State v. Pelelo, 58908

• Citation: 247 N.W.2d 221
• Decision Date: 17 November 1976
• Docket Number: No. 58908,58908
• Parties: STATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. Michael Alan PELELO, Appellant.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Iowa

Page 221

247 N.W.2d 221

STATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. Michael Alan PELELO, Appellant.

No. 58908.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Nov. 17, 1976.

Rehearing Denied Jan. 14, 1977.

Mayer Kanter, Sioux City, for appellant.

Richard C. Turner, Atty. Gen., David L. Brown and Jim P. Robbins, Asst. Attys. Gen., and Michael Dull, County Atty., for appellee.

Considered en banc.

McCORMICK, Justice.

Defendant appeals his conviction and sentence for delivery of marijuana in violation of § 204.401(1)(a), The Code. He contends the trial court erred in overruling his pretrial motion for change of venue, in denying him the right to present evidence in support of his challenge to the jury panel, in overruling his exception to the court's entrapment instruction, in placing the burden of proof on him in the accommodation hearing, and in failing to rule on his motion in arrest of judgment. We affirm the trial court.

The charge was based on the alleged sale by defendant of 12 bags containing about three-fourths of a pound of marijuana to a state undercover agent in LeMars in the evening of December 2, 1974, for $170. The sale was arranged with the help of a paid informant. At trial, defendant admitted the sale and relied on a defense of entrapment. After the jury found him guilty of the offense, he requested an accommodation hearing which was subsequently held. The trial court found the transaction was not an accommodation sale. Defendant was sentenced, and this appeal followed.

I. The motion for change of venue. Defendant moved before trial for change of venue on the ground he could not receive a fair trial in Plymouth County because of inflammatory pretrial publicity. His motion was supported by an affidavit signed by three persons.

The affidavit referred to allegedly adverse and prejudicial publicity in the LeMars Daily Sentinel, including a front page news story, an unsigned letter to the editor, and editorial articles. In resisting the motion, the State denied that the newspaper publicity was inflammatory and of prejudicial effect.

Defendant subsequently amended his motion by attaching the four newspaper items which he alleged had prejudiced his right to fair trial. At the hearing testimony was received from defendant, the editor of the Sentinel, and its publisher, and the four items were received as exhibits. After hearing the evidence, the trial court overruled the motion.

We review the evidence De novo to determine whether the trial court abused its discretion in holding that defendant failed to demonstrate a reasonable likelihood he would not receive a fair trial in Plymouth County. State v. Dague, 206 N.W.2d 93, 95 (Iowa 1973); Lloyd v. District Court of Scott County, 201 N.W.2d 720 (Iowa 1972).

The LeMars Sentinel is a daily newspaper in LeMars with a circulation of about 5,000. The population of Plymouth County is about 24,000. On June 26, 1976, the paper carried a front page story with a headline in red link, proclaiming 'Illegal drugs sold in parking lots: Prices for packets from $90 to $200.' The story reported that a number of recent drug arrests had occurred in LeMars, naming six persons including defendant who had been arrested the day before. Then, in order to illustrate what it described as the typical pattern involved in local drug sales, the article quoted minutes of testimony attached to the county attorney's information in one of the recent cases, deleting names 'in order not to damage the court cases.' The minutes were not from defendant's case.

Almost one month later, the newspaper featured an editorial entitled, 'Deferred sentence . . . there's no better deal', in which a sarcastic attack was made on the use of deferred sentences in criminal cases. After this, on a date not shown, an unsigned letter to the editor appeared in the paper contending drug offenders were being treated leniently and urging harsher dispositions. Later, on August 28, 1975, the newspaper printed a cartoon captioned, 'Fight crime! Don't let your son become a criminal defense lawyer.'

The trial court overruled the motion for change of venue on September 5, 1975. Trial commenced September 15, 1975. No record was made of voir dire.

Our evaluation of the allegedly prejudicial publicity leads us to the same conclusion as the trial court. Defendant's name appeared in only the article of June 26, published almost three months before the case was tried. Although the article left little doubt regarding the newspaper's view of the guilt of those named, it was not so inflammatory and pervasive as to make it likely defendant could not have a fair trial three months later. The other newspaper items were rather commonplace generalized attacks on the courts and our system of criminal justice. This publicity did not establish a reasonable likelihood defendant could not have a fair trial in Plymouth County.

