State v. Marsalis
| Citation | 151 Idaho 872,264 P.3d 979 |
| Decision Date | 08 September 2011 |
| Docket Number | No. 36806.,36806. |
| Court | Court of Appeals of Idaho |
| Parties | STATE of Idaho, Plaintiff–Respondent, v. Jeffrey MARSALIS, Defendant–Appellant. |
Molly J. Huskey, State Appellate Public Defender; Sarah E. Tompkins, Deputy Appellate Public Defender, Boise, for appellant. Sarah E. Tompkins argued.
Hon. Lawrence G. Wasden, Attorney General; Nicole L. Schafer, Deputy Attorney General, Boise, for respondent. Nicole L. Schafer argued.
Jeffrey Marsalis was convicted of rape after the district court denied his motion to dismiss the indictment. On appeal, Marsalis contends his motion to dismiss should have been granted on the grounds that the State relied on perjured testimony in the grand jury proceedings and that the State's evidence did not establish probable cause for issuance of the indictment. We affirm.
The following facts were shown by testimony before the grand jury. Marsalis and K.G., who became acquainted through their work at Sun Valley, arranged to go to a bar in Ketchum for a drink. Having already consumed one beer, K.G. rode with Marsalis to the bar, where they each drank a beer. Marsalis told K.G. that she was prettier than her sister, which made K.G. uncomfortable because it gave her the impression that Marsalis believed they were on a date. She testified that she was not interested in Marsalis as a sexual partner.
After the two finished their beers, Marsalis ordered a shot of liquor for each of them and refused to tell K.G. what was in it. She testified that the drink had a slightly bitter or salty taste and that there was a grainy substance left on the bottom of the glass. After a trip to the restroom, K.G. drank another beer that Marsalis had ordered for her. She testified that after drinking this beer, her recollection became spotty which was unusual because she could normally drink three to four beers and a shot of alcohol without experiencing memory problems. Testimony of the bartender established that Marsalis had ordered a total of twenty beers and four shots for the two of them, and K.G. had also ordered a few beers for herself.
Following several hours of drinking, Marsalis and K.G. took a cab back to Sun Valley. The cab driver testified that K.G. appeared to be very intoxicated and that during the ride, she was curled up with her eyes closed. The driver also said that Marsalis had a difficult time rousing K.G. and getting her out of the cab once they reached their destination—Marsalis' condominium building.
K.G. testified that she had no recollection of how she left the bar or came to find herself at Marsalis' residence, where she woke up the next morning. Upon waking, she did not know where she was and saw that Marsalis was in bed next to her. She was sick and vomited several times that morning, felt pain when urinating, and felt like her vagina was "bruised." She also noticed that her clothes had been put on in a different order than she remembered wearing them the night before.
K.G. spent the rest of the day feeling sick. That night she reported to Ketchum police officers that she thought she had been raped, and she then went to a hospital where samples of her blood and urine were taken. Sun Valley Police Lieutenant Michael Crawford began to investigate the incident and executed a search warrant on Marsalis' residence. He testified that several items were taken from the residence for testing, including a small container for Listerine breath-freshener strips, which he indicated had a white, powdery substance inside.
Marsalis was arrested for rape, and the State sought an indictment from a grand jury. While Blaine County Deputy Prosecutor Warren Christiansen was questioning Lt. Crawford in front of the grand jury, the following exchange occurred after Lt. Crawford indicated that several items seized from Marsalis' residence, including the small breath-strip container with a white powdery substance inside, had been sent to a laboratory for testing:
After the grand jury indicted Marsalis for rape, he filed a motion to dismiss the indictment on the ground that it had been issued in reliance on perjured testimony from Lt. Crawford, and without this untruthful testimony, the evidence did not establish probable cause to charge Marsalis with rape. The perjury claim challenged Lt. Crawford's testimony that the tests on the substance in the breath-strip container were inconclusive due to an insufficient sample. In support of his motion, Marsalis presented evidence that five months before the grand jury proceedings, both the prosecutor's office and Lt. Crawford's office had received the forensic test results that conclusively determined that no controlled substances or date rape drugs were present in the breath-strip package. Marsalis argued that, given the centrality of this evidence to the State's theory that Marsalis had raped K.G. after rendering her unconscious through the administration of a date rape drug, the State had procured its indictment through perjured or false testimony and thereby violated Marsalis' right to due process.
