Beintema v. State

969 P.2d 1124, 1998 Wyo. LEXIS 172, 1998 WL 850489
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 10, 1998
Docket97-353
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 969 P.2d 1124 (Beintema v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Beintema v. State, 969 P.2d 1124, 1998 Wyo. LEXIS 172, 1998 WL 850489 (Wyo. 1998).

Opinions

MACY, Justice.

Appellant Paul Beintema appeals from the denial of his motion for a new trial.

We affirm.

ISSUES

Beintema presents the following issues for our review:

ISSUE I[:] Did the court abuse its discretion when it denied the motion for new trial on the grounds that the State’s plea agreement with its key witness should have been discovered earlier?
ISSUE II[:] Did the newly discovered evidence establish a Brady violation and, thereby, render improper the court’s denial of the motion for new trial?

FACTS

The case before us is the second appeal ensuing from Beintema’s conviction for delivering marihuana. We recounted the salient facts of the underlying offense in our decision on Beintema’s initial appeal. Beintema v. State, 936 P.2d 1221 (Wyo.1997).

On December 23, 1994, a Gillette police officer responded to a report involving a runaway. During his investigation, the police officer came into contact with a juvenile who possessed approximately fifty grams of marihuana. The juvenile had obtained the marihuana from Darrel Hus-kinson.
The police obtained a search warrant for the Huskinson home. During the search, the police recovered approximately two ounces of marihuana from the bedroom belonging to Darrel’s parents, Brent and Tammy Huskinson. Mr. Huskinson told the police that he and his wife were heavy marihuana users and indicated that they purchased their marihuana from a Colorado man whose first name was Paul and whose last name began with the letter “B”. He provided the police with a telephone number for “Paul B.”
Further investigation revealed that Appellant was the man who had supplied the marihuana to the Huskinsons. Appellant was arrested and charged with one count of delivery of marihuana, a controlled substance, under Wyo. Stat. § 35 — 7—1031(a)(ii) (Supp.1996). Appellant pleaded not guilty to the charge, and a jury trial was held. The jury returned a guilty verdict. Appellant filed two motions for a new trial, claiming that sufficient evidence did not exist to convict him and that he had not received effective assistance from his trial counsel. The trial court denied Appellant’s motions, and he appealed to this Court.

Id. at 1223. Beintema presented two issues in his initial appeal: (1) Whether reversal of his conviction was required because the prosecutor referred to Beintema’s other bad acts; and (2) whether the trial counsel effectively assisted Beintema. Id. This Court affirmed [1126]*1126Beintema’s conviction on April 23, 1997. 936 P.2d at 1229. We concluded: “The evidence of [Beintema’s] other bad acts was admissible, and [Beintema] received effective assistance of trial counsel.” Id.

Subsequent to our affirmance of his conviction, Beintema filed a third motion for a new trial. The trial court held an evidentiary hearing on the motion and issued a decision letter and an order denying Beintema’s motion. Beintema perfected his appeal to the Wyoming Supreme Court.

DISCUSSION

A. Newly Discovered Evidence

Beintema contends that the trial court abused its discretion when it denied his motion for a new trial. He claims that he was entitled to have a new trial because he discovered new evidence after his trial. We do not agree with Beintema and conclude that the trial court properly denied his motion.

A trial court has discretion in determining whether to grant or deny a defendant’s motion for a new trial. Taul v. State, 862 P.2d 649, 659 (Wyo.1993). In determining whether the trial court abused its discretion, we must decide the ultimate issue of whether the court could have reasonably concluded as it did. Capshaw v. State, 958 P.2d 387, 390 (Wyo.1998). Unless the trial court acted in a manner that exceeded the bounds of reason under the circumstances, it did not abuse its discretion. Hilterbrand v. State, 930 P.2d 1248, 1250 (Wyo.1997). In the absence of an abuse of discretion, we will not disturb the trial court’s determination. Taul, 862 P.2d at 659.

A defendant must establish four factors in order to obtain a new trial on the basis of newly discovered evidence: (1) the defendant did not become aware of the new evidence until after the trial; (2) it was not because of a lack of due diligence that the new evidence did not come to light sooner; (3) the evidence is so material that it would probably produce a different verdict; and (4) the evidence is not cumulative. Barnes v. State, 858 P.2d 522, 536 (Wyo.1993); Opie v. State, 422 P.2d 84, 85 (Wyo.1967).

In this case, Beintema identifies several pieces of evidence that he contends are newly discovered: (1) the prosecution and Brent Huskinson, the key witness at Beintema’s trial, entered into a plea agreement in which the prosecution agreed to recommend that Huskinson be placed on probation, and the prosecution did not reveal to Beintema that the agreement existed or that Huskinson was on probation; (2) the prosecutor misled the jury regarding the existence of the plea agreement; (3) Steve Rozier, a sergeant with the Gillette police department, promised Huskinson that, if he cooperated with the prosecution, “nothing would happen” to his wife or children. Beintema claims that a reasonable probability exists that, if this evidence had been disclosed to him prior to his trial, the verdict would have been different.

Beintema’s trial attorney asked the prosecutor for information concerning any plea agreement that the prosecution may have negotiated with Huskinson, and the prosecutor declared that a plea agreement did not exist. Contrary to the prosecutor’s declaration, the prosecution and Huskinson had entered into a plea agreement. The particulars of the plea agreement were disclosed in the transcript from Huskinson’s arraignment hearing:

THE COURT: Are there any plea negotiations or agreements that need to be placed of record before the court proceeds?
[THE PROSECUTOR]: Your Honor, the only agreement that the parties have at this point is that Mr. Huskinson pleads guilty [to a charge of possession with intent to deliver marijuana] today, that it’s my understanding his criminal history is nonexistent in terms of prior felony convictions or significant misdemeanor convictions, and that given that the state will recommend probation be imposed by this court at the time of sentencing.

Although the prosecutor represented that a plea agreement did not exist between Hus-kinson and the prosecution, Beintema’s trial attorney discovered the agreement prior to Beintema’s trial. The attorney testified at the hearing on Beintema’s motion for a new trial that, in preparing for Beintema’s trial, he had taken it upon himself to examine the [1127]*1127transcript from Huskinson’s arraignment hearing.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
969 P.2d 1124, 1998 Wyo. LEXIS 172, 1998 WL 850489, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/beintema-v-state-wyo-1998.