Trujillo v. State

• Decision Date: 18 April 2000
• Docket Number: No. 98-205.,98-205.
• Citation: 2 P.3d 567
• Parties: Ralph TRUJILLO, Appellant (Defendant), v. The STATE of Wyoming, Appellee (Plaintiff).
• Court: Wyoming Supreme Court

2 P.3d 567

Ralph TRUJILLO, Appellant (Defendant), v. The STATE of Wyoming, Appellee (Plaintiff).

No. 98-205.

Supreme Court of Wyoming.

April 18, 2000.

Representing Appellant: Tina N. Hughes, Cheyenne, WY. Argument by Ms. Hughes.

Representing Appellee: Gay Woodhouse, Attorney General; Paul S. Rehurek, Deputy Attorney General; D. Michael Pauling, Senior Assistant Attorney General; and Robin Sessions Cooley, Assistant Attorney General. Argument by Ms. Cooley.

Before LEHMAN, C.J., and THOMAS, MACY, GOLDEN, and HILL, JJ.

LEHMAN, Chief Justice.

Convicted of possession of marijuana and possession with intent to deliver psilocybin mushrooms, appellant Ralph Trujillo (Trujillo) contends that the district court erred in admitting evidence of his prior drug transactions; that he was denied his constitutional right to counsel at sentencing; that he has been prohibited from freely exercising his religion; and that he was denied a fair trial due to ineffective assistance of counsel. No errors occurred at trial, and we affirm the convictions. However, because we find that appellant did not knowingly and voluntarily waive his right to counsel at sentencing, we remand for re-sentencing.

ISSUES

Trujillo presents four issues for our review:

1. Did the trial court's permission of the testimony that Appellant had previously bought and sold marijuana, by the arresting agent in the previous cases (Agent Rich Spencer), with detailed testimony about the prior drug transactions, violate W.R.E. 401 and 404, and result in harmful error?

2. Was Appellant denied his Fourteenth Amendment right to due process and his Sixth Amendment right to counsel when the trial court failed to appoint an attorney to represent him at sentencing?

3. Were Appellant's constitutional rights to free exercise of his religion violated by his arrest and subsequent conviction for the possession of mushrooms, in view of the fact that Appellant articulated a legitimate religious and cultural reason to be in possession of the mushrooms?

4. Did the trial performance of Appellant's counsel constitute ineffective assistance of counsel?

Appellee State of Wyoming restates the issues:

1. Whether the district court properly admitted evidence of Appellant's prior drug activities?

2. Whether Appellant, by his own actions in continually delaying the proceeding for over two years, waived his right to counsel at the sentencing hearing?

3. Whether Appellant was denied his constitutional right to the free exercise of his religion?

4. Whether Appellant was denied effective assistance of counsel at trial?

FACTS

Throughout the day of August 18, 1996, Officer Jesse Prescott of the Worland Police Department observed the residence at 419½ Obie Sue Avenue, where he suspected narcotics transactions were taking place. During the course of his observation, Officer Prescott observed a green van parked in front of the residence, and he asked dispatch to run a license plate inquiry on the vehicle. Dispatch reported that the van belonged to Mary Sorelle, and there was an outstanding felony warrant for her arrest. When the van drove away from the residence, Officer Prescott pursued. He could see two people in the vehicle through the rear windows and, after he turned on his overhead lights, he saw the driver of the vehicle reach down between the seats.

When the vehicle stopped, the driver exited immediately and met Officer Prescott between their two vehicles. Officer Prescott asked if Mary Sorelle was in the van. The driver reported that she was not, and he identified Trujillo as the passenger. Officer Prescott asked if he could see a driver's license. The driver admitted his license had been suspended in Colorado, but he did produce a Colorado ID card identifying him as Bernice Sorelle (Sorelle). During this exchange, Sorelle seemed nervous, and he falsely stated he was on his way home from the store. While Officer Prescott was ascertaining the identity of Sorelle, Officer Donald Keeler of the Worland Police Department arrived on the scene.

Officer Prescott asked if he could search the van, and Sorelle said, "Sure. Go ahead." Before searching the van, Officer Prescott informed Sorelle he would need to do a protective pat down. During the pat down, Officer Prescott found a knife and a baggie containing a green leafy substance, which Sorelle admitted was marijuana. Sorelle was placed under arrest, and Officer Prescott informed Officer Keeler he was going to search the vehicle pursuant to the arrest. Officer Keeler then asked Trujillo to step out of the van while the search was conducted.

