State v. Roberts
| Decision Date | 27 August 1996 |
| Docket Number | No. 22717,22717 |
| Citation | 129 Idaho 194,923 P.2d 439 |
| Parties | STATE of Idaho, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Douglas Doyle ROBERTS, Defendant-Appellant. Lewiston, May 1996 Term |
| Court | Idaho Supreme Court |
Fuller & Williams, Twin Falls, for appellant. Timothy J. Williams argued.
Alan G. Lance, Attorney General; L. La Mont Anderson, Deputy Attorney General, argued, Boise, for respondent.
ON REVIEW
Douglas Doyle Roberts (Roberts) appeals from the denial of his new trial motion challenging the district court's evidentiary ruling that if he presented alibi evidence that he was out of state during the time period that three girls alleged prior uncharged molestations, the State would be permitted to show that Roberts spent this out of state time incarcerated in Nevada for a prior offense. We affirm.
Roberts was charged with lewd and lascivious conduct with a minor under sixteen pursuant to I.C. § 18-1508, and sexual abuse of a child under sixteen pursuant to I.C. § 18-1506. The charges stemmed from Roberts' molestation of his step-granddaughter, S.H., when she was nine or ten years old. Roberts filed a motion in limine to exclude evidence proffered by the State that he committed sexual abuse against four other young girls. Three of the girls, B.H., A.H., and K.H., were also step-granddaughters of Roberts. The fourth girl, J.L., was the daughter of a woman with whom Roberts had once lived. The district court granted Robert's motion as to J.L., but allowed B.H., A.H., and K.H. to testify to experiences of sexual abuse by Roberts similar to that which he was charged with committing against S.H.
In order to impeach the testimony of the three girls, Roberts sought to have his wife testify that he was out of the state during the time period that the three girls alleged the sexual abuse occurred. Although Roberts wished to present to the jury the fact that he was out of state, he did not want the jury to learn the reason for his absence. In fact, during the time period in question, late 1988 through December 1990, Roberts was in a Nevada prison serving a sentence for a voluntary manslaughter conviction. Roberts made a second motion in limine to preclude the State from presenting evidence concerning his incarceration in Nevada.
The district court ruled that if Roberts presented testimony that he was out of state from late 1988 to December 1990, the State would be permitted to elicit evidence that he was incarcerated during that time. The State would not, however, be permitted to divulge the fact that he was incarcerated for voluntary manslaughter. Thus, the district court's ruling requested Roberts to choose between (1) using his alibi evidence, with the prejudicial consequence that the jury would learn of the prior conviction, or (2) foregoing the alibi evidence, thereby relinquishing a potential means of impeaching the three girls Following a guilty verdict on both counts, Roberts moved for a new trial arguing that he received ineffective assistance of counsel and that the evidentiary ruling impermissibly dissuaded him from presenting his alibi evidence. The district court acknowledged that its evidentiary ruling may have been incorrect, but concluded that a new trial was not warranted because it could not "be said to have probably changed the outcome of the trial." The court also rejected Roberts' ineffective assistance of counsel claim.
who testified to uncharged molestations. Roberts elected to forego his alibi evidence so as to prevent disclosure of his past incarceration.
Roberts was sentenced to serve a unified life sentence with a ten-year minimum confinement for the lewd and lascivious conduct conviction and a concurrent determinate term of five years imprisonment for the sexual abuse conviction. The district court denied Roberts' subsequent motion for a reduction of the sentences under I.C.R. 35.
Roberts appealed. The Court of Appeals affirmed the district court's denial of Roberts' motion for a new trial. We granted Roberts' petition for review.
1. Whether the district court abused its discretion in denying Roberts' motion for a new trial.
2. Whether the district court abused its discretion in denying Robert's motion for reconsideration of sentence.
This case comes before the Supreme Court on a petition for review of the Court of Appeals' decision. In such a case, the decision of the Court of Appeals is valued for the insight it provides in addressing the issues on appeal. Spence v. Howell, 126 Idaho 763, 768, 890 P.2d 714, 719 (1995). While we give serious consideration to the views expressed by the Court of Appeals, we review the opinion of the trial court directly. Schiewe v. Farwell, 125 Idaho 46, 49, 867 P.2d 920, 923 (1993).
