State v. Ballinger

663 P.2d 366, 99 N.M. 707
CourtNew Mexico Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 15, 1983
Docket5311
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 663 P.2d 366 (State v. Ballinger) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Ballinger, 663 P.2d 366, 99 N.M. 707 (N.M. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinion

OPINION

WALTERS, Chief Judge.

At the direction of the Supreme Court, and according to its Order entered following its grant of certiorari in this matter, we withdraw our opinion filed on July 6, 1982, and substitute the following:

OPINION ON REMAND

Warren Uecker was found dead on July 22, 1980, with a .32 caliber bullet lodged in his chest. The body was discovered in a shallow grave on the Pine Cienega Ranch in Grant County. Medical testimony established death as a result of the gunshot wound. Defendant and John Rizzo were brought to trial on charges of conspiracy to murder and the first degree murder of Uecker. Rizzo was granted immunity on the second day of trial; the trial proceeded against defendant. Only the charge of murder was submitted to the jury.

The jury convicted defendant of second-degree murder and found, by separate verdict, that defendant had not used a firearm in the commission of the crime. See State v. Leyba, 80 N.M. 190, 453 P.2d 211 (Ct.App.1969).

Defendant abandoned 14 points of error listed in his docketing statement. State v. Gonzales, 96 N.M. 556, 632 P.2d 1194 (Ct.App.1981). The remaining points of alleged error are: (1) prosecutorial misconduct during grand jury proceedings; (2) improper admission of hearsay evidence; (3) impropriety of giving the instruction on aiding and abetting, and (4) impropriety of sustaining an attorney-client privilege claim, thus preventing impeachment of the State’s principal witness.

We agree with defendant’s fourth point, and reverse. Because the matter will be remanded, we discuss all of defendant’s issues on appeal.

1. Prosecutorial Misconduct.

The grand jury proceeding was lengthy, and it was concerned with a bizarre scenario of numerous and diverse persons unhappily joined in a corporate enterprise. There was evidence of business squabbles, financial troubles, suspicions and accusations against defendant of mismanagement and misappropriation of corporate moneys, factionalization of stockholders and directors, two armed camps at the ranch and, finally, the disappearance of one of defendant’s principal accusers and the discovery of his body three days later. Adding to the strange facts of this case was the manner in which officers were guided to the body: the State’s main witness, Rizzo, “dowsed” maps to determine that Uecker had been shot. His dowsing also revealed the direction and distance where the gun and the body would be found, and that the body was shallowly buried under twigs and pine needles.

During presentment of the case to the grand jury, the prosecutor lapsed into conduct probably exceeding his proper role of assisting the grand jury in a fair and impartial manner. State v. Martinez, 97 N.M. 585, 642 P.2d 188 (Ct.App.1982). Defendant catalogs instances when the prosecutor allegedly distorted the testimony of some witnesses; told what a witness knew instead of questioning her; told the grand jury his beliefs regarding concert of action of some of the persons under investigation; answered questions on which there was no testimony; injected his personal opinion about the inferences to be drawn from polygraph tests relating to the credibility of witnesses, and other comments in the nature of conversations with the jury regarding the polygrapher’s dilemma when faced with inconclusive tests. Defendant complains also of alleged hearsay evidence presented to the grand jury and at trial. (We discuss that specific objection hereafter.)

In the context of the entire grand .jury proceedings, we are unable to say that the prosecutor’s comments amounted to deceitful or malicious overreaching to such degree as would subvert the grand jury proceedings. Buzbee v. Donnelly, 96 N.M. 692, 634 P.2d 1244 (1981).

The prosecutor’s summarization of the knowledge and whereabouts of one witness on the day of decedent’s disappearance was made in her presence and during her testimony, and her questioning continued thereafter. She did not dispute the summary. Some of the “conversation” complained of consisted of the prosecutor’s responses to jurors’ questions. His answers outlined matters of testimony that would be given by witnesses who had not yet been called. In an effort to maintain coherence and continuity, much of the prosecutor’s commentary was unavoidable; some of it was necessary in explanation of facts, law, and sequential procedures unfamiliar to the jury. See State v. Saiz, 92 N.M. 776, 595 P.2d 414 (Ct.App.1979). Although considerably more frequent and extensive than the remarks discussed in Martinez, supra, the prosecutor’s comments here resulted, to a large degree, from the complexity of the evidence and the number of persons targeted in the grand jury proceedings.

There was a massive amount of evidence to support the grand jury’s finding of probable cause to accuse. Section 31-6-10, N.M.S.A. 1978. Even so, Buzbee, supra, reaffirmed the holding in State v. Chance, 29 N.M. 34, 221 P. 183 (1923), that in the absence of statutory authority “the courts are without power to review the sufficiency, legality or competency of the evidence upon which an indictment is returned.” (96 N.M. at 706, 634 P.2d 1244.) If we were not otherwise satisfied that the prosecutor’s conduct did not amount to denial of due process in obtaining an indictment against defendant, we would nevertheless be severely limited by the rule of Chance, supra, in reviewing the legality of the evidence presented.

There was no error in refusing to dismiss the indictment on grounds of prosecutorial misconduct.

2. Hearsay Evidence.

The same allegedly hearsay evidence defendant claims should not have been submitted to the grand jury was introduced at trial. He complains of admitting extrajudicial statements of the decedent, some contained in exhibits and the rest in testimony of various witnesses.

Our review of the transcript convinces us that none of the evidence was offered for the truth of the matters asserted, in contravention of the hearsay rule, but was admitted into evidence under the exceptions as verbal acts, State v. Aragon, 85 N.M. 401, 512 P.2d 974 (Ct.App.1973), to show that certain acts were done; or to show defendant’s then-existing mental state, N.M.R.Evid. 803(3); or as statements of recent perception, N.M.R.Evid. 804(b)(2), supra.

Additionally, the evidence was relevant and not erroneously admitted under N.M.R.Evid. 403, to show existence of defendant’s motive, and to connect defendant, at least inferentially, to the crime. See N.M.R.Evid. 401, 402, supra, ánd cases collected in the compilation. When evidence is admissible under any theory, the trial court’s decision to admit it will be upheld. State v. Beachum, 83 N.M.

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663 P.2d 366, 99 N.M. 707, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-ballinger-nmctapp-1983.