State v. Pratt

• Decision Date: 18 March 1994
• Docket Number: No. 18485,18485
• Citation: 125 Idaho 594,873 P.2d 848
• Parties: STATE of Idaho, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Joseph Earl PRATT, Defendant-Appellant. Boise, February 1993 Term
• Court: Idaho Supreme Court

Page 848

873 P.2d 848

125 Idaho 594

STATE of Idaho, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Joseph Earl PRATT, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 18485.

Supreme Court of Idaho,

Boise, February 1993 Term.

March 18, 1994.

Rehearing Denied June 3, 1994.

[125 Idaho 595] Bruce H. Greene, Sandpoint, for appellant.

Hon. Larry EchoHawk, Atty. Gen., and Lynn E. Thomas, Deputy Atty. Gen., argued, Boise, for respondent.

1993 Opinion No. 83, Issued July 27, 1993, is hereby withdrawn and this Opinion is Substituted Therefor.

McDEVITT, Chief Justice.

BACKGROUND AND PRIOR PROCEEDINGS

On February 7, 1989, the State filed a criminal information against appellant, Joseph Earl Pratt ("Pratt"), charging him with eighteen crimes. The information alleged that a number of crimes occurred at the home of Louise Turner in Bonner County, Idaho, including robbery, first degree burglary, second degree kidnapping, aggravated battery, and ten counts of aggravated assault. The remaining crimes were allegedly committed during the course of Pratt's attempt to flee from the police, including aggravated assault upon a law enforcement officer, attempted first degree murder, and first degree murder. ¹ The State gave notice of its intent to seek the death penalty, and Pratt pled "not guilty" to each count.

On April 13, 1989, Pratt filed a motion joining his co-defendant's (his brother, James Kevin Pratt) motion to strike language in Count XVIII, for the first degree murder of Brent Jacobson. Pratt moved that the following language be stricken:

[A]nd that at the time of the killing of such victim the victim was a peace officer, law enforcement officer, and executive officer duly commissioned as such by the United States Forest Service of the United States In support of this argument, Pratt cited I.C.R. 5.1 and I.C. §§ 18-4003(b), 19-510 and 19-5101(d). In regards to I.C.R. 5.1, the court ruled that it does not require specific findings of fact, only a finding of probable cause that a certain crime was committed by the defendant. As to the cited statutes, the court ruled that I.C. § 18-4003(b) is not limited by I.C. § 19-510, because to do so would exempt deputy sheriffs, Idaho State Police officers, and even the President of the United States from its protection. The court further ruled that "the legislature intended the protection of I.C. § 18-4003(b) to extend to all persons serving in the designated capacities of peace officer or executive officer [whether] federal or state." It also found that the victim fit within I.C. § 18-4003(b). Finally, the court ruled that the Pratts were engaged in the commission of a felony during the killing, as they were escaping from the scene of the crime, because there was a "continuous and unbroken chain of events, ..." State v. Fetterly, 109 Idaho 766, 710 P.2d 1202 (1986), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 870, 107 S.Ct. 239, 93 L.Ed.2d 164 (1986).

[125 Idaho 596] Department of Agriculture, and was acting in his lawful discharge of his official duties, and assisting the Bonner County Sheriff's Department. The Defendant knew or should have known that Brent K. Jacobson was such an officer so acting, and that said shooting and killing occurred after voice notification to the Defendant of the status of such officer and after the Defendant had been pursued for many hours by such law enforcement officers. Further, that such shooting and killing occurred during the perpetration and commission of the felony criminal offenses of burglary in the first degree, kidnapping in the second degree, and robbery and was committed by the Defendant in the furtherance of said commission and perpetration of said felony criminal offenses, and to facilitate the escape and further the commission and perpetration of said felony offenses.

Pratt also joined his co-defendant's motion to strike certain counts, as either not supported by the evidence or duplicative. The court denied the motions by order issued on May 8, 1989.

After fifteen days of a jury trial, the jury returned its verdict, finding Pratt guilty of first degree burglary, robbery, second degree kidnapping, ten counts of aggravated assault, aggravated assault upon a law enforcement officer and attempted first degree murder. Pratt was also convicted of first degree murder on the grounds that the killing occurred during the perpetration or attempted perpetration of robbery, burglary or kidnapping, I.C. § 18-4003(d), and that the person killed was a peace officer acting within the scope of his duties, I.C. § 18-4003(b). Pratt was found not guilty of aggravated battery.

