State v. Amarillas

688 P.2d 628, 141 Ariz. 620, 1984 Ariz. LEXIS 260
CourtArizona Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 6, 1984
Docket5811
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 688 P.2d 628 (State v. Amarillas) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Arizona Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Amarillas, 688 P.2d 628, 141 Ariz. 620, 1984 Ariz. LEXIS 260 (Ark. 1984).

Opinion

GORDON, Vice Chief Justice.

On November 26, 1982, a jury found appellant, Arthur Amarillas, guilty of first degree murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole until he had served twenty-five years. Timely appeal was filed from the conviction. This Court has jurisdiction under Ariz. Const, art. 6, § 5(3) and A.R.S. § 13-4031. We affirm the conviction.

Sometime in the early morning hours of December 12, 1981, after drinking steadily for several hours, appellant approached the home of Ishmael Teran. Teran was awak-. ened and went outside to speak to appellant. Appellant announced, “I’m going to shoot you,” and fired four rounds from a handgun. Teran was struck three times and died of his wounds.

Appellant raised an insanity defense. He acknowledged that he had been a heavy drinker (up to a quart and a half of whiskey per day) for approximately twenty years. The defense theory was that appellant suffered from long-term alcohol dependence and that the alcohol dependence had led to paranoid delusions concerning a nonexistent sexual relationship between Teran and appellant’s girlfriend. The shooting, the defense theory continued, was a result of the paranoid delusions and was the act of a person who did not know right from wrong and who did not understand the quality and nature of his acts. See A.R.S. § 13-502; State v. Schantz, 98 Ariz. 200, 403 P.2d 521 (1965), cert. denied, 382 U.S. 1015, 86 S.Ct. 628, 15 L.Ed.2d 530 (1966). Both appellant and the state presented psychiatric testimony on this issue. The state argued that the paranoid *622 delusions, if present at all, were the result of appellant’s high level of intoxication at the time of the shooting and were not the result of appellant’s long-term dependence on alcohol.

In his appeal to this Court, appellant raises several issues which fall into three broad objections:

1. that the trial should not have begun when it did;
2. that certain “other bad act” evidence should not have been admitted; and
3. that the jury instructions were incomplete, confusing, or wrong.

BEGINNING OF THE TRIAL

Jury voir dire for appellant’s trial began on October 13, 1982, appellant’s “last day” under Ariz.R.Crim.P. 8. On that day, the trial judge and one of appellant’s attorneys were in the last day of a different trial. Another judge presided over and appellant’s other attorney participated in the October 13 jury voir dire.

When defense counsel realized that the overlap between the two cases would occur, a continuance of appellant’s trial was sought. Defense counsel’s motion asked to delay the taking of testimony until October 26 while allowing the jury voir dire to begin on October 13. This motion was denied. Appellant now asserts that the denial was an abuse of discretion, that the one-day absence of one of the two defense counsel and the lack of adequate preparation time resulted in ineffective assistance of counsel, and that having a substitute judge preside over one day of general jury voir dire was error. We disagree.

The grant of a continuance is an exercise of the sound discretion of the trial court. State v. Sullivan, 130 Ariz. 213, 635 P.2d 501 (1981). We will not disturb a ruling on a motion for continuance unless (1) there is a clear abuse of the trial court’s discretion and (2) prejudice results. Id.

Appellant has pointed to no prejudice which resulted from the denial of the motion for continuance. As the trial judge noted in the hearing on this motion, appellant would have had a better argument if he had only one defense attorney and that attorney was forced to go from one major trial directly to another without adequate time to prepare. However, here, there were two defense counsel, only one of whom was involved in the earlier trial. The second attorney had been assigned to appellant’s case in December, 1981 and was admittedly fully prepared to begin. Only general voir dire was conducted on October 13. All individual voir dire was conducted on subsequent days with the trial judge and both defense counsel present. Explanation was made to the venire members for the absences of October 13. The trial judge delayed the taking of testimony until October 19 so that defense counsel might prepare more fully. We have read the record of appellant’s trial and find no evidence of lack of preparation, of ineffective assistance of counsel, or of prejudice to appellant.

We agree with appellant that it is not the best practice to have a substitute judge preside over part of an ongoing trial. See State v. Wallen, 114 Ariz. 355, 560 P.2d 1262 (App.1977). However, we recognize that, in some extraordinary situations, it may be necessary. In the case sub judice, the judge and all counsel agreed that this was a “last day” case. A thirty-day extension had already been sought from and granted by this Court pursuant to Ariz. R.Crim.P. 8.4(c). No one suggested seeking a second. Under these circumstances, and having found no prejudice to appellant, we find no error in the one-day substitution of judge and no abuse of discretion in the denial of the motion for continuance.

“OTHER BAD ACT” EVIDENCE

Appellant contends that testimony concerning his previous violent acts should not have been admitted into evidence during his trial. We agree that evidence of other wrongs is not generally admissible to show that a defendant is a bad person or has a propensity for committing crimes. State v. McCall, 139 Ariz. 147, 677 P.2d *623 920 (1983), cert. denied, — U.S.-, 104 S.Ct. 2670, 81 L.Ed.2d 375 (1984). However, where insanity is an issue, all prior relevant conduct of the defendant’s life is admissible. State v. Rodriguez, 126 Ariz. 28, 612 P.2d 484 (1980); State v. Skaggs, 120 Ariz. 467, 586 P.2d 1279 (1978). Appellant acknowledges this exception to the general rule but argues that his prior bad acts were not relevant and, therefore, fell outside the exception. We cannot agree.

As noted above, appellant’s defense' was that he suffered from paranoid delusions that had resulted from his long-term alcohol dependence. One of the defense psychiatrists testified that, even if appellant had ingested no alcohol the night of the killing, he still would not have known right from wrong as it related to the victim. The state’s position was that the only condition which lead to the killing was appellant’s acute level of alcohol intoxication.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State v. Uriarte-Velazquez
Court of Appeals of Arizona, 2016
State v. Offret
Court of Appeals of Arizona, 2015
State v. Kummer
Court of Appeals of Arizona, 2015
State v. Roque
141 P.3d 368 (Arizona Supreme Court, 2006)
Peak v. Acuna
50 P.3d 833 (Arizona Supreme Court, 2002)
State v. Vasko
971 P.2d 189 (Court of Appeals of Arizona, 1998)
State v. Ramirez
945 P.2d 376 (Court of Appeals of Arizona, 1998)
State v. Johnson
688 A.2d 867 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 1997)
McIntyre v. State
463 S.E.2d 476 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1995)
People v. McCline
499 N.W.2d 341 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1993)
People v. McCline
496 N.W.2d 296 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1993)
State v. Atwood
832 P.2d 593 (Arizona Supreme Court, 1992)
State v. Cook
834 P.2d 1267 (Court of Appeals of Arizona, 1992)
State v. Mendoza
823 P.2d 51 (Arizona Supreme Court, 1992)
State v. Uriarite
1991 OK CR 80 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1991)
People v. Gonzalez
800 P.2d 1159 (California Supreme Court, 1990)
State v. Crane
799 P.2d 1380 (Court of Appeals of Arizona, 1990)
State v. Vickers
768 P.2d 1177 (Arizona Supreme Court, 1989)
State v. Jackson
760 P.2d 589 (Court of Appeals of Arizona, 1988)
State v. Ferreira
731 P.2d 1233 (Court of Appeals of Arizona, 1986)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
688 P.2d 628, 141 Ariz. 620, 1984 Ariz. LEXIS 260, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-amarillas-ariz-1984.