We hold the trial court did not err in overruling defendant's motion for change of venue.

II. The challenge to the jury panel. Defendant sought to object to the jury panel before voir dire. The trial court ruled his challenge could be made at the first convenient recess during voir dire. The challenge was actually made after the trial jury was impaneled. Defendant alleged that young persons had been systematically excluded from the panel. He asserted the panel had been drawn from the voting list in the last general election and thus did not include those young persons less than 18 years old on election day who attained that age subsequently. He presented no evidence in support of the challenge but asked the trial court to take judicial notice of the fact the panel was drawn from the voting list.

The trial court overruled the challenge. Defendant, now represented by different counsel, contends the court erred in refusing to permit him to present evidence in support of his challenge. He relies on the principles explained in State v. Staker, 220 N.W.2d 613, 615 (Iowa 1974); see rule 187(d), Rules of Civil Procedure. However, he does not argue the merits of the challenge.

The record does not support defendant's present contention. His trial counsel did not at any time request an opportunity to present evidence. Although the trial court refused to hear arguments on the challenge, the court did not refuse defendant the opportunity to make his record. We find no merit in defendant's present contention that he was denied the right to present evidence.

Regarding the merits of his challenge based on the record made, see State v. Williams, 243 N.W.2d 658, 661--662 (Iowa 1976); State v. Knutson, 220 N.W.2d 575, 577 (Iowa 1974).

III. The entrapment instruction. Defendant took timely exception to the court's proposed instruction on his defense of entrapment. The court's instruction contained the language of uniform jury instruction No. 501.21 (1975). Defendnat contended the uniform instruction did not meet the problem addressed in State v. Deanda, 218 N.W.2d 649, 650--651 (Iowa 1974), where this court held an earlier uniform instruction did not conform with the newly-adopted objective entrapment standard of State v. Mullen, 216 N.W.2d 375 (Iowa 1974).

In criticizing the previous uniform instruction the court in Deanda said:

'Defendant is right in insisting the instruction was erroneous because it was squarely bottomed on the subjective test we later rejected in State v. Mullen. There is no hint in the instruction the jury should consider whether the police actions were so reprehensible that, as a matter of public policy, a conviction should not be tolerated. The uniform instruction ignores the factual evaluation to be undertaken on a case by case basis of possible '* * * prohibited governmental activity (which) might include extreme pleas of desperate illness, appeals based primarily on sympathy, pity or close personal friendship, and offers of inordinate sums of money. * * *' 216 N.W.2d at 383. Most of all, the uniform instruction erroneously fails to focus on the crucial question of what is likely to cause normally law-abiding persons to commit the offense. The giving of the instruction was error.' 218 N.W.2d at 651.

In the present case the trial court responded to defendant's exception by adding language to its proposed instruction. In its final form, the instruction was as follows, with the added language italicized:

The defendant asserts that he was the victim of entrapment as to the crime charged. The State has the burden of disproving entrapment by the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt and if it fails to sustain its burden, the defendant must be acquitted.

Entrapment occurs when a law enforcement agent induces the commission of an offense using persuasion or other means likely to cause normally law-abiding persons to commit the offense. Conduct merely affording a person an opportunity to commit an offense does not constitute entrapment.

In applying this instruction, you should consider the course of conduct between the agent and the defendant. You should consider whether the police actions were so reprehensible that as a matter of public policy a conviction should not be tolerated. Such actions might include extreme pleas of desperate illness, appeals based primarily on sympathy, pity or close personal friendship, and offers of inordinate sums of money. The transaction leading up to the offense, the interaction between the agent and the defendant and the defendant's response to conduct of the agent are all to be considered by you in judging what the effect of the agent's conduct would be on a normally law-abiding person.

Therefore, it is your duty to acquit the defendant if you find that the agent conducted himself in a manner which would induce a normally law-abiding person to commit the offense charged. However, if you find that such conduct would not be likely to induce a normally law-abiding person to commit the offense alleged, then the state has sustained the burden imposed upon it and has disproved the defense of entrapment.

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