King v. State

2002 WY 27, 40 P.3d 700, 2002 Wyo. LEXIS 28, 2002 WL 226481
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 15, 2002
Docket99-193
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 2002 WY 27 (King 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
King v. State, 2002 WY 27, 40 P.3d 700, 2002 Wyo. LEXIS 28, 2002 WL 226481 (Wyo. 2002).

Opinion

LEHMAN, Chief Justice.

[T1] Claiming his trial counsel was ineffective, Victor King appeals from the judgment and sentence entered after a jury found him guilty of two counts of felony assault on a peace officer. We affirm.

ISSUES

[¶ 2] King submits the following issue for our consideration:

Must Mr. King's conviction be reversed and remanded because trial counsel failed to provide Mr. King with effective representation in violation of Mr. King's constitutional rights under Wyoming Constitution Article 1, Section 10 and the United States Constitution, Amendments VI and XIV?
A. Was Mr. King's trial counsel ineffective because he failed to confront the State's extensive use of prior bad acts evidence against Mr. King?
B. Was Mr. King's trial counsel inceffec-tive because he failed to educate himself to relevant case law and, as a result, failed to object to the prosecution's improper closing argument?
C. Was Mr. King's trial counsel ineffective because he failed to advocate zealously for Mr. King by abandoning a proper intoxication defense theory and by proffering a legally incorrect instruction on the intoxication defense?
D. Was Mr. King's trial counsel ineffective because he argued for a legally improper lesser included offense?
*702 E. Was Mr. King's trial counsel ineffective because his errors, taken separately or together, so prejudiced Mr. King that there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's errors, Mr. King would have enjoyed a more favorable outcome at trial?

FACTS

[¶3] On the morning of July 15, 1998, Sergeant Doug Matthews and Officer Rhett Groll arrived at an apartment in the South Valley Apartments in Evanston, to talk to appellant Victor King (King). The officers arranged for King to meet with a detective at the police department at noon to discuss a burglary that had occurred. Around noon, the same officers were called to investigate a report that King was causing a disturbance at the Chief Washakie Apartments. Sergeant Matthews arrived first and was met by the apartment manager, who told Sergeant Matthews that King had been on the property without his shirt, ranting and making threats but that he had left and walked across the street toward the South Valley Apartments.

[¶4] Sergeant Matthews advised Officer Groll, who was en route, of the situation, and the two met in the parking lot of the South Valley Apartments. The officers began looking for King and asking people if they had seen him. No one admitted to knowing where King was, but Officer Groll finally spotted him. reclined in the front passenger seat of a parked car. Officer Groll told King to get out of the car. King initially refused to open the car door but eventually did open the door and leave the vehicle.

[¶5] Sergeant Matthews noticed that King smelled of alcohol, was very agitated, and had a "wild look in his eye." King insisted he had not broken the law but did not explain to the officers what had happened at the Chief Washakie Apartments. The officers decided to arrest King for breach of the peace, and Officer Groll informed King of their intentions. King responded that he was not going to jail, and he punched Sergeant Matthews in the shoulder, knocking him back a couple of feet. When Officer Groll tried to restrain him, King punched him in the shoulder, knocking him back as well. King then turned and ran about twenty feet, but when he realized he could not outrun the officers, he turned around and assumed a fighter's stance. The officers attempted to spray King with pepper spray, and Officer Groll grabbed King in an effort to get him to the ground. King put up a struggle and in the process hit Officer Groll in the chin and face with his fist and also kneed him in the groin. Both officers testified that these punches were painful.

[T6] The officers were finally able to wrestle King to the ground, but King continued to struggle until Sergeant Matthews managed to handcuff one of his wrists. At that point, King announced, "I'm done. I give up." King was arrested and charged with two counts (one for each officer) of intentionally and knowingly causing or attempting to cause bodily injury to a peace officer engaged in the lawful performance of his official duties. A public defender was appointed to represent King, and the case went to trial The jury returned a guilty verdict on both counts, and the trial court sentenced King to serve concurrent terms in the Wyoming State Penitentiary of not less than four nor more than eight years on each count. King appeals from these convictions.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

[¶7] King's argument to this court is that his trial counsel performed so deficiently that he was denied a fair trial. He identifies five specific portions of his trial during which he claims his counsel's representation was ineffective.

[T8] This court summarized our standard of review for claims of ineffective assistance of counsel in Jackson v. State, 902 P.2d 1292, 1295 (Wyo.1995):

When reviewing a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, the paramount determination is whether, in light of all the cireumstances, trial counsel's acts or omissions were outside the wide range of professionally competent assistance. Herdt v. State, 891 P.2d 793, 796 (Wyo.1995); Starr v. State, 888 P.2d 1262, 1266-67 (Wyo.1995); Arner v. State, 872 P.2d 100, 104 (Wyo.1994); Frias v. State, 722 P.2d 135, *703 145 (Wyo.1986). The reviewing court should indulge a strong presumption that counsel rendered adequate assistance and made all significant decisions in the exercise of reasonable professional judgment. Herdt, at 796; Starr, at 1266, Arner, at 104; Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 689, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 2065, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984).
Under the two-prong standard articulated in Strickland and Frias, an appellant claiming ineffective assistance of counsel must demonstrate on the record that counsel's performance was deficient and that prejudice resulted. Strickland, 466 U.S. at 687, 104 S.Ct. at 2064; Starr, at 1266; King v. State, 810 P.2d 119, 125 (Wyo.1991) (Cardine, J., dissenting); Campbell v. State, 728 P.2d 628, 629 (Wyo.1986); Frias, 722 P.2d at 145. In other words, to warrant reversal on a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, an appellant must demonstrate that his counsel failed to "render such assistance as would have been offered by a reasonably competent attorney" and that "counsel's deficiency prejudiced the defense of [the] case." Lower v. State, 786 P.2d 346, 349 (Wyo.1990). "The benchmark for judging any claim of ineffectiveness must be whether counsel's conduct so undermined the proper functioning of the adversarial process that the trial cannot be relied on as having produced a just result." Strickland, 466 U.S. at 686, 104 S.Ct. at 2064.

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Bluebook (online)
2002 WY 27, 40 P.3d 700, 2002 Wyo. LEXIS 28, 2002 WL 226481, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/king-v-state-wyo-2002.