State v. Hall
| Decision Date | 06 December 1999 |
| Docket Number | No. 98-137.,98-137. |
| Citation | 1999 MT 297,991 P.2d 929 |
| Parties | STATE of Montana, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Darrell David HALL, Jr., Defendant and Appellant. |
| Court | Montana Supreme Court |
Helene Orenstein, Attorney at Law; Bozeman, Montana, For Appellant.
Hon. Joseph P. Mazurek, Attorney General; Pamela P. Collins, Assistant Attorney General; Helena, Montana, Marty Lambert, Gallatin County Attorney; Bozeman, Montana, For Respondent.
¶ 1 By Information filed in the District Court for the Eighteenth Judicial District in Gallatin County, the Defendant, Darrell Hall, was charged with: aggravated assault, a felony in violation of § 45-5-202, MCA; assault in violation of § 45-5-201, MCA; obstructing a peace officer in violation of § 45-7-302, MCA; and unlawful possession of an intoxicant in violation of § 45-5-624, MCA. Following a jury trial, Hall was convicted of all the charged offenses except for the aggravated assault charge, on which the jury was unable to reach a verdict. Following a second jury trial on June 9, 1997, Hall was convicted of aggravated assault. On July 14, 1997, Hall moved for a new trial on the basis of newly discovered evidence. The District Court denied Hall's motion for a new trial. Hall appeals from the orders and judgment of the District Court. We affirm the District Court.
¶ 2 The following issues are presented on appeal:
¶ 3 1. Did the District Court abuse its discretion when it denied Hall's motion for a directed verdict?
¶ 4 2. Did the District Court abuse its discretion when it allowed the prior testimony of a prosecution witness to be read at Hall's second trial, pursuant to Rule 804(b), M.R.Evid.?
¶ 5 3. Did the District Court err when it instructed the jury on flight evidence?
¶ 6 4. Did the District Court abuse its discretion by denying Hall's motion for a new trial based on newly discovered evidence?
¶ 7 Early in the evening of August 31, 1995, Hall and two friends, Duane Gobert and Manley Ankney, drove into Bozeman to shoot some pool and drink at the local bars. Bart Huber testified that at approximately 11:00 or 11:30 p.m., while he was in the men's bathroom in the Rocking R Bar, he witnessed Hall yelling and banging on the doors of the bathroom stall. Hall then came out of the stall and told Huber that he had a gun and a knife in his car. Shortly thereafter, Huber ran into Hall in the bar and an agitated Hall held a knife within inches of Huber's stomach and warned Huber that "people who fuck with me are going to die." ¶ 8 Around 1:00 a.m. Jamie Perlinski was outside the Rocking R Bar getting some fresh air. Perlinski had attended a bachelor party earlier in the evening, was intoxicated and was lying down on the sidewalk in front of the bar when Hall and Gobert approached him. Hall and Gobert each poured some beer on Perlinski's face. This angered Perlinski and a confrontation between Gobert and Perlinski ensued. Bozeman Police Officer Greg Megargel observed the confrontation and intervened, pulling Perlinski aside and asking him for an explanation. Perlinski explained that someone had poured beer on his face while he was lying down on the sidewalk. Officer Megargel then received another call and left the scene to respond.
¶ 9 Approximately ten minutes later, Hall, Gobert, and Ankney were again outside the Rocking R Bar. Perlinski and a group of his friends from the bachelor party also congregated outside the bar. Perlinski asked Gobert why he had poured beer on his face and Gobert responded by punching Perlinski. Perlinski's friend, Brandon Koslofsky, jumped at Gobert and wrestled him to the ground. Then Koslofsky and Gobert wrestled with each other on the ground for a minute or two. Meanwhile, the altercation between Koslofsky and Gobert drew a large crowd from the bar, which encircled the two. During the fight, Ankney was being restrained by Koslofsky's friend Brett White in order to keep him from intervening in the fight and witnesses spotted Hall moving around in the vicinity of Koslofsky and Gobert.
¶ 10 After Koslofsky and Gobert had been on the ground for a minute or two, someone stepped in to break up the fight, and discovered that Koslofsky had been stabbed in the back with a knife. The knife was removed from Koslofsky's back and the Bozeman police were called. When the police arrived they placed Gobert under arrest and ordered everyone to remain at the scene. Ankney and Hall started to leave. Witnesses alerted the police that Ankney and Hall were leaving the scene, and that they had been a part of the altercation. Police officers stopped Ankney and Hall and asked them for identification. Hall produced a Blackfeet Indian Reservation ID bearing the name Gaylord Eugene Kipp and claimed that was his name. The officers then ordered Hall and Ankney to remain where they were.
