State v. Jackson

• Decision Date: 18 November 2010
• Docket Number: No. 20080418-CA.,20080418-CA.
• Citation: 243 P.3d 902
• Parties: STATE of Utah, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. Henry Louis JACKSON, Defendant and Appellant.
• Court: Utah Court of Appeals

243 P.3d 902

STATE of Utah, Plaintiff and Appellee,

v.Henry Louis JACKSON, Defendant and Appellant.

No. 20080418-CA.

Court of Appeals of Utah.

Nov. 18, 2010.

Lori J. Seppi, Salt Lake City, for Appellant.

Mark L. Shurtleff and Ryan D. Tenney, Salt Lake City, for Appellee.

Before Judges MCHUGH, ORME, and GREENWOOD.^*

AMENDED OPINION ¹

ORME, Judge:

¶ 1 Defendant Henry Louis Jackson was convicted of several offenses, including attempted murder. On appeal, he raises many issues, including whether the trial court improperly admitted hearsay and photographs; whether the trial court erred in not dismissing the case after the State "destroyed" evidence in a vehicle used in the attempted murder; whether the State was racially motivated in striking a potential juror; and whether the trial court erred in reopening the case and in sentencing Defendant. We affirm.

BACKGROUND ²

¶ 2 On November 9, 2006, a mother and her eighteen-year-old son returned home after picking up some lunch. As the mother began walking toward her apartment, she saw Defendant, her estranged boyfriend, parked nearby. She sat down on a curb and told her son, who was still by their car retrieving his pit bull, that Defendant was back. Defendant then drove toward the mother, hit her with his car, rolled back over her lower leg, and maneuvered the car so it appeared Defendant was going to hit her again. After giving his mother the pit bull, the son tried to stop Defendant by opening the front passenger door of Defendant's car and trying to hit him. According to the son, he did not make contact with Defendant.

¶ 3 Defendant had a large knife and cut the son's hand when the son tried to grab the knife. Defendant then stabbed the son's arm, whereupon the son retreated from the car and started running away.³ Defendant chased the son and stabbed him again, inflicting additional wounds to his back and chest. After seeing Defendant stab her son in the back, the mother released the pit bull, and the dog chased Defendant. Defendant stopped pursuing the son and stabbed the pit bull in the throat. Defendant then approached the mother, "picked [her] up by [her] shirt," and started dragging her toward his car. ⁴ The mother testified that "he was hitting me in the head with the back of theknife telling me now talk to me bitch." ⁵ After letting the mother go, Defendant left the scene and was later arrested.

¶ 4 Three eyewitnesses testified at trial, two of whom were standing in a nearby doorway and yelling for the son to come toward them to safety and one who observed the events through her sliding-glass door. Collectively, the eyewitness testimony established that (1) there was a loud bang that sounded like a car crash; (2) the mother was on the ground, appeared injured, and was saying Defendant had hit her with the car; (3) Defendant, armed with a knife, left his car and chased the son while threatening to kill him; (4) Defendant stabbed the son in the back with the knife; (5) the pit bull approached Defendant, and Defendant stabbed the pit bull; and (6) Defendant then went back to the mother, who could barely stand, held the knife to her neck, and threatened to kill her.⁶

¶ 5 The State charged Defendant with two counts of attempted aggravated murder, first degree felonies, see Utah Code Ann. § 76-5-202(1)(i)(iii) (Supp.2009) (aggravated murder), id. §§ 76-4-101, -102(1)(a) (2008) (defining attempt and classifying attempt offenses); one count of cruelty to animals, a class B misdemeanor, see id. § 76-9-301(2)(c), (3)(a) (2008); and one count of assault, a class B misdemeanor, see id. § 76-5-102(1)-(2).⁷ Prior to trial, Defendant moved to dismiss the case, claiming that the State had destroyed evidence by releasing his car to its lienholder, which promptly cleaned the car and offered it for sale before Defendant was able to examine it. Defendant also claimed that the evidence in the car was crucial to his self-defense theory. He hoped to have obtained blood samples from the car that, upon testing, would have revealed canine blood in the car, which Defendant claims would have corroborated his claim that the pit bull attacked him, making self-defense necessary. At the hearing on the issue, it was clear that the State had taken blood samples from the car and, although the State had not submitted the samples for testing, the State indicated that it would "address the issue" if Defendant wanted to. The trial court denied Defendant's motion to dismiss, and the case proceeded to trial.

