Matthew P. Snyder v. State

2015 WY 91, 353 P.3d 693, 2015 Wyo. LEXIS 103, 2015 WL 4275342
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 15, 2015
DocketS-14-0253
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 2015 WY 91 (Matthew P. Snyder 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
Matthew P. Snyder v. State, 2015 WY 91, 353 P.3d 693, 2015 Wyo. LEXIS 103, 2015 WL 4275342 (Wyo. 2015).

Opinion

HILL, Justice.

[T1] Matthew Snyder was convicted of five counts of sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree. On appeal, he argues that the district court committed plain error by admitting testimony about the presumption of paternity applicable to DNA evidence that showed Mr. Snyder impregnated his minor victim. We will affirm.

ISSUE

[12] Mr. Snyder presents one issue for our review:

The trial court improperly allowed testimony of a civil presumption, which does not apply to criminal cases.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

[13] Mr. Snyder did not raise his issue in district court, thus we will consider it under the plain error doctrine. That doe-trine provides:

In order to establish plain error, the defendant must show that the record patently demonstrates the district court transgressed a clear and unequivocal rule of law and such violation adversely affected his substantial right.

Faubion v. State, 2010 WY 79, ¶ 21, 233 P.3d 926, 932 (Wyo.2010).

FACTS

[14] In October of 2011 Matthew Snyder, his girlfriend, and her daughter JL moved to Gillette. Soon thereafter,. JL, who was twelve years old at the time, learned she was pregnant. JL gave birth to a daughter in 2012.

[15] In January of 2012, previous to giving birth, and shortly after her thirteenth birthday, Snyder forced JL to have sexual intercourse. This also happened again after she gave birth in May of 2012 and several *694 more times between June and mid-September of 2012.

[16] In October of 2012, the Wyoming Department of Family Services removed JL, the infant, and JL's younger sister AH from the home because of allegations of abuse by Snyder against AH. While in foster care, JL also reported her incidents of abuse.

[T7] On November 8, 2012, the State charged Snyder with five counts of first degree sexual abuse of a minor. Prior to trial, the State filed a notice of its intent to introduce uncharged misconduct evidence against Snyder under Wyoming Rule of Evidence 404(b). The State intended to introduce evidence that Snyder sexually abused JL while still living in California, stating in the notice that "[JL's] mother allowed [Snyder] to rape [JL] to repay [Snyder] for getting JL back from her [biological] father's custody." To help prove that the prior abuse occurred, the State sought to introduce evidence that JL became pregnant while in California and that DNA testing confirmed that Snyder was the father of JL's child.

[T8] A Gleason hearing was held on this limited issue. At its conclusion the district court ruled that it would allow evidence of the prior sexual abuse in California, as well as the DNA test results. The district court held that the uncharged misconduct was "necessary to the telling and the understanding of the story of the charged acts" and that the evidence would help "a trier of fact in understanding Defendant's alleged deviant sexual behavior (Le. sexually abusing a minor child) by showing the victim was essentially offered to [him] as a 'reward/repayment' for [Snyder's] assistance in a custody dispute." The district court also found that because Snyder denied the sexual abuse occurred, he put every element of the charges at issue; namely, whether or not he was the perpetrator. Finally, the district court determined that the Rule 404(b) evidence's probative value was not outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice to Snyder.

[19] At trial, the State called Wyoming State Crime Lab's Christina Buettner to testify as its DNA expert. The prosecutor asked Ms. Buettner whether "Wyoming hal[s] a requirement as far as proof of paternity." She referenced a "Wyoming statute," and while she did not specifically state which statute, both parties agree that she was referencing Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 14-2-705(a)(ii) (LexisNexis 2015), which presumes a man to be the father of a child if he has a "combined paternity index of at least one hundred (100) to one (1)." Ms. Buettner then testified that the paternity index in Snyder's test was 7 billion to one that Snyder was the father of JL's child. There was no objection.

[110] Snyder was convicted of all five counts, and the district court sentenced him to consecutive sentences of 25-50 years on each count. This appeal followed.

DISCUSSION

[T1l]l Mr. Snyder argues that the district court should not have allowed testimony about a civil presumption that does not apply to criminal cases. Specifically, he argues that the Wyoming Parentage Act establishes a rebuttable presumption of paternity and improperly shifted the burden of proof to him, denying him due process. He contends that testimony regarding the DNA evidence should have stood on its own, and that invoking the statutory presumption exaggerated the significance of the genetic test results. He also argues that although rebuttable presumptions may be admitted in criminal cases, those are governed by W.R.E. 808, which was not followed here.

[112] The State argues that plain error is simply not established here. The State submits that the testimony in question was only relevant to support Rule 404(b) evidence rather than any elements of the charged offense. In the alternative, the State asserts that Mr. Snyder was not prejudiced by any error. We agree with the State and explain below.

[T13] We begin by examining the testimony in question. In her testimony, Christina Buettner from the Wyoming State Crime Lab first testified "the probability of paternity" is "99.99999998688" that Mr. Snyder is the father of JL's baby based on genetic results. Ms. Buettner's testimony continued:

*695 Q. Now, does Wyoming have a requirement as far as proof of paternity?
A. Yes, it is. In a Wyoming statute of the numbers that you have to surpass in order to say that someone is the biological father.
Q. And what is that, the number that you have to surpass?
A. That number for Wyoming is 100.
Q. Can you explain to the jury, what does that mean?
A. Yes. Let me just give you, can I give the second number from my report? We do two statistics for paternity.
Q. Oh, okay. Yes. Yes, ma'am.
A. We also do a second statistic for paternity. That number is 7,8343,000,000. That is the, that means that the DNA results obtained are 7,348,000,000 more likely that Matthew Snyder is the father of [the baby] as opposed to a random individual. So for the Wyoming statute of 100, that this is 7 billion. And the requirement is 100 for Wyoming.
Q. And that is the probability of paternity?
A. That is a likelihood ratio actually.

[1 14] If the State seeks to use a presumption against a defendant, Wyoming Rule of Evidence 303(b) controls whether the district court may submit the existence of the presumed fact to the jury and if it does, Rule 303(c) dictates the content of that instruction. Rule 803 states as follows:

Rule 303. Presumptions cases. in criminal

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Bluebook (online)
2015 WY 91, 353 P.3d 693, 2015 Wyo. LEXIS 103, 2015 WL 4275342, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/matthew-p-snyder-v-state-wyo-2015.