State v. Wilson

• Decision Date: 11 December 2007
• Docket Number: No. DA 06-0453.,DA 06-0453.
• Citation: 2007 MT 327,172 P.3d 1264
• Parties: STATE of Montana, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. Bianca WILSON, Defendant and Appellant.
• Court: Montana Supreme Court

172 P.3d 1264

2007 MT 327

STATE of Montana, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. Bianca WILSON, Defendant and Appellant.

No. DA 06-0453.

Supreme Court of Montana.

Submitted on Briefs August 29, 2007.

Decided December 11, 2007.

For Appellant: Raymond G. Kuntz, Red Lodge, Montana.

For Appellee: Hon. Mike McGrath, Montana Attorney General, Kathy Seeley, Assistant Attorney General, Helena, Montana.

Justice PATRICIA O. COTTER delivered the Opinion of the Court.

¶ 1 Appellant Bianca Wilson appeals from her felony conviction for tampering with evidence in the Thirteenth Judicial District, Yellowstone County. We affirm.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

¶ 2 On September 13, 2004, Wilson, an individual named Jesus Villarreal, and a 17-year old girl named Candra Vasquez, drove to Lovell, Wyoming in order to meet another individual named Justin Marchant. Marchant, as it turned out, was a confidential informant for law enforcement officials in Wyoming. Wilson and Villarreal drove to Lovell in a blue 2000 Ford Taurus which Villarreal had borrowed from another woman named Amber Mendenhall. Marchant was driving a pickup truck when he met these three individuals. After meeting, they switched cars, with Vasquez driving the pickup and Marchant getting into the Taurus with Villarreal and Wilson. Shortly thereafter, Wilson allegedly shot Marchant, and Marchant either jumped out or was ejected from the Taurus.

¶ 3 Villarreal and Wilson drove back to Billings, Montana in the Taurus. Once there, Wilson departed in her own car, while Villarreal drove the Taurus to his trailer in order to return it to Mendenhall. After meeting Mendenhall, the two drove off in the Taurus. Mendenhall noticed blood stains on the dashboard and a crack in the windshield. Villarreal told her there had been a fight in the car and that individuals involved might retaliate against them. Mendenhall then drove the car to a remote location and left it there, and at that time observed a bullet on the floor in the back. After getting a ride back into town with a friend named Lysa Chavira, Mendenhall, Wilson, Villarreal and Chavira met up and proceeded to spend some time together smoking methamphetamine in various motels around Billings for the next three to four days.

¶ 4 On September 14, 2004, the body of Justin Marchant was discovered on a gravel road in Carbon County, Montana. Law enforcement officials later determined that Marchant died from two gunshot wounds. On September 15, Wilson procured the keys to the Taurus and got a ride to it from Chavira. The two of them removed Mendenhall's belongings from the car and cleaned up some of the blood stains. At that time, Wilson also picked up her rosary which she had left in the car. According to Chavira, there was no weapon in the Taurus when they visited it and cleaned it. Chavira drove back to the motel to meet Villarreal and Mendenhall, while Wilson left in the Taurus. When Wilson returned later to the motel room, she was not driving the Taurus.

¶ 5 According to testimony given at trial, on September 16, Wilson, visibly upset, brought a newspaper into the hotel room where all these individuals were staying, and stated that she needed to go clean out the Taurus. Mendenhall later testified that the newspaper contained an article about Marchant's death. Later that afternoon, Villarreal and Chavira saw the Taurus parked on a street on the north side of Billings. Villarreal obtained a set of keys to the Taurus from a third party, and later returned by himself and moved it to an apartment complex on the south side of Billings. Later that evening, Wilson drove to Villarreal's trailer in another car and met with Villarreal and Mendenhall. According to Mendenhall, during this encounter Wilson told her that she knew where the Taurus was, that she was going to go get it, and that Mendenhall would get it back when Wilson "knew what was going on."

¶ 6 Soon thereafter, Villarreal, Mendenhall and Chavira went to another motel, this time without Wilson. Around mid-day of September 17, investigators caught up with them at the motel and questioned them. Villarreal told the investigators where the Taurus was located. He also called Wilson, in the presence of the investigators, and had her meet them at the motel. When she arrived there, she was arrested.

¶ 7 When investigators located the car, they discovered blood stains, a bullet casing, a rosary bead matching Wilson's rosary, and a spray bottle, along with other items of evidence. They also discovered evidence that blood had been cleaned from the car. They did not, however, uncover any evidence of a murder weapon, and to this date the weapon used in the shooting of Marchant has never been located or identified.

