Young v. State
| Decision Date | 26 March 1993 |
| Docket Number | No. 91-154,91-154 |
| Citation | 849 P.2d 754 |
| Parties | Michael Jay YOUNG, Appellant (Defendant), v. The STATE of Wyoming, Appellee (Defendant). |
| Court | Wyoming Supreme Court |
Wyoming Public Defender Program: Leonard D. Munker, State Public Defender, Dave Gosar, Asst. Public Defender, Timothy K. Newcomb, Cheyenne, and Edward P. Moriarity and Kent W. Spence, Spence, Moriarity & Schuster, Jackson, for appellant.
Joseph B. Meyer, Atty. Gen., Sylvia Lee Hackl, Deputy Atty. Gen., Barbara L. Boyer, Sr. Asst. Atty. Gen., and Mary Beth Wolff, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.
Before MACY, C.J., THOMAS, CARDINE and GOLDEN, JJ., and URBIGKIT *, J., Retired.
The major issue to be resolved in this case is whether the instructions on the law of Wyoming given to the jury adequately distinguish the offenses of first degree murder and second degree murder. Michael Jay Young (Young) asserts additional, collateral issues relating to the failure of the state to preserve evidence claimed to be both exculpatory and essential to his defense, together with the constitutional implications of that failure; the refusal of the trial court to instruct the jury the missing evidence could be subject to an inference or presumption it was favorable to the defendant; the admission of hearsay testimony contrary to the rules of evidence; and cumulative error. Our review of the trial record together with our study of the applicable rules of law persuade us no reversible error was committed in connection with Young's trial. The judgment and sentence is affirmed.
In his Brief of Appellant, Young states the issues in this fashion:
FEDERAL LAW ISSUES
I: Did the state fail to disclose exculpatory evidence to the defendant and thereby violate the Due Process Clause of the United States Constitution?
II: Did the loss of potentially useful evidence constitute a violation of the federal Due Process Clause?
STATE LAW ISSUES
I: Does Article 1, Sec. 36 of the Wyoming Constitution require the state to prove that a defendant has no right to require the state to preserve potentially exculpatory evidence?
II: Does the Due Process Clause of the Wyoming Constitution require the state to preserve potentially exculpatory evidence?
The State of Wyoming, as appellee, rephrases the issues in its brief in this way:
I. Whether the state failed to disclose potentially exculpatory evidence?
II. Whether the jury was properly instructed on the elements of first and second degree murder?
III. Whether the trial court erred in allowing the admission of out of court statements of Eva Lundgren and of the victim?
Young was charged with first degree murder for the killing of Patrick J. Prime (Prime) on Wednesday, October 10, 1990. On the preceding Friday, Prime had been involved in an altercation in a bar, during which Young's mother suffered an injury to her elbow. On Saturday morning, Young received a phone call from his mother during which she informed him that Prime had hurt her. Young was upset and angered by this news. For several days thereafter, he attempted to talk to Prime, seeking an explanation or an apology.
On Monday morning, October 8, 1990, Young accompanied his mother to the Rock Springs police station to assist her in filing assault charges against Prime. After a police officer had discussed with Young's mother the options that were available to her, she elected to simply file a report of the incident and not to press charges against Prime. At that time, Young indicated to the officer who took the report that Prime needed to be controlled and, if he were not controlled, then Young would take care of things by himself, in his way. That same day, Young purchased a .38 caliber handgun, and he began working out so that he could fight Prime.
Two days, later, on Wednesday, October 10, 1990, Young telephoned Prime but, before Prime could say anything to him, Young hung up the telephone. This made Prime angry, and he called Young back. They agreed to meet at the Conoco truck plaza. Both agreed to go to that meeting alone. At his wife's insistence that he not go alone, however, Prime called Kevin Ringdahl (Ringdahl) and asked Ringdahl to accompany him. Prime took his own gun with him.