¶ 6 During jury voir dire, the State exercised one of its peremptory challenges on a prospective juror who had a high school education, worked as a mechanic, subscribed to "Car and Driver" magazine, and was deaf in one ear. Defense counsel objected to the strike pursuant to Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986), arguing that the prospective juror was the only member of a minority group on the panel, though defense counsel could not "hazard to guess as to [the prospective juror]'s racial background." The State opposed the challenge by stating it struck the prospective juror due to his hearing problem and because he seemed too young. The State also pointed out the unlikelihood that the stricken juror would have served in any event, due to his position within the jury pool as number forty-six. In denying Defendant's Batson motion, the trial court apparently determined that the State was not racially motivated for the reasons the State offered.

¶ 7 The trial, held in December of 2007, was bifurcated so that only evidence on the underlying charges was presented to the jury, which found Defendant guilty on all counts. After the jury was released, the State presented the trial court with its evidence on the aggravating circumstance, i.e., Defendant's prior murder conviction. Defendant argued that the prior crime was not murder, but manslaughter. Defendant alsorequested additional time for briefing his position on the aggravating circumstance. When Defendant filed his brief, he challenged whether the State had sufficiently established his identity with regard to the previous conviction. At a hearing in January of 2008, the trial court allowed the State additional time to prove Defendant's identity based on the court's determinations that Defendant, having apparently conceded the identity issue during trial by making reference to Defendant's prior conviction, raised the identity issue for the first time after trial and that the witness who could authenticate the prior conviction was on military leave. The court also noted, in response to Defendant's objection, that it did not think the proceedings had been officially closed because it had allowed Defendant additional time for argument and submission of evidence.

¶ 8 At the next hearing, in April 2008, the trial court determined that the State had established Defendant's identity as it related to the previous murder conviction and, thus, had proven the aggravating circumstance. The court thereafter sentenced Defendant to two consecutive sentences of five years to life for the attempted aggravated murder convictions and 180 days of jail time for the two class B misdemeanors, with credit for time served.

ISSUES AND STANDARDS OF REVIEW

¶ 9 Defendant first argues that the trial court erred in admitting hearsay from two police officers, claiming that the testimony did not fall within the excited utterance or prior consistent statement exceptions. See Utah R. Evid. 803(2), 801(d)(1)(B). When reviewing rulings on hearsay, we review "[l]egal questions regarding admissibility ... for correctness, ... questions of fact ... for clear error," and the final "ruling on admissibility for abuse of discretion." State v. Rhinehart, 2006 UT App 517, ¶ 10, 153 P.3d 830 (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). Defendant also challenges the trial court's decision to admit photographic evidence, asserting that the relevance of the photographs was outweighed by their prejudicial impact under rule 403 of the Utah Rules of Evidence, see Utah R. Evid. 403. "A trial court's ruling under rule 403 is reviewed for abuse of discretion." State v. Bluff, 2002 UT 66, ¶ 47, 52 P.3d 1210, cert. denied, 537 U.S. 1172, 123 S.Ct. 999, 154 L.Ed.2d 914 (2003). Evidentiary errors on the part of the trial court will only be reversed if prejudicial. See State v. Calliham, 2002 UT 86, ¶ 45, 55 P.3d 573; State v. Dunn, 850 P.2d 1201, 1221 (Utah 1993).

¶ 10 Defendant additionally claims that the trial court erred in denying his motion to dismiss based on the State's destruction of evidence. "Whether the State's destruction of potentially exculpatory evidence violates due process is a question of law that we review for correctness. 'However, because this question requires application of facts in the record to the due process standard, we incorporate a clearly erroneous standard for the necessary subsidiary factual determinations.' " State v. Tiedemann, 2007 UT 49, ¶ 12, 162 P.3d 1106 (citation omitted).

¶ 11 Next, Defendant challenges the trial court's decision to reopen the case to allow the State to present additional evidence on the aggravating circumstance. "A motion to reopen to take additional testimony when a case has been submitted to the court, but prior to the entry of judgment, is addressed to the sound discretion of the [trial] court." Lewis v. Porter, 556 P.2d 496, 497 (Utah 1976). "A court should consider a motion to reopen to take additional testimony in light of all the circumstances and grant or deny it in the interest of fairness and substantial justice." Id.

¶ 12 Defendant also asserts that the trial court improperly entered consecutive sentences without considering all the relevant factors. "We review sentences for abuse of discretion. 'An abuse of discretion may be manifest if the actions of the judge in sentencing were inherently unfair or if the judge imposed a clearly excessive sentence.' " State v. Valdez, 2008 UT App 329, ¶ 4, 194 P.3d 195...