State v. Tryon

• Decision Date: 02 March 2018
• Docket Number: Docket No. 44489
• Citation: 429 P.3d 142,164 Idaho 254
• Court: Idaho Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE of Idaho, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Gracie Jean TRYON, Defendant-Appellant.

164 Idaho 254

429 P.3d 142

STATE of Idaho, Plaintiff-Respondent,

v.Gracie Jean TRYON, Defendant-Appellant.

Docket No. 44489

Supreme Court of Idaho, Boise, January 2018 Term.

Filed: March 2, 2018

Eric D. Fredericksen, State Appellate Public Defender, Boise, for Appellant. Ben P. McGreevy argued.

Hon. Lawrence G. Wasden, Attorney General, Boise, for Respondent. John C. McKinney argued.

BEVAN, Justice

Gracie Jean Tryon ("Tryon") appeals her conviction for possession of a controlled substance. Tryon contends that the district court erred when it admitted certain statements regarding the identity of the alleged controlled substance. Tryon claims the admission of these statements violated her constitutional right to confront witnesses against her because the declarant was unavailable and she did not have a prior opportunity to cross-examine him. Tryon also asserts that the State did not present sufficient evidence to support a conviction for possession of a controlled substance.

I. FACTS AND PROCEDURE

At approximately 10:00 p.m. on February 1, 2016, a narcotics detective was patrolling the neighborhood of North Indiana in Caldwell, Idaho. The detective was watching a house he had visited three or four times before to assist in misdemeanor probation visits. The detective also testified that he had previously found drugs and drug paraphernalia at the same house.

While in the neighborhood, the detective saw a Ford truck that was parked on the street near the house drive away. He testified that he followed the truck, observed that the truck failed to make a complete stop at two stop signs, and then pulled the truck over. The driver was identified as Carl Ringcamp and the passenger, Tryon, told the detective she and Ringcamp were boyfriend and girlfriend.

When the detective approached the driver’s side of the vehicle, he testified that he noticed the faint smell of marijuana. Based on the odor, he asked Ringcamp to exit the vehicle and follow him to the back of the truck. After a short conversation, Ringcamp was taken into custody and placed in the back of the patrol car. Another officer arrived, and when Tryon exited the truck from the passenger side, the detective testified he overheard Tryon say she was not going to allow them to search her purse. The detective asked her about the marijuana odor and about a marijuana pipe that Ringcamp claimed to have left on the seat. Tryon admitted it was a "weed pipe" and that she had it in her pocket. The detective searched Tryon and found a cylinder pipe or e-cigarette.

When the detective searched the truck, he found the following: (1) a small purse with stems and bits of black residue located in the passenger side door panel; (2) a large purse on the passenger side floorboard that was open and packed full of items; (3) a black case that sat on top of everything in the large open purse; (4) two hypodermic syringes and two glass pipes in a purple Crown Royal bag that was inside the black case, with one of the pipes having a white residue in its burnt bottom; and (5) a small blue plastic case next to the Crown Royal bag that held a baggie with a white crystallized substance.

The State charged Tryon with one count of possession of a controlled substance, under Idaho Code section 37-2731(c)(1), and one count of possession of drug paraphernalia, under Idaho Code section 37-2734A. Tryon pled not guilty and proceeded to a trial by jury.

At trial, the detective testified that seventy to eighty percent of the time when he finds methamphetamine during an investigation, he also finds syringes or pipes. Here, the syringes, pipes, and the white crystalline substance were "right next to each other." During direct examination the detective was asked whether or not the white crystalline substance he found looked like methamphetamine; he answered "Yes."

The State did not present laboratory tests that identified the white crystalline substance as methamphetamine. Additionally, the State could not locate Ringcamp at the time of Tryon’s trial and, therefore, he was unavailable to testify. Nevertheless, over an objection by Tryon’s counsel on the basis of her right to confrontation, and after an offer of proof by the State outside of the jury’s presence, the district court determined the statements made by Ringcamp while he was in custody were nontestimonial and permitted the detective to testify about those statements. The State argued the detective’s testimony offered proof the substance was methamphetamine. The detective testified:

While he was in the back of my car, I asked him whose meth it was and he stated it wasn’t hers ... He gave me a couple other responses as well ... He said again it wasn’t hers. And then, he later said, "It was mine. Okay."

