State v. Butt

2012 UT 34, 284 P.3d 605, 710 Utah Adv. Rep. 44, 2012 WL 2149782, 2012 Utah LEXIS 67
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedJune 8, 2012
DocketNo. 20090655
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 2012 UT 34 (State v. Butt) 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. Butt, 2012 UT 34, 284 P.3d 605, 710 Utah Adv. Rep. 44, 2012 WL 2149782, 2012 Utah LEXIS 67 (Utah 2012).

Opinion

Associate Chief Justice NEHRING,

opinion of the Court:

{1 Defendant Eric Butt was convicted of distributing harmful materials to a minor when he mailed rudimentary nude drawings of himself to his five-year-old daughter. On appeal, he argues that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction because the State presented nothing more than the drawings themselves. Due to the broad grant of discretion ceded to the jury by the sufficiency of the evidence standard and by the "harmful to minors" statute, we affirm.

BACKGROUND

1 2 Defendant was incarcerated in the San Juan County Jail on theft-related charges. From jail, he mailed two letters to his family. The letters were intercepted by the County Jail, which allowed inmates to mail letters but reserved the right to randomly inspect any outgoing mail.

13 The first letter was addressed to Defendant's wife. The envelope had a large pink heart drawn on it, and inside the heart were three letters: C, K, and S, presumably [607]*607standing for his wife Cammy, his eight-year-old son K.B., and his five-year-old daughter S.B. Defendant enclosed individual letters to his wife and children. At the bottom of the letter for S.B., he drew a picture of himself naked with a speech bubble stating, "I love you [S.B.]" coming from his mouth. Next to the nude drawing of himself, he wrote, "Love you, Dad" and "I have no idea why she wanted me to draw my wiener. But she insisted. Seary!!" Corporal Black, the prison guard on duty, intercepted this letter. After inspecting it, he took it to Deputy Alan Freestone, the deputy sheriff for the San Juan County Jail That same day, Deputy Freestone met with Defendant to discuss the drawing; Defendant freely admitted that he drew the picture as a joke because his daughter had asked him to do so.

14 A few days later, Defendant mailed a second letter to his family. This letter was also addressed to his wife and also contained a drawn heart on it, with C, K, and S inside the heart. This envelope also contained three letters: one each to his wife, son, and daughter. On the bottom of the letter for S.B., Defendant drew another picture of himself naked. This drawing depicted him holding his daughter's buttocks up to his mouth. A speech bubble from her mouth said, "Oouch! Daddy don't Bite so hard Giggle giggle." A speech bubble from his mouth said, "Oh your butt taste so good." Above the drawing, Defendant wrote, "[S.B.], Hi beautiful girl. I miss you so much. I can't wait to bite your butt cheek. This is what it will look like. I love you." A prison guard also intercepted this letter and turned it over to Deputy Freestone. Deputy Freestone met with Defendant in the booking area of the jail to let him know that he did not think the drawing was appropriate. Defendant explained to Deputy Freestone that the drawing depicted a game that he played with his daughter where he bites and tickles her.

15 At some point after these letters were intercepted but before any formal charges were filed, Deputy Freestone asked Deputy Martha Johnson to ascertain the ages of Defendant's children. Deputy Freestone never explained why he wanted the ages and did not ask Deputy Johnson to get any other information or conduct any further investigation. Deputy Johnson approached Defendant in his jail cell and asked him how old his children were. He told her that his daughter was five and his son was eight. Deputy Johnson did not read Defendant his Miranda rights during this encounter. Deputy Johnson relayed Defendant's response to Deputy Freestone.

16 Defendant was charged with two counts of distributing harmful material to a minor under Utah Code section 76-10-1206. At trial, Defendant testified that he wrote both letters and drew both pictures. He acknowledged that although the letter was addressed to his wife, he intended his daughter to see his drawings. In his testimony, he stated that his daughter was five years old. He stated that he did not find the drawings offensive because his daughter had watched a documentary about cave drawings and asked him to draw a picture of himself naked like those in the documentary. With regard to the second letter, Defendant testified that his drawing depicted a game he played with his daughter involving biting and tickling. The jury convicted Defendant on both counts. Defendant appeals We have jurisdiction pursuant to Utah Code section 78A-3-102(8)(b).

STANDARDS OF REVIEW

17 We first consider Defendant's threshold argument that his Fifth Amendment rights were violated when Deputy Johnson asked Defendant how old his children were without issuing him Miranda warnings.1 We review determinations of custodial interrogation for correctness, giving no deference to the trial court's decision.2

18 Defendant next contends that the evidence was not sufficient to prove the elements of the statute.

The standard of review for a sufficiency claim is highly deferential to a jury verdict. We begin by reviewing the evidence and [608]*608all inferences which may be reasonably drawn from it in the light most favorable to the verdict. We will reverse a jury verdict for insufficient evidence only if we determine that reasonable minds could not have reached the verdict.3

{9 Finally, Defendant contends that the jury utilized the incorrect community standard. We conclude that Defendant waived this argument and do not address it on the merits.

ANALYSIS

I. DEFENDANTS MIRANDA RIGHTS

{10 Defendant asserts that his Fifth Amendment rights were violated when he was not read his Miranda rights before being asked the ages of his children-a piece of information that may have been readily attainable through a variety of sources but was nevertheless an element of the crime that had to be proved in order to convict.

{11 The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides, "No person shall be ... compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself." 4

The Fifth Amendment right to silence is a comprehensive privilege that can be claimed in any proceeding, be it criminal or civil, administrative or judicial, investigatory or adjudicatory. It protects any disclosures which the witness may reasonably apprehend could be used in a criminal prosecution or which could lead to other evidence that might be so used.5

112 "To preserve this right, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that defendants subjected to custodial interrogation are entitled to a Miranda warning. Where such a warning is not given, any incriminating statements made by a defendant during the custodial interrogation are exeluded from evidence." 6 "[Clustodial interrogation occurs where there is both (1) eustody ... and (2) interrogation. These two elements are interrelated." 7

1 13 We have previously evaluated whether a defendant was in custody, noting that,

A person is in custody when the person's freedom of action is curtailed to a degree associated with formal arrest. The inquiry is objective and considers how a reasonable man in the suspect's position would have understood his situation. A suspect may understand himself or herself to be in custody based either on physical evidence or on the nature of the officer's instrue-tions and questions.

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Bluebook (online)
2012 UT 34, 284 P.3d 605, 710 Utah Adv. Rep. 44, 2012 WL 2149782, 2012 Utah LEXIS 67, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-butt-utah-2012.