We can dismiss this issue summarily. Idaho Code Section 19-2406 sets forth the grounds upon which a new trial may be granted to a criminal defendant. Only those grounds provided can support the grant of a new trial. State v. Gomez, 126 Idaho 83, 86, 878 P.2d 782, 785 (1994), cert. denied, 1005 U.S. 513, 115 S.Ct. 522, 130 L.Ed.2d 427 (1994). Because a claim for ineffective assistance of counsel is not one of the enumerated grounds, Roberts' allegation does not state a basis for a new trial under I.C. § 19-2406. Gomez, 126 Idaho at 86, 878 P.2d at 785. Roberts' ineffective assistance of counsel claim is more appropriately considered through an application for post-conviction relief. Id. Accordingly, the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying this portion of Roberts' motion for a new trial.
Unlike an ineffective assistance of counsel claim, a new trial may be granted where the trial court "has erred in the decision of any question of law...." I.C. § 19-2406. As a result, Roberts' challenge of the district court's evidentiary ruling states a cognizable basis for the grant of a new trial under I.C. § 19-2406.
Having stated a claim cognizable under I.C. § 19-2406, the trial court may grant a new trial "if required in the interest of justice." I.C.R. 34. The grant or denial of a new trial is committed to the sound discretion of the trial court which this Court will not disturb absent an abuse of that discretion. State v. Lankford, 116 Idaho 860 We begin our analysis by inquiring into the propriety of the district court's evidentiary ruling. The district court concluded that it would be unfair to allow Roberts to elicit alibi testimony without allowing the State to establish that Roberts' absence from Idaho was due to the fact he was incarcerated in Nevada. Roberts claims that the district court's incorrect ruling placed him on the horns of an impermissible dilemma, i.e., that he was forced to choose between (1) using his alibi evidence, with the prejudicial consequence that the jury would learn of the prior conviction, or (2) foregoing the alibi evidence, thus relinquishing an effective impeachment of the corroborating witnesses' allegations of uncharged sexual molestations. Roberts argues that evidence of his incarceration had no relevance for the purposes of proving the case against him, and to the extent that it had any relevance, the evidence should have been excluded under I.R.E. 403 because its probative value was substantially outweighed by its unfair prejudicial impact.
873, 781 P.2d 197, 210 (1989); State v. Scroggins, 110 Idaho 380, 384, 716 P.2d 1152, 1156 (1986). The trial court will not be found to have abused its discretion unless a new trial was granted for a reason not delineated in the code or unless the decision was "manifestly contrary to the interests of justice." Lankford, 116 Idaho at 873, 781 P.2d at 197.
Relevant evidence is evidence which has the "tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence." I.R.E. 401. Evidence of Roberts' incarceration would not have made more probable any element of the State's case against him. Rather than undermining Roberts' alibi, evidence of his incarceration in Nevada during the relevant time period would have strengthened it. Thus, no prejudice to the State would have resulted from the jury being uninformed about the reason behind Roberts' absence from Idaho. Further, the fact of his incarceration would only have impermissibly invited the jury to infer that Roberts had a criminal propensity and that he was more likely to have committed the offenses charged in the present case. The admission of evidence for such a purpose is strictly prohibited by I.R.E. 404. Accordingly, we agree that the fact of Roberts' incarceration was not relevant to any element of the State's case against him, and conclude the district court erred in denying Roberts' motion to exclude evidence concerning his imprisonment in Nevada.
Having so concluded, we must now determine whether this error required that Roberts be granted a new trial. Roberts contends that had he been allowed to present his alibi evidence to impeach the three girls' testimony regarding the uncharged acts of sexual abuse, the jury would have questioned the veracity of S.H. and that an acquittal probably would have resulted. 1 The district court ruled that any error resulting from its incorrect evidentiary ruling "cannot be said to have probably changed the outcome of the trial."
In order to determine whether the district court should have granted Roberts' motion for a new trial, we must decide whether the court's incorrect evidentiary ruling on the alibi constituted harmless or reversible error. I.C.R. 52 provides that "[a]ny error, defect,...
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