¶ 8 Initially, Wilson was charged with aggravated kidnapping and deliberate homicide and Villarreal was charged with aggravated kidnapping, but those charges were later dismissed. On April 27, 2005, Wilson and Villarreal were charged in Yellowstone County with separate counts of tampering with evidence of the homicide of Marchant. In the Information against Wilson, the State alleged that between September 13, 2004, and September 17, 2004 she "altered, destroyed, concealed or removed a blue Ford Taurus automobile and its contents with the purpose to impair its veracity or availability in such investigation." A trial for Wilson was scheduled for February 6, 2006. Villarreal later agreed to a plea deal with the State, and was granted immunity in exchange for testifying against Wilson at trial.

¶ 9 On the morning of the trial, while the parties were in chambers with the presiding judge, the State announced that part of the evidence tampering charge would concern Wilson's concealing or tampering with the gun allegedly used to shoot Marchant. Wilson's counsel objected, arguing that neither the Information, nor the affidavit in support of the Information, contained any allegation that Wilson had tampered with a gun as a part of the tampering with evidence count. The District Court noted this objection, but nonetheless allowed the State to put on evidence concerning Wilson's concealing or destruction of the murder weapon as a part of the evidence tampering charge. The District Court noted that the Information charged Wilson with tampering with the Taurus and its contents and stated that "if the gun was in the vehicle, that evidence comes in."

¶ 10 At trial, Villarreal was the only witness who testified that Wilson tampered with the murder weapon. Because of previous rulings made by the District Court, Wilson was not permitted to introduce any evidence concerning Villarreal's alleged knowledge that Marchant was a confidential informant, that Marchant owed Villarreal money for drugs, that Villarreal had threatened to kill Marchant on a previous occasion, or that Villarreal had a motive to conceal the evidence of the murder and shift the attention of the authorities to another suspect. Chavira and Mendenhall also testified. When they were shown photographs of the Taurus taken by law enforcement officials after it was recovered, they both testified that the blood which they had previously seen on the dashboard had been cleaned off. Additionally, Chavira testified that the large spray bottle which police found in the car when they recovered it was not there when she had last visited the Taurus with Wilson.

¶ 11 At the close of the State's case-in-chief, Wilson moved for a directed verdict, arguing that the "accomplice testimony corroboration rule," codified at § 46-16-213, MCA, required a directed verdict because Villarreal was a named co-defendant and his testimony was not corroborated by other evidence. Additionally, Wilson argued Mendenhall and Chavira were also co-conspirators even though they had not been charged with evidence tampering. The District Court denied the motion for a directed verdict, concluding that under State v. Blackcrow, 1999 MT 44, 293 Mont. 374, 975 P.2d 1253, the issue of whether these individuals were co-conspirators would be submitted to the jury if necessary.

¶ 12 After all the evidence had been presented and the jury instructions were being settled, the District Court found there was no evidence that Chavira and Mendenhall were legally accountable for the crime of evidence tampering, and so did not submit the issue of whether they were co-conspirators to the jury or allow accountability instructions regarding their testimony. With respect to Villarreal, however, the District Court ordered the jury be given an accountability instruction in accordance with Blackcrow. Blackcrow, ¶ 21. The jury ultimately convicted Wilson of evidence tampering, and she was sentenced to five years imprisonment with the Department of Corrections. Wilson timely appeals.

ISSUES

¶ 13 We state the issues on appeal as follows:

¶ 14 Issue One: Did the District Court abuse its discretion and allow the State to improperly amend the Information charging Wilson with tampering with evidence, by permitting the State to argue that Wilson tampered with the gun which was allegedly used to kill Marchant?

¶ 15 Issue Two: Did the District Court err when it denied Wilson's motion for a directed verdict on the charge of tampering with evidence?

¶ 16 Issue Three: Did the District Court violate Wilson's right to a unanimous jury verdict because some members of the jury might have convicted her of tampering with the gun, while others might have convicted her of tampering with the car?

¶ 17 Issue Four: Did the District Court abuse its discretion by limiting the admission of evidence concerning Villarreal's motives to murder Marchant?

STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶ 18 We apply the abuse of discretion standard when reviewing a district court's discretionary rulings in a criminal case. State v. Beavers, 1999 MT 260, ¶ 20, 296 Mont. 340, ¶ 20, 987 P.2d 371, ¶ 20. "Abuse of discretion occurs only when the district court acted arbitrarily without the employment of conscientious judgment or exceeded...