State v. White
| Decision Date | 22 April 2008 |
| Docket Number | No. DA 06-0458.,DA 06-0458. |
| Citation | 184 P.3d 1008,343 Mont. 66,2008 MT 129 |
| Parties | STATE of Montana, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. Joel Miles WHITE, a/k/a Joel Miles Seminole, Defendant and Appellant. |
| Court | Montana Supreme Court |
For Appellant: Jim Wheelis, Chief Appellate Defender; Roberta R. Zenker, Assistant Appellate Defender, Helena, Montana.
For Appellee: Honorable Mike McGrath, Attorney General; Jonathan M. Krauss, Assistant Attorney General, Helena, Montana, Dennis Paxinos, County Attorney, Billings, Montana.
¶ 1 Appellant Joel M. White (White) appeals from the order of the Thirteenth Judicial District Court, Yellowstone County, denying his motion for a mistrial. We affirm.
¶ 2 We consider the following issue on appeal:
¶ 3 Did the District Court err by denying White's motion for a mistrial on the basis of a juror's comment, made during deliberations, that a friend had called him about the case?
¶ 4 On June 25, 2005, White went to see his sister, Diane Temple, at her home in Billings. Diane's husband, Gary Temple, and White did not get along and upon Gary's return to the home, Gary told Diane that he did not want White in his house. Diane and White then left together and went to a friend's apartment, taking Diane and Gary's Dodge Durango. Later that evening, Gary went looking for Diane and, finding the Dodge parked on the street, activated the car alarm. Diane heard the alarm and went outside where she and Gary began to argue. White watched the argument from the porch until he and Gary began to argue, at which point White moved into the front yard. A physical confrontation ensued. During the course of the fight, White pulled out a knife and stabbed Gary seven times before finally stabbing Gary in the neck, severing Gary's jugular vein and cutting his carotid artery. Gary stumbled into the street and died. White and Diane fled the scene. Onlookers dialed 9-1-1 and emergency personnel arrived but Gary could not be helped. White and Diane were apprehended by police a few blocks away and White was arrested.
¶ 5 On June 30, 2005, the county attorney filed an information charging White with deliberate homicide, a felony, in violation of § 45-5-102(1)(a), MCA. The case proceeded to jury trial on March 6, 2006. During the trial, eleven eyewitnesses testified about the fight leading to Gary's death. White testified in his own defense, admitting that he had caused Gary's death but asserting that his actions were justified in self-defense. However, eyewitnesses testified that White initiated the fight and continued the attack even after Gary retreated with both hands in the air. Witnesses testified that White told Gary "you're dead[, y]ou're going to fucking die." On the sixth day of trial, March 13, 2006, the presentation of evidence concluded and the jury was dismissed overnight, with closing arguments and jury instructions scheduled for the next day, to be followed by jury deliberations. Prior to dismissal the judge admonished the jury, saying:
Once again, please do not discuss the case, or form any opinions about the case, and once again, there will be a newspaper article and some news stories about this. Please do not watch the news stories, go onto the internet, or read the newspaper articles.
¶ 6 The following day, after closing arguments and jury instructions were given, jury deliberations commenced. Approximately two hours after deliberations had begun, one of the jurors, Robert Lindbergh (Lindbergh), began to tell the jury how a friend of his had called Lindbergh the night before and wanted to know if Lindbergh would vote to convict White. Lindbergh told his friend that he could not discuss the case. However, the friend continued and "gave [Lindbergh] his opinion" that he "read it in the paper ... [that] the Defendant was in prison and that he got out of prison and that he killed this man...." According to the jury foreman, Dion Campbell (Campbell), the jury's immediate reaction to Lindbergh's comment was that Campbell and several other jurors said "whoa, whoa, whoa, we can't hear this." The jury then decided to report the incident to the judge and contacted the bailiff.
¶ 7 Soon after, the court, with counsel and White present, questioned Foreman Campbell and Lindbergh about the incident.1 Campbell explained to the court that, although all the jurors had heard the comment, they all "agreed right at the front that [they were] not going to consider" it. Campbell explained that deliberations proceeded from there and the comment was not discussed further. Similarly, Lindbergh stated that when he began to tell the jury about the phone call, the other jurors
cut me off right away. And that's when ... it dawned on me ... [that] I shouldn't have said that, I should have kept my mouth shut. But after it happened, you know, and then I apologized to them and then we got to talking about it a little bit in there and they agreed that what I had said has not affected them and what their thinking is.
Following this testimony, White moved for a mistrial on the ground that the jury had been tainted against him. White argued that a "cautionary instruction or any other type of admonition from the court" would not cure the problem, making a mistrial appropriate. The District Court denied the motion, stating that White had not "been denied a fair and impartial trial" because (1) the jury quickly brought the issue to the court's attention, (2) both Campbell and Lindbergh stated that the jury had not discussed the comment further and the jury's discussion prior to and after the comment remained on the same track, and (3) the "overwhelming evidence is that in fact, Mr. White is guilty of deliberate homicide and that the defense of justifiable use of force was not proven even close to beyond a reasonable doubt[.]" The court then called the jury into the courtroom and gave the following cautionary instruction:
Members of the jury, one of the jury instructions that the Court gave was that you could only consider evidence which was received in this Courtroom and evidence which was able to be cross examined. Evidently some evidence has come in from other sources, and I'm going to ask you to completely and totally disregard that evidence. The Defendant has a right to be tried on the charge only based upon the evidence which has been presented in this Courtroom and subject to cross examination. With that very strict admonition, I'm going to ask you to go back into the jury room and continue your deliberations. Thank you.
The jury was then excused to continue deliberations. Deliberations continued for nearly another four hours before the jury returned its verdict, finding White guilty of deliberate homicide. The District Court sentenced White to life imprisonment at the Montana State Prison with a concurrent ten-year term pursuant to § 46-18-221, MCA, for use of a weapon. White appeals.
¶ 8 When deciding whether to grant a motion for a mistrial, the district court must determine whether the defendant was denied a fair and impartial trial. State v. Dubois, 2006 MT 89, ¶ 33, 332 Mont. 44, ¶ 33, 134 P.3d 82, ¶ 33. We review a district court's grant or denial of a motion for a mistrial to determine whether the court abused its discretion. Dubois, ¶ 33; State v. Kennedy, 2004 MT 53, ¶ 14, 320 Mont. 161, ¶ 14, 85 P.3d 1279, ¶ 14. The decision of a district court regarding the impartiality of a jury will not be set aside unless there is a clear abuse of discretion. Kennedy, ¶ 14.
¶ 9 The State expresses some uncertainty about the correct standard of review, noting White argues an apparent "alternative to the `fair and impartial trial' abuse of discretion legal standard" which "holds that a district court properly grants a motion for mistrial when a reasonable possibility exists that inadmissible evidence may have contributed to the conviction." However, this standard is not an alternative appellate standard of review but rather one of the substantive legal factors by which a district court determines whether a motion for mistrial is meritorious. "A district court properly grants a motion for mistrial when a reasonable possibility exists that inadmissible evidence may have contributed to the conviction." Dubois, ¶ 33 (citing State v. Long, 2005 MT 130, ¶ 24, 327 Mont. 238, ¶ 24, 113 P.3d 290, ¶ 24) (emphasis added). Other like factors, such as the prejudicial effect of the inadmissible evidence, are further discussed herein. After the district court has applied these substantive factors, we review the district court's disposition of the motion on appeal for abuse of discretion.
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