After Ringdahl picked Prime up at Prime's home, they drove to the Conoco truck plaza. Ringdahl let Prime out of his truck in the parking lot, and he then maneuvered the vehicle so that he could keep an eye on Prime. Prime left his weapon in Ringdahl's truck. Young drove up, and Ringdahl watched as Prime approached Young's pickup. Young jumped out of the truck with his gun in hand and immediately fired at Prime. Prime tried to run away, but Young fired a second time, striking Prime in the neck and causing him to collapse flat on his face with his arms beneath him. At that juncture, Ringdahl grabbed Prime's gun and got out of his truck.
As Prime lay motionless on the ground, Young walked up, put his pistol to Prime's head, and pulled the trigger another time. Ringdahl did not fire the gun that he was holding. Young then jumped back into his truck and drove off. Two days later, Young surrendered at a police station in Flagstaff, Arizona.
On May 17, 1991, Young was convicted by a jury of first degree murder. Young then moved for a judgment of acquittal, reduction of the verdict and/or a new trial, and filed a memorandum in support thereof on May 24, 1991. Young's motion seeking the alternative and relief was denied and, also on May 24, 1991, the judgment and sentence was entered. Young was sentenced to confinement in the Wyoming state penitentiary for life. Young appeals from the judgment and sentence and the order denying his motion for judgment of acquittal, reduction of sentence and/or new trial.
We perceive the major issue in this case to be whether the law of this state, as given to the jury in the instructions of the court, serves to adequately distinguish the offenses of first degree murder and second degree murder. First degree murder is defined in Wyo.Stat. § 6-2-101 (Supp.1992) which, for the purposes of this case, provides:
(a) Whoever purposely and with premeditated malice, * * * kills any human being is guilty of murder in the first degree.
(b) A person convicted of murder in the first degree shall be punished by death or life imprisonment according to law * * *.
The offense of second degree murder is defined in Wyo.Stat. § 6-2-104 (1988) as follows:
Whoever purposely and maliciously, but without premeditation, kills any human being is guilty of murder in the second degree, and shall be imprisoned in the penitentiary for any term not less than twenty (20) years, or during life.
The jury was instructed with respect to both of these offenses and was advised that second degree murder is a lesser included offense of first degree murder. The jury was given the following instructions:
The necessary elements of the crime of murder in the first degree are:
1. The crime occurred within the county of Sweetwater on or about the date of October 10, 1990; and
2. The defendant killed a human being; and
3. The defendant acted purposely; and
4. With premeditation; and
5. With malice.
The necessary elements of the crime of murder in the second degree are:
1. The crime occurred within the county of Sweetwater on or about the date of October 10, 1990; and
2. The defendant killed a human being; and
3. The defendant acted purposely; and
4. With malice.
"Purposely" means that the act was done intentionally or deliberately, and not accidentally.
"Premeditation" and "premeditated" mean that the idea of killing was thought about and considered before it was executed. It requires that there should be time and opportunity for deliberate thought and that, after the mind has thought of taking life, the thought is considered and a deliberate intention formed to kill. That being done, it makes no difference how soon afterwards the thought is carried into action, so long as there was some time for, and there was, deliberation. The question you must answer is, not how long one should premeditate and deliberate, but whether there was premeditation and deliberation at all. (Emphasis added.)
These instructions apparently were modeled after the Wyoming Pattern Jury Instructions. See WPJIC §§ 7.102, 7.104, 7.105, 7.402. The instructions did explicitly advise the jury that the difference between first degree murder and second degree murder is the element of premeditation. Young contends Instructions 12 and 13 blur the distinction between first degree murder and second degree murder because "purposely" is in the elements instruction for both first and second degree murder. He then points to the definition of the word "purposely," where the court used the word "deliberately," while, in defining "premeditation," it invoked the concept of "deliberate thought," "deliberate intention," and "deliberation."
Young's argument is that Instruction No. 12 advised the...
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