State v. Brown

948 P.2d 337, 328 Utah Adv. Rep. 14, 1997 Utah LEXIS 94, 1997 WL 659797
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 24, 1997
Docket960041
StatusPublished
Cited by79 cases

This text of 948 P.2d 337 (State v. Brown) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah 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. Brown, 948 P.2d 337, 328 Utah Adv. Rep. 14, 1997 Utah LEXIS 94, 1997 WL 659797 (Utah 1997).

Opinions

RUSSON, Justice:

Defendant Debra Brown was convicted by a jury in Cache County of aggravated murder. Brown appeals her conviction, claiming that (1) the trial court incorrectly barred admission of the results of a polygraph exam[339]*339ination; (2) the trial court’s failure to intervene when the prosecutor made certain comments during his closing arguments was plain error; and (3) the evidence was insufficient to support the jury’s verdict.

I. BACKGROUND

On appeal, we review the record facts in a light most favorable to the jury’s verdict and recite the facts accordingly. State v. Johnson, 821 P.2d 1150, 1153 (Utah 1991).

On the morning of November 7, 1993, the Logan City Police Department received a 911 call from defendant stating that she had found her employer dead in his home. Both emergency medical personnel and police officers responded to the call. Upon arrival, the officers found Debra Brown, who was emotionally distraught, on the porch outside the home. Inside, they found the body of Lael Brown,1 who had been shot in the head. Mr. Brown was in his bed with a blanket and a sheet pulled up to his shoulder. Initially, police thought the death might have been a suicide; however, when they did not find a gun, they began treating the investigation as a murder.

Debra Brown told police investigators she had worked for Lael Brown in his apartment rental business. She stated that Mr. Brown had been ill and she had delivered a pot of soup to his home on Saturday afternoon, November 6. When she knocked on the door and received no answer, she left the soup on Mr. Brown’s porch with a note. She returned Sunday morning to check on Mr. Brown and found the soup still on the porch. Again there was no response to her knocks on the door. At that point, she returned to her truck, retrieved a key to Mr. Brown’s home, and let herself into the home, where she discovered his body and then called the police. The pot of soup with the note was still on the porch when police officers arrived.

Investigators determined that there had not been a forced entry into the home nor was the house ransacked. Items of value such as the television and various guns that were in plain view were also still in the home. The only obviously missing item was Mr. Brown’s wallet. Police officers questioned Debra Brown several times that day and searched her truck and her purse.

An autopsy revealed that Mr. Brown had been shot three times with a .22 caliber handgun, and tests suggested that the murder weapon may have been a Colt Woodsman. Police learned that Mr. Brown owned a .22 caliber Colt Woodsman handgun that was missing. Neither the Colt Woodsman nor any other murder weapon was ever found.

An analysis of Mr. Brown’s home revealed traces of blood around the kitchen sink and a small hand print on the front door. Police never matched the hand print to Debra Brown, and no traces of blood were found on her clothes. No physical evidence linking Debra Brown to the murder was ever discovered.

However, when Mr. Brown’s family began working on his estate for probate purposes, they discovered that his October 1993 bank statement and several canceled checks were missing. They also discovered that several checks written in the preceding months were missing. This discovery made the family suspicious because Mr. Brown was known for keeping complete financial records. Upon further investigation, police determined that the missing cheeks from prior months were payable to Debra Brown. They also learned that several checks written to Debra Brown had cleared the bank during the month of October. When police obtained copies of these checks from the bank, they suspected that several of the cheeks payable to Debra Brown were forgeries. An expert document examiner evaluated copies of the checks along with other financial records and confirmed the forgeries. Defendant’s home was searched, but none of the missing financial records were ever located. When the bank issued the November statement, police found that another forged check payable to Debra Brown had been negotiated on November 2.

On the basis of a neighbor’s statement about hearing gunshots, police thought the murder occurred at approximately 7 a.m. on [340]*340Saturday, November 6, 1993. Defendant could account for her whereabouts for the entire weekend except the hours between 6:40 a.m. and 10 a.m. on Saturday, November 6.

Throughout the investigation, Debra Brown willingly cooperated with investigators. She was interviewed by police officers more than twenty times in the three months following the murder and consistently denied involvement.

Defendant was charged by information with aggravated murder on September 12, 1994. On appeal, she (1) challenges the trial court’s ruling barring admission of polygraph results, (2) claims the trial court erred when it failed to address the prosecutor’s remarks during closing argument, and (3) challenges the sufficiency of the evidence.

II. POLYGRAPH

During the investigation and prior to being charged, defendant voluntarily consented to a polygraph examination requested by the Logan City Police Department. In the course of this examination, the following colloquy between the examiner and Brown transpired:

Q. Regarding the question about Lael’s death, do you intend to tell the truth to each question about that?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you yourself cause Lael’s death? A. No.
Q. Did you conspire with anyone to cause Lael’s death?
A. No.
Q. Do you know for sure who caused Lael’s death?
A. No.

Before trial, Brown sought a court order allowing testimony about the results of the polygraph. The district court, after hearing the parties’ proffers, denied Brown’s request and, in fact, granted the State’s request barring mention of the polygraph examination at trial. Brown claims that the court erred in refusing to allow testimony about the polygraph examination.

“The trial court has wide discretion in determining the admissibility of expert testimony, and such decisions are reviewed under an abuse of discretion standard.” State v. Larsen, 865 P.2d 1355, 1361 (Utah 1993). “[T]he exercise of discretion ... necessarily reflects the personal judgment of the court and the appellate court can properly find abuse only if ... no reasonable [person] would take the view adopted by the trial court.” State v. Gerrard, 584 P.2d 885, 887 (Utah 1978).

State v. Rimmasch, 775 P.2d 388 (Utah 1989), sets forth a three-part standard for admitting scientific evidence under Utah Rule of Evidence 702.2 Rimmasch first requires a threshold showing of inherent reliability. Id. at 398. A proponent may either show a general acceptance of the principle or technique in the relevant scientific community or proffer a sufficient foundation to demonstrate the inherent reliability of the underlying principles and techniques. Id. at 400.

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Bluebook (online)
948 P.2d 337, 328 Utah Adv. Rep. 14, 1997 Utah LEXIS 94, 1997 WL 659797, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-brown-utah-1997.