On cross-examination, the detective testified that he did not submit the glass pipes, syringes, or baggies for DNA testing or fingerprinting. The detective also did not get a blood or urine sample from Tryon to test whether or not she had methamphetamine in her system. Instead, the State relied solely on circumstantial evidence to prove that the substance was methamphetamine. In fact, the State’s case-in-chief relied, in part, on the testimony of the detective, who testified he had dealt with methamphetamine on a weekly basis in approximately 100 cases during his three years with the Caldwell Police Department’s "Street Crimes Unit." Through his training and experience, the detective further testified that he knew: 1) how to identify methamphetamine (a white crystallized substance, small crystals, and some powder); 2) methamphetamine had little to no odor; 3) how it was packaged (in large sandwich baggies, smaller zip-lock baggies, and "tear offs" of plastic shopping bags that are melted at the end); 4) how it is typically used (smoked by using glass tubes with a ball on one end, injected, or snorted); and 5) that used methamphetamine pipes have a white residue inside and could also be black on the bottom of the ball.

After evidence was presented, including the detective’s testimony, a jury found Tryon guilty of both charges. The district court imposed a unified four-year sentence with one and one-half years fixed, suspended the sentence, and placed Tryon on probation for three years. Tryon timely filed this notice of appeal.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

"This Court will uphold a judgment of conviction entered upon a jury verdict so long as there is substantial evidence upon which a rational trier of fact could conclude that the prosecution proved all essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt." State v. Kralovec , 161 Idaho 569, 572, 388 P.3d 583, 586 (2017) (internal quotations and citation omitted). "On appeal, where a defendant stands convicted, the evidence is viewed in the light most favorable to the prosecution." State v. Allen , 129 Idaho 556, 558, 929 P.2d 118, 120 (1996) (internal quotations and citation omitted). Moreover, this Court "is precluded from substituting its judgment for that of the jury as to the credibility of witnesses, the weight of the evidence and the reasonable inferences to be drawn from the evidence." Id.

III. ANALYSIS

A. The evidence in the record does not establish beyond a reasonable doubt that Tryon was in possession of a controlled substance.

The State contends that the evidence in the record establishes beyond a reasonable doubt that that the substance at issue—the white crystalline substance found in the Crown Royal bag in Tryon’s purse—was methamphetamine. This argument fails because one of the essential elements the State had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt was the identity of the substance. I.C. § 37-2732(c)(1).

1. There is insufficient evidence to prove the essential elements of possession of a controlled substance.

The Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees the right to due process, and the United States Supreme Court has held that as a part of that due process, "no person shall be made to suffer the onus of a criminal conviction except upon sufficient proof—defined as evidence necessary to convince a trier of fact beyond a reasonable doubt of the existence of every element of the offense."

State v. Taylor , 157 Idaho 186, 190, 335 P.3d 31, 35 (2014) (quoting Jackson v. Virginia , 443 U.S. 307, 319 (1979) ). "The relevant inquiry is not whether this Court would find the defendant to be guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, but whether after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt." State v. Adamcik , 152 Idaho 445, 460, 272 P.3d 417, 432 (2012) (internal quotations and citation omitted). This analysis requires this Court to consider the evidence "in the light most favorable to the State" and not to "substitute [its] judgment for that of the jury on issues of witness credibility, weight of the evidence, or reasonable inferences to be drawn from the evidence." Id. (citation omitted). Indeed, "[i]t is within the province of the jury to assign weight to conflicting evidence and credibility to testimony." State v. Anderson , 145 Idaho 99, 104, 175 P.3d 788, 793 (2008). "Where there is competent evidence to sustain the verdict, this court will not reweigh that evidence." State v. Filson , 101 Idaho 381, 386, 613 P.2d 938, 943 (citation omitted). Furthermore, "[t]his Court will not disregard a jury’s verdict unless the evidence is insufficient for any rational jury to find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt." Anderson , 145 Idaho at 104, 175 P.3d at 794.

Because the state did not present laboratory test results showing the substance was methamphetamine, the question is whether the State presented sufficient circumstantial evidence to prove its identity. We hold it did not.

In State v. Mitchell , 130 Idaho 134, 937 P.2d 960 (Ct. App. 1997), the Idaho Court of Appeals held that "circumstantial evidence may be sufficient to prove the identity of a...