Engle v. State

821 P.2d 1285, 1991 Wyo. LEXIS 180, 1991 WL 246176
Wyoming Supreme Court·Decided November 26, 1991·No. 90-146·Published·Cited by 8 cases

Opinions

CARDINE, Justice.

Mark Engle was convicted of grand larceny of a motor vehicle. The conviction resulted from a retrial following the reversal and remand of his first conviction. He challenges his second conviction on issues concerning a competency hearing and the trial court’s treatment of two motions in limine.

We affirm.

Engle frames the issues as follows:

“I. Whether the district [court] erred by allowing documentary evidence into the competency hearing without affording the defendant the opportunity to confront and cross-examine the author of the document.
“II. A. Whether the district court committed reversible error when it allowed the prosecution to violate defendant’s motion in limine.
“B. Whether the district court’s inconsistent enforcement of the prosecution’s motion in limine constituted reversible error.”

On September 11, 1987, Nick Stovall parked his vehicle in the parking lot of a Casper ice cream store. He left the keys in the vehicle and left the vehicle unlocked. Near the ice cream store is a bar. He saw Engle exit from the bar. When Stovall left the store about ten minutes later, his vehicle was gone.

[1287] Thomas Crawford was at his grandparents’ house, which was about a half block from the ice cream store. He observed Stovall’s vehicle round a corner at high speed. The vehicle struck a tree in the grandparents’ front yard. Engle opened the door, leaned out, looked at the damage and drove away. Engle was driving the vehicle.

A Wyoming highway patrol officer stopped Engle driving the vehicle on Interstate 25 south of Douglas. The highway patrol had received a report about Engle driving this vehicle through its REDDI— Report Every Drunk Driver Immediately— program. Engle was subsequently placed under arrest.

In November 1987, Engle entered pleas of not guilty by reason of mental illness and not triable by reason of mental illness or deficiency. A mental evaluation at the state hospital was ordered. On January 12, 1988, a jury found Engle guilty of grand larceny of a motor vehicle, and En-gle received a sentence of six to eight years in prison.

We reversed that conviction because the state hospital’s evaluation was insufficient for the trial court to make a proper determination as to Engle’s mental condition. Engle v. State, 774 P.2d 1303 (Wyo.1989). We remanded the case to the district court to afford Engle a proper evaluation and a new trial. Id. at 1312.

After remand, a second mental evaluation was performed at the state hospital. Dr. Breck Lebegue submitted his report on October 12, 1989. In his report, Dr. Lebe-gue concluded that Engle was not mentally ill at the time the crime was committed and that he was competent to stand trial. Dr. Lebegue also advised the court that he would be out of the country from December 11, 1989, until March 11, 1990.

Engle moved for a second evaluation, which was ordered by the court. Dr. Bernice Elkin conducted the second evaluation and issued her report on December 27, 1989. She concluded that Engle was not competent to stand trial.

The court set a competency hearing for January 19, 1990. The State moved for a continuance because Dr. Lebegue would be out of the country and unavailable. Engle filed a pro se motion to dismiss in which he objected to any continuances. The hearing was held as scheduled. Neither Engle nor his attorney objected to the absence of Dr. Lebegue. The court found Engle competent to stand trial after reading Dr. Lebe-gue’s and Dr. Elkin’s reports and hearing the testimony of Dr. Elkin.

At trial, Engle relied upon a mental illness defense. Engle did not dispute that he took the vehicle. The jury found him guilty. The court again imposed a sentence of six to eight years in the penitentiary with credit for time served.

In his first issue, Engle asks us to find reversible error because he was unable to confront and cross-examine Dr. Lebegue at his competency hearing. We note that the State moved for a continuance of the competency hearing because Dr. Lebegue was unavailable on the date the hearing was set. Engle objected to the continuance. As a result, the hearing was held as scheduled. Because Engle’s action resulted in the claimed error, we examine the issue under the doctrine of invited error.

Under the doctrine of invited error, if a party induces action by a court, the party cannot argue error because the court took such action. Thatcher & Sons Inc. v. Norwest Bank Casper, 750 P.2d 1324, 1328 (Wyo.1988). Invited errors will not normally be grounds for reversal unless they go beyond a pertinent reply or are necessarily prejudicial. Sanville v. State, 593 P.2d 1340, 1345 (Wyo.1979).

The granting or denial of a continuance is within the discretion of the court. Urich v. Fox, 687 P.2d 893, 894 (Wyo.1984). Since no showing of an abuse of discretion is made, the court’s denial of the motion for a continuance does not go beyond a pertinent reply to Engle’s objection to a continuance.

We find no prejudice as a result of the court’s denial of the motion for a continuance. The party seeking to show competence to stand trial has the burden to [1288] show it by a preponderance of evidence. Loomer v. State, 768 P.2d 1042, 1045 (Wyo.1989). Thus, the State had the burden of proof at the competency hearing. A continuance would have allowed the State to consider presenting additional evidence through Dr. Lebegue. Instead the State relied solely upon Dr. Lebegue’s written evaluation. Engle presented Dr. Elkin’s report and her testimony. It appears that Engle was advantaged, rather than prejudiced, by having the State’s motion for a continuance denied. Thus, we find no cause to reverse because Engle, as a result of his own action, could not confront and cross-examine a potential witness.

Engle’s second issue concerns the court’s treatment of motions in limine filed by himself and the State. A hearing on these motions was scheduled before trial. The record, however, contains no transcript of the hearing. The case at the district court level concluded before the effective date of the amendment to W.R.A.P. 4.01, which now requires:

“Transcripts in criminal cases shall consist of all proceedings held in open court including but not limited to voir dire, opening statements and final arguments, conferences with the presiding judge in open court and in the court chambers, in addition to the testimony of the case and other required materials.”

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Engle v. State, 821 P.2d 1285, 1991 Wyo. LEXIS 180, 1991 WL 246176 (Wyo. 1991).

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Engle v. State
821 P.2d 1285 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 1991)