State v. Humpherys

• Decision Date: 20 July 2000
• Docket Number: No. 25408.,25408.
• Citation: 8 P.3d 652,134 Idaho 657
• Court: Idaho Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE of Idaho, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Nelly I. HUMPHERYS, Defendant-Appellant.

8 P.3d 652

134 Idaho 657

STATE of Idaho, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Nelly I. HUMPHERYS, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 25408.

Supreme Court of Idaho, Boise, February 2000 Term.

July 20, 2000.

Rehearing Denied September 8, 2000.

Ronaldo A. Coulter, State Appellate Public Defender, Boise, for appellant. Sara B. Thomas argued.

Hon. Alan G. Lance, Attorney General, Boise, for respondent. Kenneth K. Jorgensen argued.

KIDWELL, Justice.

This appeal arises from a judgment of conviction for first degree arson. Appellant claims that since the verdict was supported largely by circumstantial evidence, the district court erred in refusing to give a special jury instruction pertaining to the use and limitation of circumstantial evidence. We disagree.

I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Early on the morning of April 24, 1998, the Mountain Home Fire Department responded to a fire call at a trailer house occupied by Nelly I. Humpherys and her daughter. The trailer house was owned by Humpherys' estranged husband, who allowed Humpherys to live there even though the two were in the process of obtaining a divorce. This was Humpherys only place to live as evidenced by the fact that after the fire she lived in a women's shelter until her estranged husband rented an apartment for her.

Several members of the Mountain Home Fire Department arrived to control the fire. After the fire had been extinguished, two of the firemen questioned Humpherys about the origin of the fire. This process was frustrated because Humpherys speaks very poor English. (Because of her limited ability to communicate in English, Humpherys testified in Spanish, through a translator, at the trial.) Humpherys told the firemen that the fire started on a desk in the living room. At trial, the fire chief testified that Humpherys told him that she had been at home reading her divorce papers by candlelight that evening since the power was out, and that after she went to bed the fire started.

Other firemen testified that Humpherys gave different accounts of how she escaped from the fire. However, the firemen also testified that because of a language barrier and Humpherys' emotional condition, it was possible that they may have misunderstood her stories — they claimed to have only understood about sixty percent of what she said.

The fire chief and several other firefighters investigated the cause of the fire. They testified that they believed the fire had started in two places: one, on the desk in the living room, and the other near the front door. When the fire chief became suspicious of the origin of the fire, he interviewed Humpherys again. This time she "started crying, blaming her ex-husband for starting the fire, ranting and raving, going on, and she was at that time kind of difficult to understand."

The fire chief also testified that he believed an accelerant was used to start the second fire by the front door, although, the laboratory tests for accelerants came back negative. Unable to determine the cause of the fire, the fire chief called the State Fire Marshal. The Fire Marshal conducted an investigation and concluded that the fire had started in two places. The Fire Marshal testified that he believed an accelerant was used, and that he could not find any evidence of an accidental cause for the fire.

On June 9, 1998, Humpherys was charged with first degree arson. A jury trial was held in January of 1999. At the conclusion of both sides' cases, jury instructions were discussed by the court and counsel. Counsel for Humpherys proposed a Holder¹ jury instruction dealing with the use of circumstantial evidence. Counsel for the State argued that the Holder instruction was not appropriate because even though the State had no direct evidence of Humpherys' guilt, it did have direct evidence that the fire had been arson. Ruling from the bench, the court determined that since there was a mixture of direct and circumstantial evidence, a Holder instruction would not be given. The jury returned a verdict of guilty on the sole charge of arson. Humpherys appealed.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

Whether jury instructions fairly and adequately present the issues and state the applicable law is a question of law over which this Court exercises free review. State v. Bush, 131 Idaho 22, 32, 951 P.2d 1249, 1259 (1997). When this Court reviews jury instructions, it must first determine whether the instructions as a whole, and not individually, fairly and accurately reflect the applicable law. State v. Row, 131 Idaho 303, 310, 955 P.2d 1082, 1089 (1998). An instruction is not reversible error unless it misled the jury or prejudiced the complaining party. Id. A defendant's requested instruction is not required when it is a misstatement of the law, adequately covered by other jury instructions, or is not supported by the facts. State v. Eastman, 122 Idaho 87, 89, 831 P.2d 555, 557 (1992).

