State v. Cameron

CourtCourt of Appeals of Arizona
DecidedDecember 17, 2020
Docket1 CA-CR 19-0513
StatusUnpublished

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

Bluebook
State v. Cameron, (Ark. Ct. App. 2020).

Opinion

NOTICE: NOT FOR OFFICIAL PUBLICATION. UNDER ARIZONA RULE OF THE SUPREME COURT 111(c), THIS DECISION IS NOT PRECEDENTIAL AND MAY BE CITED ONLY AS AUTHORIZED BY RULE.

IN THE ARIZONA COURT OF APPEALS DIVISION ONE

STATE OF ARIZONA, Appellee,

v.

SHAWN DOUGLAS CAMERON, Appellant.

No. 1 CA-CR 19-0513 FILED 12-17-2020

Appeal from the Superior Court in Mohave County No. S8015CR201700132 The Honorable Lee Frank Jantzen, Judge

AFFIRMED IN PART; VACATED IN PART; REMANDED

COUNSEL

Arizona Attorney General’s Office, Phoenix By Michael O’Toole Counsel for Appellee

Mitchell Stein Carey Chapman PC, Phoenix By Michael T. Morrissey, Lee D. Stein, Kathleen E. Brody Counsel for Appellant STATE v. CAMERON Decision of the Court

MEMORANDUM DECISION

Chief Judge Peter B. Swann delivered the decision of the court, in which Presiding Judge Michael J. Brown and Judge D. Steven Williams joined.

S W A N N, Chief Judge:

¶1 Shawn Douglas Cameron appeals his convictions and sentences for luring a minor for sexual exploitation, sexual conduct with a minor, and continuous sexual abuse of a child. We detect no error with respect to Cameron’s convictions. But because the superior court mistakenly believed that it had no discretion to impose concurrent sentences on the luring and sexual conduct counts, we vacate the sentences and remand for resentencing.

FACTS1 AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶2 In 2003, Cameron took custody of his infant son and the victim, who was his son’s half-sister. Cameron began sexually abusing the victim when she was approximately five years old.

¶3 Over the next few years, Cameron, on a daily or weekly basis, touched the victim’s genitals with his hand and his genitals. When the victim was nine years old, Cameron penetrated her vagina with his penis one time. Later, Cameron began performing oral sex on the victim. Cameron told the victim that he engaged in the sexual contact to help her cope with sexual abuse she endured before he obtained custody. Cameron called the contact “affection time.”

¶4 When the victim objected to the contact, Cameron would react violently. Eventually, Cameron offered a “compromise,” whereby he would limit his sexual conduct with the victim—the “affection time”—to Wednesdays and Sundays. Cameron continued to subject the victim to regular oral and masturbatory sexual contact through December 2016.

1 We view the evidence in the light most favorable to sustaining the verdicts and resolve all reasonable inferences against Cameron. State v. Holle, 240 Ariz. 300, 301, ¶ 2 (2016).

2 STATE v. CAMERON Decision of the Court

¶5 In January 2017, the victim refused Cameron’s request for sexual activity. Cameron responded, via text:

Okay so no affection

....

So that’s how it’s going to be ok love you too wish you could love me the way I do have not even seen much of you all week

sorry well I feel lost and the one thing I want you won’t let me how much more can I go through what did I do and I am sorry I will be heartbroken and heartless for now on you win what a great birthday thanks again

The following day, the victim told her school’s assistant principal and the school resource officer that Cameron had been sexually abusing her. A detective and an investigator from the Department of Child Safety (“DCS”) interviewed the victim at school, and a sexual assault nurse examined her the following day.

¶6 The state charged Cameron with multiple sexual offenses. At trial, Cameron testified in his defense and denied any sexual conduct. Cameron also elicited testimony from a DCS case manager, the DCS investigator who had interviewed the victim at school, and a detective who had investigated an earlier report that Cameron was sexually abusing the victim.

¶7 The jury convicted Cameron of one count each of luring a minor for sexual exploitation (Count 1), sexual conduct with a minor (Count 2), and continuous sexual abuse of a child, a dangerous crime against children (Count 5). The superior court sentenced Cameron to consecutive, mitigated prison terms of fifteen years for Count 5, four years for Count 2, and two years for Count 1. Cameron appeals.

3 STATE v. CAMERON Decision of the Court

DISCUSSION

I. THE SUPERIOR COURT DID NOT ABUSE ITS DISCRETION BY ADMITTING EVIDENCE OF THE VICTIM’S BROTHER’S ALLEGED PHYSICAL ABUSE.

¶8 Cameron first contends that the superior court erred by permitting the DCS investigator to testify that the victim’s brother had been removed from Cameron’s home following allegations of physical abuse. We review evidentiary rulings for an abuse of discretion. State v. Smith, 215 Ariz. 221, 232, ¶ 48 (2007).

¶9 On direct examination by defense counsel, the investigator testified that she met with the victim at school in January 2017. Defense counsel then inquired whether DCS had received any earlier reports of sexual abuse:

Q. Were you familiar with [the victim]?

A. Yes.

Q. Were you aware of any previous reports of sexual abuse in the home?
A. No, not of previous sexual abuse.

Q. When you began your investigation did you look at prior reports in the state database?

A. Prior reports for [the victim]?
Q. Yes.

A. There [were] prior reports on the family. None concerning [the victim] as being a victim.

¶10 On cross-examination, the prosecutor asked the DCS investigator if she had contacted “the Cameron family a couple of times.” The investigator responded in the affirmative, and the following exchange ensued:

4 STATE v. CAMERON Decision of the Court

Q. But maybe not specifically contact with [the victim]?
A. Not as [the victim] being a victim.
Q. In fact, it was [the brother] being a victim?

Cameron objected to the final question under Ariz. R. Evid. (“Rule”) 404, but the court allowed the [DCS?] investigator to answer. The investigator confirmed that the brother had been identified as a victim. Over Cameron’s ongoing objection, the prosecutor continued into the nature and consequence of the reports involving the brother:

Q. Was there an allegation in May of 2016 as to physical abuse as to [the brother]?

A. There was allegations, but I don’t recall the exact date.
Q. Okay. Do you know if [the brother] ultimately left the home?
A. He did.
Q. And is it DCS that took him from the home?
A. Yes. We removed him from the home.
Q. And that was in 2016?
A. I believe it was, yes.

¶11 Cameron moved for a mistrial, arguing that the investigator’s testimony regarding prior allegations of physical abuse against the brother was improper other-acts evidence offered to show that Cameron had a “reputation and character for violence.” The superior court denied the motion, holding that the issue of “previous investigations” arose in the “natural course of the trial” in Cameron’s direct examination of his own witness. The court concluded that the testimony was not particularly prejudicial and that no curative instruction was necessary.

¶12 Rule 404(b) provides, as relevant here, that “evidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts is not admissible to prove the character of a person in order to show action in conformity therewith. It may, however, be admissible for other purposes, such as proof of motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, [or] plan . . .

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Bluebook (online)
State v. Cameron, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-cameron-arizctapp-2020.