State v. Myers

• Decision Date: 01 August 2005
• Docket Number: No. 25349.,25349.
• Citation: 119 P.3d 608
• Parties: STATE of Hawai'i, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Spencer MYERS, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: Hawaii Supreme Court

Page 608

119 P.3d 608

STATE of Hawai'i, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Spencer MYERS, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 25349.

Intermediate Court of Appeals of Hawai'i.

August 1, 2005.

Certiorari Denied Sept. 9, 2005.

Mimi DesJardins, On the briefs, for defendant-appellant.

Simone C. Polak, deputy prosecuting attorney, County of Maui, On the briefs, for plaintiff-appellee.

WATANABE, Acting C.J., LIM and NAKAMURA, JJ.

Opinion of the Court by WATANABE, Acting C.J.

Defendant-Appellant Spencer Myers (Myers or Mr. Myers) urges this court to reverse the August 22, 2002 Judgment of the Family Court of the Second Circuit (the family court)¹ that convicted and sentenced him for abuse of a family or household member, in violation of Hawaii Revised Statutes section 709-906 (Supp.2003), claiming that the family court failed to obtain a valid waiver of his constitutional right to a jury trial.

We disagree and accordingly, affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

Pursuant to a written Complaint filed on March 18, 2002, Myers was charged, in relevant part, as follows:

That on or about the 10th day of March, 2002, in the County of Maui, State of Hawaii, [Myers] did intentionally, knowingly or recklessly engage in and cause physical abuse of a family or household member, to wit, Marina Yamada, thereby committing the offense of Abuse of Family and Household Member in violation of Section 709-906 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes.

Myers appeared for arraignment and plea on March 22, 2002. Prior to calling each individual case scheduled that afternoon, the family court² addressed all of the defendants then present in the courtroom and gave a mass advisement that comprehensively explained, inter alia, the right to a jury trial.

The family court advised the assembled defendants, in relevant part, as follows:

Now, most of these charges, if not all of them, are at least what we call a misdemeanor. That term means if you are — if you were convicted, you could be sentenced up to one year in jail, maximum sentence in this case.

Now, the constitution of the State of Hawaii, the laws in this state, say that any person who is charged with a misdemeanor has by law a constitutional right to a trial, and that trial is with a jury.

... What a jury trial means is when you come to court on your trial date, there will be a group of citizens from this county.

From that group, you, together with the prosecution, will be involved in selecting 12 people, and an alternate usually, to sit together as a group we call a jury.

And in a jury trial, it's the jury that once the trial starts, sits there and listens to all of the evidence presented by the prosecution, which would be witnesses who would be called to testify. There may be documents, pieces of paper. There may be physical evidence, things, and they present their case. And their job is to present enough evidence to show beyond a reasonable doubt that you've committed the offenses.

Once the State finishes its part of the case, you, as the defendant, would have a right also to present evidence. You could call witnesses to come testify for you, present document [sic], photographs, any evidence you think would help prove that you didn't commit the offense.

And at the trial you can — if you want to, but you would not be required to — testify yourself. If you want to get up to take an oath to tell the truth, answer questions, tell your side of the story, you can do that at the trial, but you also can just do nothing.

Nobody can force you to take the stand. So the prosecution couldn't put you up here and ask you questions were you there, did you do it, or whatever it may be. All right. They are not allowed to do that.

But if you voluntarily take the stand as a witness because you want to tell your side of the story, you can do that. But if you do, then the prosecution will have the right to ask you questions about anything that you've testified to. We call that cross-examination.

Now, when a trial is all over, the evidence is presented, then the judge tells the jury you got to decide this case. And the jury would have to find by the evidence that there's enough to show beyond a reasonable doubt that you've committed the offense.

And it takes all 12 people to agree that there's enough evidence showing beyond a reasonable doubt that you've committed the offense. If all 12 people agree, they would return a verdict[,] a decision, guilty. All right.

Now, it's possible that all 12 people would agree that the State didn't prove enough evidence. They just said, look, all of us agree there wasn't enough evidence to show beyond a reasonable doubt that you committed the offense. Then they would return the verdict of not guilty.

There are occasions when 12 people in the jury can't agree one way or the other. Some decide one way; some decide the other, and they can't — after talking about it — all agree one way or the other. We call that a mistrial. Some people refer to it as a hung jury.

