrived at the scene of the accident.

Dr. Clyde Knecht, a medical doctor who practiced in Libby, examined Egelhoff in the emergency room at the Libby hospital in the early morning hours of July 13, 1992. He testified that Egelhoff, judging from his blood alcohol level and his behavior, probably suffered from alcoholic "blackout" at some point in time and for some period of time prior to the time of Dr. Knecht's examination. He also testified that an intoxicated person experiencing such a blackout may walk, talk, and fully function, with people around the person unable to tell that the person experienced a blackout.

A jury found Egelhoff guilty of two counts of deliberate homicide for the deaths of Christianson and Pavola. Because defendant is granted a new trial as a result of our reversal of his conviction as discussed below, we decline to address the remaining issues raised by Egelhoff.

I

Was Egelhoff deprived of due process when the District Court instructed the jury that voluntary intoxication may not be taken into consideration in determining the existence of a mental state which is an element of the offense of deliberate homicide?

Although Egelhoff raised four issues on appeal, oral argument was granted only on this issue concerning the constitutional validity of the 1987 amendment to § 45-2-203, MCA, regarding consideration by the jury of evidence of intoxication in criminal trials. Egelhoff voluntarily consumed alcoholic beverages on the day of the homicides to the extent that his blood alcohol level measured at least .33% and possibly .36%.

The District Court gave the following instruction to the jury containing statutory language from § 45-2-203, MCA, referring to voluntary intoxication:

INSTRUCTION NO. 11

A person who is in an intoxicated condition is criminally responsible for his conduct and an intoxicated condition is not a defense to any offense and may not be taken into consideration in determining the existence of a mental state which is an element of the offense unless the Defendant proves that he did not know that it was an intoxicating substance when he consumed the substance causing the condition.

We first address the State's argument that Egelhoff did not object to Instruction No. 11 on the ground now asserted. Egelhoff objected to Instruction No. 11 for several reasons, including constitutional reasons. Egelhoff's counsel objected to the...