State v. Towers

Decision Date10 December 2008
Docket Number05CR0749; A131170.
Citation224 Or. App. 352,197 P.3d 616
PartiesSTATE of Oregon, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Katrisa Lee TOWERS, Defendant-Appellant.
CourtOregon Court of Appeals

Peter Gartlan, Chief Defender, and Robin A. Jones, Senior Deputy Public Defender, Legal Services Division, Office of Public Defense Services, filed the brief for appellant.

Hardy Myers, Attorney General, Mary H. Williams, Solicitor General, and Jamie K. Contreras, Assistant Attorney General, filed the brief for respondent.

Before BREWER, Chief Judge, and SCHUMAN, Judge, and RIGGS, Senior Judge.

BREWER, C.J.

Defendant appeals her conviction for first-degree theft arising from a shoplifting incident in which she gave a false name to investigators. We write to address her related arguments that the trial court erred in failing to accept her proposed stipulation as to her true identity and in admitting, despite her objection under OEC 403, a photograph of defendant that was taken while she was incarcerated. Defendant asserts that the evidence was inadmissible under OEC 403 because its prejudicial effect substantially outweighed its probative value. We affirm.1

According to the state's evidence, defendant was observed by a store detective shoplifting various personal items from a retail establishment. As part of her scheme, defendant attempted to return for a refund certain items that she had taken from the store without paying for them. Defendant was initially denied a refund because she did not have a driver's license. However, defendant ultimately obtained the refund; after the transaction was complete, store employees ushered defendant to the store's loss prevention office. Defendant gave a false name to the employees, and when police arrived to investigate, defendant gave the same false name to a police officer. Defendant was arrested and taken to jail. When the arresting officer arrived with defendant at the jail, a corrections officer advised him of defendant's true name.

Defendant's defense was that she had not shoplifted any items from the store and that the refund was legitimate. Before trial, defendant anticipated that the state would offer evidence that she gave a false name after being apprehended and, in order to obviate the need for evidence regarding her true identity, defendant offered to stipulate that her true name was Katrisa Towers. The state objected, and the trial court rejected the stipulation, reasoning that "it would take as much time to go through the stipulation with the jury as to simply have a question asked and answered * * *." Immediately following that ruling, the state informed the court that it intended to offer a "jail photo" of defendant as evidence of her identity. The photograph showed defendant's face and upper torso. At the top of the photograph was the heading "Josephine County Correctional Facility," and beneath the photograph was defendant's name, "Katrisa Lee Towers," followed by personal information, including her date of birth, age, and identifying physical characteristics.

Among other grounds for the offer, the prosecutor noted that defendant did not have a driver's license showing her face and name. Defendant objected under OEC 403 and moved to exclude the photograph, arguing that it was "unfairly prejudicial because of the header at the top naming Josephine County Correctional Facility and the depiction of the defendant clearly in jail scrubs." The trial court denied defendant's motion. The court explained:

"You know the relevance in weighing this out it has some relevance in light of the fact that a false name was given. But it's very marginal relevance and if the defendant is willing to stipulate, on the other hand I really don't see much harm or prejudice in it either. It's kind of — that whole issue the 403 weighing to me is rather what they would call equipoise, that is equally divided. It's got some relevance it's got some potential for prejudice and I guess actually whatever relevance there is it's probably outweighed. It's probably is heavier than the potential for prejudice since it's clear that the defendant was at one time in custody or was taken into custody at that time. So I don't see a problem with [the photograph]."

At trial, the state offered the photograph during the testimony of the arresting officer, and defendant objected on the further ground that an inadequate foundation had been laid for its admission. The prosecutor then withdrew the offer. The prosecutor next called the jail corrections officer who identified defendant as Katrisa Towers and confirmed that she had made the same identification to the arresting officer when defendant was brought to jail after her arrest in this case. The prosecutor then renewed the offer of the photograph, and defendant objected on the ground that, at that point, the photograph was irrelevant and cumulative. The court overruled the objection. The jury convicted defendant of the charged offense.

On appeal, defendant challenges the trial court's rejection of her proposed stipulation to her true identity, the denial of her pretrial motion to exclude the photograph under OEC 403, and the admission of the photograph at trial despite her additional objection at that point that the evidence was cumulative of the corrections officer's in-court identification of defendant.

In order to evaluate defendant's arguments, we first assess the relevance of evidence of defendant's true identity in the context of the parties' theories at trial with respect to the charged offense. At trial, the state posited that defendant had not paid for the items for which she obtained a refund, and defendant asserted that she had paid for the items. In support of its theory, the state offered evidence that defendant gave a false name to investigators. Defendant conceded that that evidence was relevant to show that she was conscious of her guilt. However, defendant offered to stipulate to her true identity, presumably hoping thereby to limit the jury's focus on the evidence that she had lied about her identity. The dispositive question is whether, in this context, the trial court erred in admitting the state's evidence of defendant's true identity.

We initially reject defendant's challenge to the trial court's refusal to accept her stipulation. The trial court did not err in rejecting the proposed stipulation, because a stipulation "only provides an alternate form of proof. It [does] not have the effect of making otherwise relevant evidence irrelevant." State v. Sparks 336 Or. 298, 308, 83 P.3d 304, cert. den., 543 U.S. 893, 125 S.Ct. 219, 160 L.Ed.2d 158 (2004). Evidence of defendant's true identity was relevant to show that she lied about her identity; that evidence, in turn, was relevant to show defendant's consciousness that she had stolen the merchandise for...

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5 cases
  • State v. Anderson, A155404
    • United States
    • Court of Appeals of Oregon
    • November 2, 2016
    ...than the prospect of a videotape of defendant, handcuffed or not, walking in a hallway wearing a dark hoodie.6 See State v. Towers , 224 Or.App. 352, 357–58, 197 P.3d 616 (2008) (affirming a trial court's decision to admit, over an OEC 403 objection, a jail booking photograph because, "alth......
  • State v. Levasseur
    • United States
    • Court of Appeals of Oregon
    • March 10, 2021
    ......State v. Towers , 224 Or. App. 352, 357, 197 P.3d 616 (2008).The relevant facts are undisputed. During the ......
  • State v. Bernabo, 04FE1672MS; A131625.
    • United States
    • Court of Appeals of Oregon
    • December 10, 2008
  • State v. Cook, 120747890
    • United States
    • Court of Appeals of Oregon
    • July 17, 2014
    ...use of the device is to commit theft.3 We readily infer guilt and criminal intent from less obstructive conduct. See State v. Towers, 224 Or.App. 352, 356, 197 P.3d 616 (2008) (the defendant's false statement about her true identity was evidence of guilty conscience); State v. Ohm, 224 Or.A......
  • Request a trial to view additional results

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