Between the seats, Officer Prescott found a brown cosmetic bag containing several baggies of psilocybin mushrooms, and two socks with small scales inside them. While Officer Prescott was searching the van, Trujillo told Officer Keeler he had some mushrooms in the van in a shaving kit. Officer Keeler informed Officer Prescott of the admission, and Prescott responded that he had already found the mushrooms. Officer Keeler arrested Trujillo and searched him. A small baggie containing a single mushroom was retrieved from Trujillo's front pants pocket. Further inspection of the shaving kit revealed several small pieces of paper, two with the words "R. T. is running," and two with "Ralph was here" written on them. The bag also contained a piece of paper which was identified later as a "pay and owe sheet." Trujillo was taken to the police station, where he voluntarily relinquished a marijuana pipe containing .3 grams of marijuana from his underwear.

At trial, Trujillo was the only defense witness, and he admitted he had possessed marijuana and psilocybin mushrooms. In his defense, however, he asserted he had no intent to deliver the mushrooms to others. Trujillo, who is part Native American, stated that, "I was going to go camping and take them. I was going to go back to the Indian ways, and I was going to take a spiritual trip." Although he admitted peyote traditionally has been used to facilitate such spiritual trips, he said that mushrooms were an acceptable substitute, because it has to be a "natural high." Trujillo also explained that he only brought the scales to ensure he would not be "ripped off" in his purchase, and that the pay-and-owe sheets were in reality figures related to his employment as a roofing contractor.

Trujillo was convicted of possession with intent deliver a controlled substance in violation of Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 35-7-1031(a)(ii) (Michie 1997)¹ for the psilocybin mushrooms, and possession of a controlled substance in violation of Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 35-7-1031(c)(i)(A) (Michie 1997)² for the marijuana. He was sentenced to one year for the misdemeanor conviction, to be served concurrently with a term of five to seven years in the Wyoming State Penitentiary for the felony. This timely appeal followed.

STANDARDS OF REVIEW

Admission of 404(b) Evidence

We recently summarized the considerations relevant to review of evidentiary rulings in Solis v. State, 981 P.2d 34, 36 (Wyo.1999):

Evidentiary rulings are within the sound discretion of the trial court and include determination of the adequacy of foundation and relevancy, competency, materiality, and remoteness of the evidence. Punches v. State, 944 P.2d 1131, 1136-37 (Wyo.1997). This court will generally accede to the trial court's determination of the admissibility of evidence unless that court clearly abused its discretion. Brown v. State, 944 P.2d 1168, 1170 (Wyo.1997); Wilson v. State, 874 P.2d 215, 218 (Wyo.1994). In determining whether the trial court abused its discretion, the query is whether the court could reasonably conclude as it did, and whether its ruling was arbitrary or capricious. Vaughn v. State, 962 P.2d 149, 151-52 (Wyo.1998). The burden of establishing such abuse lies with the defendant. Barnes v. State, 858 P.2d 522, 527 (Wyo.1993).

Sentencing Without Counsel

Because of the constitutional implications present when a defendant is forced to proceed pro se, after refusing, either explicitly or implicitly, to accept the services of appointed counsel, we conduct a de novo review. Vargas v. State, 963 P.2d 984, 989 (Wyo.1998). Our review is conducted with the understanding that a waiver of counsel which is not made knowingly and voluntarily is tantamount to denial of counsel, mandating reversal. Mapp v. State, 953 P.2d 140, 143 (Wyo.1998). We consider the record as a whole when determining whether the defendant knowingly and voluntarily relinquished his right to representation of counsel. Id.; Van Riper v. State, 882 P.2d 230, 234 (Wyo.1994).

Effective Assistance of Counsel

Our jurisprudence regarding effective assistance of counsel makes plain that:

In order to prevail on his claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, [Trujillo] must make the dual showings that his counsel's performance was deficient and that the deficient performance prejudiced his defense. Smith v. State, 959 P.2d 1193, 1198 (Wyo.1998); Martinez v. State, 943 P.2d 1178, 1184 (Wyo.1997). We invoke a strong presumption that counsel rendered adequate and reasonable assistance, making all decisions within the bounds of reasonable professional judgment. Mapp v. State, 953 P.2d 140, 143 (Wyo.1998); Jackson v. State, 902 P.2d 1292, 1295 (Wyo. 1995).

Hornecker v. State, 977 P.2d 1289, 1291 (Wyo.1999).

DISCUSSION

Admission of 404(b) Evidence

On March 9, 1998, the State filed a notice of intent to present evidence of Trujillo's prior drug activity through the testimony of Special Agent Richard Spencer. The notice stated the prior bad acts evidence was being offered for the purposes of showing "opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, and absence of mistake or accident in this case." Trujillo filed a traverse to the notice on March 16, 1998, which contended that such evidence was more prejudicial than probative, that the acts were too remote to be probative, and that the acts were too dissimilar to be probative. The district court held ...