Brower v. State of Wyoming

1 P.3d 1210, 2000 Wyo. LEXIS 62, 2000 WL 291389
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 21, 2000
Docket99-64
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 1 P.3d 1210 (Brower v. State of Wyoming) 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
Brower v. State of Wyoming, 1 P.3d 1210, 2000 Wyo. LEXIS 62, 2000 WL 291389 (Wyo. 2000).

Opinion

GOLDEN, Justice.

Appeliant Wilbur John Brower was convicted of two counts of taking immodest, immoral or indecent liberties with a child, his adopted daughter, in violation of Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 14-8-105. On appeal, he contends *1212 that the uncharged misconduct admitted into evidence through the testimony of another adopted daughter was inadmissible character evidence. He also claims that procedural irregularities at his sentencing hearing violated due process of law.

We affirm the order of judgment and sentence.

ISSUES

The parties present the following issues for our review:

I. Did the court deprive Appellant of a fair trial by admitting prior bad act evidence and instructing the jury on its use in a manner that permitted the jury to conclude that Appellant must have committed the charged offense because he had committed similar bad acts in the past?
II. Did the court deprive Appellant of due process by refusing to grant a continuance of his sentencing even though a continuance was necessary for the Department of Probation and Parole to conduct an adequate pre-sentence investigation?

FACTS

Brower married his wife in 1984 and adopted four of her five children. The oldest, SC, refused to be adopted by him. In 1997, the Department of Family Services notified the Sublette County Sheriffs Department that SC and two other adopted daughters had reported sexual fondling by Brower. He was interviewed by a sheriff's detective, denied any wrongdoing, and claimed that the complaint was the result of the girls' anger at his strict discipline at home. Brower was charged with three counts of indecent liberties with a minor. The first count charged Brower with placing his hand under SC's clothes and on her breasts in October of 1985 when she was fourteen years old. The see-ond count accused him of placing his hand under the clothes of EB, then 13 years old, and touching her breasts and thigh area in April of 1998. The last count accused him of placing his hand under EB's clothes and touching her breasts in April of 1997.

Before trial, the State filed notice of its intent to offer into evidence various uncharged acts of misconduct by Brower against SC and EB and a third sister, AB. The evidence included other inappropriate sexual contact against SC, including a kissing incident in February of 1985; physical and mental abuse of SC; Brower's threats to kill SC if she ever ran away from home; and Brower's killing of several pets. After briefing and a hearing, the district court excluded all of this evidence except the February, 1985, incident; however, at trial no testimony was elicited about the incident.

The evidence of uncharged acts committed by Brower against EB included inappropriate kissing; asking if she would sleep with him; physical abuse; threats to kill her if she made a sexual abuse accusation; and abusing and shooting her pet dogs. The district court excluded all of this proposed evidence but allowed EB to testify that between the ages of thirteen and seventeen she felt Brow-er's erect penis when she sat on his lap.

The district court did admit evidence of uncharged acts committed by Brower against AB, and at trial she testified that Brower had touched her breasts one morning as she awoke, rubbed her inner thigh, repeatedly touched her breasts when tickling her, threw her on the bed and pressed his body against her, touched her inappropriately, looked at her in inappropriate ways that made her feel uncomfortable, and made her sit on his lap on his erection. At the end of AB's testimony, the court gave the jury a limiting instruction that was repeated at the end of the case.

Brower presented a defense that denied any wrongdoing and attributed these accusations to interference by the children's natural father, Vernon Collins, and SC's dislike of Brower from the beginning of his marriage to the children's mother. Brower testified in his own defense and denied the accusations. He was acquitted on the charge involving SC but convicted on the two charges involving EB.

Following his conviction, a two-hour sentencing hearing was set for December 17, 1998. The State informs us that on November 18, 1998, the district court was advised *1213 by the prosecutor that the probation officer preparing the presentence investigation report requested the hearing be postponed; the district court responded that it would not be in session again until late February and stated that a month should be sufficient for the completion of the presentence investigation. On November 25, 1998, defense counsel filed a motion for continuance based on the probation officer's request and a potential conflict in counsel's scheduling; however, defense counsel was able to attend the December 17 hearing. At the hearing, the district court, noting that Brower had received the presentence investigation report eight days earlier, specifically asked Brower if he would waive the ten-day notice requirement of W.R.Cr.P. 82(a)(8)(A). Brower and his counsel consented to waiving the requirement.

At the hearing, the probation officer who had prepared the presentence investigation report testified as to additional information that was not included in the report, specifically testifying that Brower had not received a sexual offender evaluation before sentencing. The court was advised that letters existed supporting Brower, and several witnesses testified on his behalf, After two hours of hearing testimony, the court sentenced Brower to concurrent terms of six to ten years imprisonment. This appeal followed.

DISCUSSION

In his first issue, Brower complains that AB's testimony that he had molested her in a number of ways was improper character evidence to show his propensity to commit the charges involving SC and EB. Brower objected to the admission of the evidence.

W.R.E. 404 states:

(a) Character evidence generally. -Evidence of a person's character or a trait of his character is not admissible for the purpose of proving that he acted in conformity therewith on a particular occasion, except:
(1) Character of Accused.-Evidence of a pertinent trait of his character offered by an accused, or by the prosecution to rebut the same;
(2) Character of Victim.-Evidence of a pertinent trait of character of the victim of the crime offered by an accused, or by the prosecution to rebut the same, or evidence of a character trait of peacefulness of the victim offered by the prosecution in a homicide case to rebut evidence that the victim was the first aggressor;
(3) Character of Witness.-Evidence of the character of a witness, as provided in Rules 607, 608, and 609.
(b) Other crimes, wrongs, or acts. -Evi-
dence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts is not admissible to prove the character of a person in order to show that he acted in conformity therewith. It may, however, be admissible for other purposes, such as proof of motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake or accident.

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Bluebook (online)
1 P.3d 1210, 2000 Wyo. LEXIS 62, 2000 WL 291389, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brower-v-state-of-wyoming-wyo-2000.