In that situation, what happens is the case then would be set for another trial, new trial, start all over, new jury, prosecution has the same duty. And sometimes the second time the jury can decide one way or another. And if they can't decide that time, there's been cases where it gets a third time. Not too likely, but it does happen.

It's also possible after the judge — after the jury — if they just can't decide says, you know, I find there just wasn't enough evidence even close to prove the charge; therefore, I order the case dismissed. The judge has the right to do that. Doesn't happen very often. They usually leave it up to the jury.

Now, you do have the right — any defendant has the right to say I don't want the jury trial. I just want to have my case decided by a judge. It's your decision. Nobody is forcing to [sic] you to do one thing or the other. Doesn't make any difference to the Court.

We have jury trials on the fourth floor. We have trials here with the judge here on the third floor. You get to choose.

If you choose to have a jury trial, what would happen is I will set the date for you to appear next week in the Circuit Court. The judge assigned to the case upstairs will decide your trial date.

And you'll have to appear, go through the trial, and it will be handled up in this courtroom. If you waive your right to jury trial, you don't want the 12 people, I'll tell you what date you have to come to court for trial in the Family Court; that's where you are now. And I'll give you the date for your trial, time, courtroom. And the Family Court, what we do — we also set what we called pretrial. It means you actually have to come back to court before your trial date. It's on a Friday and we have a lot of cases set for trials throughout the week.

We make sure all that [sic] the cases are ready to go. Those that are not quite ready to go for one reason or another, we may have to put on (inaudible). If we have too many cases going to trial on one day, then we try to spread them out on other days. The purpose is to get organized, make sure everybody is ready. So that when your trial comes, it's held on that date. Nobody is delayed, and it's over; the trial will be over.

Now, sometimes people decide between today if they entered a plea of not guilty and when they come back from the pretrial date they have talked to their lawyer, they looked at the case, they've seen the police report, they have investigated it, and decide, you know, I just don't want to go through the trial. I'm going [sic] change my plea from not guilty to either guilty or no contest.

That's what you do on the pretrial date. All right. So it's over with a [sic] on that pretrial date. So that's what's going to happen today.

Now, when you come forward, you'll have a right to enter one of three different pleas. If you enter a plea of not guilty, then you have to decide do I want the jury trial, [or] do I want to waive it?

....

All right. I think that's about all I have to say. When you [sic] case is called, come forward. I'm going to ask you do you understand the charge? Yes. Were you here when I gave my opening statement? If you say yes to that, did you understand my explanation about your rights[?]

One thing I want to explain a little bit further, do you understand what a jury trial is[?] Is it your voluntarily [sic] decision to waive your right to jury trial if that's what you want to do[?] If you answer yes to all those questions, that I assuming [sic] you plead not guilty and set a trial date, et cetera.

....

That's all I have to say then. We're going to call the cases on today's calender [sic].

Thereafter, the family court individually arraigned each defendant. When it was Myers' turn to be arraigned, the following colloquy took place:

[DEPUTY PUBLIC DEFENDER]: The record should reflect that Spencer Myers is present. He's represented by deputy public defender Jim Rouse. And, in fact, a written complaint was provided to us.

Your Honor, we're prepared to waive the public reading of that charge, enter a plea of not guilty, waive our right to a jury trial and ask this complaint be set in the Family Court before a Family Court judge.

THE COURT: Mr. Myers, you understand what Mr. Rouse just told me?

[MYERS]: Yes.

THE COURT: Were you here earlier when I gave my opening statement, explained your rights including your right to a trial by jury?

[MYERS]: Yes.

THE COURT: Do you understand that explanation?

[MYERS]: Yes.

THE COURT: And is it your decision this afternoon to waive or give up your right to jury trial and have the matter set for trial in the Family Court?

[MYERS]: Yes.

THE COURT: Is that decision one that you've made yourself voluntarily?

[MYERS:] Yes.

THE COURT: Do you have any questions at this time?

[MYERS:] No.

THE COURT: All right. I'm satisfied that Mr. Myers understand [sic] the charge against[ ] him[,] understands what his right to trial by jury is; that he voluntarily waived that right. Therefore, the complaint in this case is...