III. ANALYSIS

Humpherys contends that the Holder instruction should have been given because the prosecution did not present any direct evidence linking Humpherys to the crime, nor any direct evidence of Humpherys' guilt. The State responds that Holder should be overturned, or in the alternative, that since the State presented a mixture of direct and circumstantial evidence at trial a Holder instruction was not proper.

In State v. Holder, 100 Idaho 129, 594 P.2d 639 (1979), this Court held that when the prosecution's evidence is entirely circumstantial, the defendant is entitled to a special instruction limiting the effects of the evidence. Id. at 132-33, 594 P.2d at 642-43. In that case, Holder was convicted of the burglary of a sporting goods store, where guns were taken, upon the testimony of five witnesses. One witness testified that Holder had been driving a green Buick with out-of-state plates which were dark orange with orange letters. Id. at 129, 594 P.2d at 639. Holder's companion was seen driving a dark GMC or Chevrolet pickup with plates similar to Holder's. Id.

Another witness testified that Holder and his companions had been in the store and had talked with the witness about the guns, which were taken during the burglary. Id. at 130, 594 P.2d at 640. Another witness testified that after hearing the sound of glass breaking, the witness looked out the window and saw two vehicles in front of the store. Id. The vehicles were a Buick or Oldsmobile and a dark Chevrolet pickup with out-of-state plates that were yellow with dark letters and numerals. Id. The same witness also testified to seeing unidentified individuals in front of the store loading what "looked like guns" into the pickup. Id.

A hotel clerk at the hotel where Holder was registered testified that Holder and a companion drove a dark vehicle into the hotel's parking garage in the early morning hours of the day of the burglary. Id. Finally, a police officer testified that the sporting goods store had been burglarized and guns had been taken. Id.

At the conclusion of the parties' cases, Holder proposed the following jury instruction regarding circumstantial evidence:

You are not permitted to find the defendant guilty of the crime charged against him based on circumstantial evidence unless the proved circumstances are not only consistent with the theory that the defendant is guilty of the crime, but cannot be reconciled with any other rational conclusion and each fact which is essential to complete a set of circumstances necessary to establish the defendant's guilt has been proved beyond a reasonable doubt.

Also, if the evidence is susceptible of two reasonable interpretations, one of which points to the defendant's guilt and the other to his innocence, it is your duty to adopt that interpretation which points to the defendant's innocence, and reject the other which points to his guilt.

Id. at 132, 594 P.2d at 642. The district court refused the instruction and Holder appealed. On appeal, this Court held, that considering the entire evidence against Holder was circumstantial, the district court erred in refusing to allow the requested instruction. Id. at 133, 594 P.2d at 643.

The Court's holding in Holder led to the rule that "in cases where guilt is proven by circumstantial evidence, that evidence must be sufficient to exclude every reasonable hypothesis other than the guilt of the defendant." State v. Randles, 117 Idaho 344, 350, 787 P.2d 1152, 1158 (1990).

The basis for the Court's holding in Holder was the concern that circumstantial evidence was inherently unreliable and could be the basis for convicting an innocent defendant. Early cases from this Court noted the Court's apprehension of convictions based entirely upon circumstantial evidence. See, e.g., State v. Hix, 58 Idaho 730, 743, 78 P.2d 1003, 1009 (1938). In Hix, the Court held that, although circumstantial evidence "can be so certain and definite as to leave no room for reasonable doubt," in some cases "circumstances can be very strong against an innocent person but at the same time not exclude a reasonable theory of innocence. In such cases circumstantial evidence is very dangerous as it arouses violent suspicions which are difficult to explain or rebut even by an innocent person." Id. (emphasis added).

This rationale has continued to permeate jury instructions in circumstantial evidence cases through the years. Recently this Court noted:

We reaffirm that juries must receive the Holder instruction in circumstantial evidence cases, due to the problematic nature of such evidence and the principle that criminal guilt must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. The role of the jury and the trial court is to determine the facts of a case. To that end there are necessary safeguards to guide the jury in evaluating the evidence before it. That is the function of the Holder instruction.

Randles, 117 Idaho at 350, 787 P.2d at 1158.

However, even in light of our previous adherence to the Holder instruction, the State urges this Court to re-examine the necessity and value...