The sentencing hearing was held on November 27, 1989. On the same day, the court issued its I.C. § 19-2515 findings. The court considered, evaluated, and identified the mitigating and statutory aggravating circumstances, including the statutory aggravating circumstance defined in I.C. § 19-2515(g)(7) (the murder was one defined as first degree murder by I.C. § 18-4003(d) accompanied by specific intent to kill). The court then weighed all of the mitigating circumstances against each one of the statutory aggravating circumstances, and concluded that

[t]he killing herein was of a police officer acting in the line of duty, known by the defendant to be acting in the line of duty and committed during the on going commission of serious and dangerous felony offenses and was accompanied with the specific intent to cause death. But in the opinion of the Court, the death penalty would be unjust because Defendant did not fire the fatal shots. ²

On November 30, 1989, the court entered its judgments and sentences. For first degree burglary, Pratt was sentenced to a fixed On March 29, 1990, Pratt filed an I.C.R. 35 motion to reduce sentence. He contended that his sentences were unlawful in that (1) they violated Idaho's double jeopardy laws, and (2) the sentence for first degree murder bars conviction on all prior counts as included offenses under I.C. § 19-1719 and applicable case law.

[125 Idaho 597] term of ten years, this sentence to run concurrently with the sentence imposed for robbery. For robbery, Pratt was sentenced to a fixed term of twenty-five years. For second degree kidnapping, Pratt was sentenced to a fixed term of ten years, this sentence to run consecutive to the sentence for robbery. For each of the ten counts of aggravated assault, Pratt was sentenced to a fixed term of two years, these sentences to run concurrently with the sentences imposed for robbery and first degree burglary. For aggravated assault upon a law enforcement officer, Pratt was sentenced to a fixed term of five years, this sentence to run consecutive to the sentences imposed for robbery and second degree kidnapping. For attempted first degree murder, Pratt was sentenced to a fixed term of fifteen years, this sentence to run consecutive to the sentences imposed for robbery, second degree kidnapping, and aggravated assault upon a law enforcement officer. Pratt was sentenced to a life term with a fixed term of twenty-five years for first degree murder, this sentence to run consecutive to all of his other sentences.

On March 4, 1991, the court entered its order on Pratt's I.C.R. 35 motion. The court disagreed that the conviction and sentence for first degree murder barred conviction on all prior counts. In this regard, the court cited State v. Hall, 86 Idaho 63, 383 P.2d 602 (1963), overruled in part, Sivak v. State, 112 Idaho 197, 212, 731 P.2d 192, 207 (1986), as an analogous case. In addition, the court reexamined Pratt's sentences in light of this Court's holding in State v. Pizzuto, 119 Idaho 742, 810 P.2d 680 (1991), cert. denied, 503 U.S. 908, 112 S.Ct. 1268, 117 L.Ed.2d 495 (1992), overruled in part, State v. Card, 121 Idaho 425, 432, 825 P.2d 1081, 1088 (1992), cert. denied, 506 U.S. 915, 113 S.Ct. 321, 121 L.Ed.2d 241 (1992), and, as a result, merged the sentences for burglary, robbery, and second degree kidnapping into the sentence for first degree murder. In addition, the court restructured Pratt's sentences, providing that the sentences for aggravated assault will be served first and concurrently to one another, followed by the sentence for aggravated assault upon a law enforcement officer, then the attempted first degree murder sentence, and finally the sentence for first degree murder. The court issued its amended judgment and sentence to this effect on the same day.

Pratt filed his notice of appeal on January 5, 1990, appealing from his November 30, 1989 judgment and sentence pursuant to I.A.R. 11. On appeal, Pratt raises the following issues:

ISSUES ON APPEAL

I. Did the district court err by instructing the jury that the deceased victim, Brent Jacobson, was a peace or executive officer?

II. Were the jury instructions misleading, confusing, and misstatements of the law?

III. Is I.C. § 19-2132(b)(2) and (c), which is the basis for Jury Instruction 61, unconstitutional in that it denied Pratt his right to trial by jury?

IV. Is Pratt's sentence unreasonable?

ANALYSIS

I.

Pratt argues that the fatal shooting of Brent Jacobson does not constitute first degree murder as it is defined in I.C. § 18-4003(b):

(b) Any murder of any peace officer, executive officer, officer of the court, fireman, judicial officer or prosecuting attorney who was acting in the lawful discharge of an official duty, and was known or should have been known by the perpetrator of the murder to be an officer so acting, shall be murder of the first degree.

Pratt contends that Brent Jacobson, who was a law enforcement officer of the United States Forest Service, was not a peace officer "acting in the lawful discharge of his duty" as [W]ithin availability of funds and established Service regulations and policies ... to provide support and cooperation to Bonner County in the enforcement of State and local laws on lands and water within or a part of any unit of the National Forest System.

[125 Idaho 598] contemplated by I.C. § 18-4003(b). We agree, and accordingly vacate Pratt's...