¶ 11 At some point during their initial investigation that night, the officers were approached by Bart Huber who told them that earlier in the evening Hall had pulled out a knife in the bar and held it to Huber's stomach. Officers escorted Huber to the police car where Gobert was being held and asked Huber if Gobert was the one who used the knife to threaten him. Huber told the police that Gobert was not the same person. Huber gave the police a description of the man who had assaulted him. It fit the description of Hall.
¶ 12 The police looked back down the street where they had ordered Hall and Ankney to stay and noticed that only Ankney remained at that location. Subsequently, a police officer discovered Hall several blocks from the scene of the stabbing. The officer returned Hall to the scene where Huber identified Hall as the man who threatened him with the knife earlier in the evening.
¶ 13 At this point, Bozeman police had both Hall and Gobert in custody. Gobert was under arrest for assault, but denied stabbing Koslofsky. Hall had been identified as the man who pulled the knife on Huber while in the Rocking R Bar earlier that evening. Of all the witnesses questioned by Bozeman police that night, no one saw who actually stabbed Koslofsky.
¶ 14 During the police department's subsequent investigation of the stabbing, Detective Darcy Dahle interviewed 42 people, however, none of them witnessed who actually stabbed Koslofsky. Detective Dahle's investigation did reveal that the knife Hall pointed at Huber in the bar was identical to the knife used to stab Koslofsky. Additionally, the witnesses generally described to the detective that it would have been difficult, if not impossible for Gobert to have stabbed Koslofsky, because Koslofsky was holding Gobert on the ground at the time he was stabbed.
¶ 15 Based upon the investigation of the Bozeman police department, the State filed an information charging Hall with aggravated assault for stabbing Koslofsky, along with four misdemeanor charges. Count I charged Hall with aggravated assault, for purposely or knowingly causing serious bodily injury to Koslofksy by stabbing Koslofsky in the back with a knife. Count II charged Hall with misdemeanor assault for purposely or knowingly causing reasonable apprehension of bodily injury in Bart Huber by threatening Huber with a knife. Counts III and IV charged Hall with obstructing a peace officer for impairing or hindering the enforcement of a criminal law or the performance of a governmental function, for giving a false name to the police officers, and for failing to obey the officers' order to remain at a certain location. Count V charged Hall with unlawful possession of an intoxicant, for knowingly consuming or possessing alcoholic beverages while being under the age of 19 years.
¶ 16 On March 4, 1996, Hall's jury trial commenced for all five counts charged in the September 27, 1995 information. On March 11, 1996, the jury found Hall guilty of the four misdemeanor charges. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on the aggravated assault charge. The District Court declared a mistrial related only to that count, and on June 9, 1997, Hall was retried for aggravated assault and convicted.
¶ 17 On July 14, 1997, Hall filed a motion for a new trial based on the discovery of new evidence. The District Court held a hearing to consider Hall's motion and heard testimony from three young men who had either directly heard or heard through other sources that Gobert stated that Hall was taking the blame for what Gobert had done. After listening to the witness testimony, the District Court denied Hall's motion for a new trial.
¶ 18 Did the District Court abuse its discretion when it denied Hall's motion for a directed verdict?
¶ 19 The standard of review that applies to a district court's denial of a motion for directed verdict in a criminal case is whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Ross (1995), 269 Mont. 347, 360, 889 P.2d 161, 169.
¶ 20 At the conclusion of the State's evidence, Hall moved for a directed verdict of acquittal based on his contention that only circumstantial evidence had been offered and that, therefore, the law requires that there not be any reasonable theory of the Defendant's innocence.
¶ 21 Section 46-16-403, MCA, provides:
When, at the close of the prosecution's evidence or at the close of all the evidence, the evidence is insufficient to support a finding or verdict of guilty, the court may, on its own motion or on the motion of the defendant, dismiss the action and discharge the defendant.
The State charged Hall with aggravated assault in violation of § 45-5-202, MCA. Thus, in order to meet its burden, the State had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Hall purposely or knowingly caused serious bodily injury to Koslofsky. Hall argues that no rational trier of fact could...
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