At the hearing on Marsalis' motion, Lt. Crawford testified that before his grand jury testimony, he had not been aware of the results of the forensic testing of the breath-strip package, had not personally seen the lab report, and had not talked to the prosecutor about the test. He also testified that before his office received the test report, technicians at the laboratory had told him that there probably was not a sufficient amount of the white substance on the package to get a definitive test. He admitted that his testimony to the grand jury was inaccurate and that the actual test results were in the case file prior to his grand jury testimony. He denied, however, that his testimony was knowingly false and stated that he was not aware of his mistake until shortly before the hearing on the motion to dismiss the indictment, when he was alerted to the discrepancy by the prosecutor's office. Lt. Crawford acknowledged that he was the lead investigator on the case, and although he had reviewed the case file before testifying before the grand jury, due to an oversight he had not reviewed the lab report. He stated that he took "responsibility for missing those results." He said that when testifying before the grand jury, using the term "it came back," he was referring to the conversation that he had with the lab employee who said there was likely not enough substance to test and that he had not known that the actual test results "existed." He denied ever discussing the test results with the prosecutor before Marsalis' motion to dismiss the indictment was filed. No testimony was presented from Deputy Prosecutor Christiansen, and there is no other evidence showing whether he was actually conscious of the inaccuracy of Lt. Crawford's testimony when it was presented to the grand jury.
The district court denied Marsalis' motion. The court found that "both the police and the prosecutor knew that the Listerine container held a sufficient sample for testing and that the result of that test was negative, not inconclusive[,]" but held that Prosecutor Christiansen's conduct in failing to correct the officer's testimony was not prejudicial. The court stated:
In this matter, after considering the totality of the evidence presented to the grand jury, the court cannot conclude that this is an instance where "but for" Crawford's incorrect testimony, the jury would have declined to indict Marsalis. Here, it is unclear exactly why the prosecutor allowed the grand jury to hear Crawford's incorrect testimony or failed to immediately correct it. The state maintains that this error was the result of oversight. Without more, the court cannot find that the state committed perjury or that its misconduct rises to a level warranting dismissal.
The district court also found that the evidence presented to the grand jury, excluding Lt. Crawford's untruthful testimony regarding the breath-strip container, was sufficient to establish probable cause to indict Marsalis for rape. The case proceeded to a jury trial, where additional evidence was presented, including DNA test results showing that semen found during a sexual assault examination of K.G. was from Marsalis. The jury found Marsalis guilty of rape. He now appeals, challenging only the denial of his motion to dismiss the indictment.
The decision to grant or deny a motion to dismiss an indictment based on irregularities in grand jury proceedings is reviewed for an abuse of discretion. State v. Bujanda–Velazquez, 129 Idaho 726, 728, 932 P.2d 354, 356 (1997). However, alleged defects in the grand jury process generally will not be reviewed on appeal at all after a defendant has been convicted in a fair trial on the merits. State v. Grazian, 144 Idaho 510, 517, 164 P.3d 790, 797 (2007) ; State v. Smith, 135 Idaho 712, 716–17, 23 P.3d 786, 790–91 (Ct.App.2001) ; State v. Nelson, 131 Idaho 210, 215, 953 P.2d 650, 655 (Ct.App.1998) ; State v. Kilby, 130 Idaho 747, 751, 947 P.2d 420, 424 (Ct.App.1997). Marsalis contends that the cases applying this general rule are limited to those instances in which the challenge to the indictment questions the sufficiency of the evidence to support a finding of probable cause or where a defendant alleges that some of the evidence submitted to the...
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State v. Marsalis, 36806.
...151 Idaho 872264 P.3d 979STATE of Idaho, Plaintiff–Respondent,v.Jeffrey MARSALIS, Defendant–Appellant.No. 36806.Court of Appeals of Idaho.Sept. 8, 2011.Review Denied Dec. 29, [264 P.3d 980] Molly J. Huskey, State Appellate Public Defender; Sarah E. Tompkins, Deputy Appellate Public Defender......