State v. Christofferson

793 P.2d 944, 135 Utah Adv. Rep. 75, 1990 Utah App. LEXIS 97, 1990 WL 71811
CourtCourt of Appeals of Utah
DecidedJune 1, 1990
Docket880612-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 793 P.2d 944 (State v. Christofferson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Utah primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Christofferson, 793 P.2d 944, 135 Utah Adv. Rep. 75, 1990 Utah App. LEXIS 97, 1990 WL 71811 (Utah Ct. App. 1990).

Opinion

OPINION

GARFF, Judge:

Defendant William Christofferson appeals from a conviction of theft, a class A misdemeanor, as defined by Utah Code Ann. § 76-6-404 (1990). We affirm.

On April 5, 1988, defendant was arrested in Salt Lake City for a school burglary unrelated to the present theft charge. On April 6, after being informed of and waiving his Miranda rights, he was questioned by Detective Brent Hutchison. At the conclusion of the interrogation for the school burglary, Hutchison asked defendant if he knew about any other crimes that he wanted to clear up. Defendant responded that he knew about an air compressor that had been stolen in Murray. He correctly identified the victim and the Murray detective, Gerry Christensen, who was assigned to the case. He also said he knew who was responsible for the theft. Hutchison asked defendant if he would be willing to talk to Christensen about the matter. He agreed. Defendant was then booked into jail.

On April 7, Hutchison and Christensen returned to. talk to defendant. Sometime prior to being questioned by Christensen about the theft, defendant told Hutchison that he had been to court for the burglary and had been appointed an attorney, but that he had not yet spoken with him. Hutchison advised defendant again of his Miranda rights. Defendant said he was willing to talk to Christensen without an attorney present, and then admitted that he had taken the air compressor.

Charges in the school burglary case were filed on April 8. The record shows that defendant, without counsel, appeared for arraignment on April 11. The trial court appointed the legal defender’s office to represent him. Charges on the theft of the air compressor were filed on April 13.

On April 27, defendant went to Christensen and denied taking the compressor. Defendant claimed that he and another individual had planned the theft, but that the other individual had acted alone in taking the compressor. This contradictory statement was not made part of the written investigative report and was not made known to the prosecution until the morning of the trial.

Prior to trial, defendant moved to suppress his April 7 confession, claiming that it was obtained in violation of his constitutional rights to have counsel present during *946 custodial questioning. The motion was denied and the inculpatory testimony was heard at trial. During the trial, Christensen also testified about the contradictory exculpatory statement made by defendant on April 27. Defendant did not object to the surprise testimony and thoroughly cross-examined Christensen about the statement.

Later, defendant unsuccessfully moved to dismiss on the grounds that the exculpatory evidence was not made available to defense counsel in violation of the discovery order. The jury found defendant guilty.

On appeal, defendant alleges that the April 7 confession was obtained in violation of his fifth amendment right to counsel, and that it was clear error on the part of the trial judge to allow the jury to hear testimony regarding his confession. Defendant further alleges that the prosecution violated a pretrial discovery order by failing to disclose the April 27 exculpatory statement, and that it was reversible error for the trial judge to not grant his motion to dismiss.

RIGHT TO COUNSEL

Defendant contends that he invoked his right to counsel when he appeared, prior to April 7, in circuit court for a probable cause hearing on the burglary charge, and was appointed counsel. He states that when he told the police that a lawyer had been appointed to represent him, they should have viewed this as a request to have counsel present during the questioning.

At the hearing on the motion to suppress his confession, defendant relied upon the testimony of a police officer, who stated that a probable cause hearing is normally held the day after an accused is booked into jail. Since counsel is not ordinarily appointed at a probable cause hearing, the trial judge asked defendant to provide him with the circuit court file and the transcript of the probable cause hearing. Defendant only produced the file. The trial judge found nothing in the file to support defendant’s claim or even to suggest that a hearing had ever occurred. To the contrary, the file indicated that counsel in the burglary case was not appointed until April 11, three days after defendant’s confession.

Defendant has not supplied this court with either the court file or the transcript from the alleged probable cause hearing.

In its ruling on defendant’s motion to suppress, the trial court found:

If, in fact, Christofferson had invoked his right to counsel under the Sixth Amendment in regards to the burglary of the Edison school case, such right was his during the interrogation in this matter, not only of the Edison school case, but of the compressor theft case. The interrogation occurred while he remained in continuous police custody, the state initiated the interrogation and, therefore, Chris-tofferson could not waive his right to counsel without counsel being present.
If Christofferson had not invoked his right to legal counsel under the Sixth Amendment, he still had his rights under the Fifth Amendment which could be waived.
[In] a review of ... the school burglary case, the court file indicates that the complaint was filed on April 8, 1988, and a summons dated that date of the warrant of arrest. The defendant appeared without counsel for arraignment in Circuit Court on April 11, 1988, at which time the court appointed the Legal Defenders office to represent the defendant. Attorney Bradshaw filed his appearance on April 12, 1988, and the preliminary hearing was held on April 13, 1988.
Therefore, the interrogation by the Salt Lake City Police, as well as the Murray Police, apparently occurred prior to the complaint being filed, and prior to defendant’s appearance in court without counsel, at which time legal counsel was appointed.

We accept the trial court’s finding that defendant had not been appointed counsel prior to his interrogation. In the absence of a record or transcript supporting defendant’s factual contentions on ap *947 peal, Mark VII Fin. Consultants Corp. v. Smedley, 792 P.2d 130, 134 (Utah Ct.App.1990), and upon defendant’s failure to marshal evidence that shows the ruling to be clearly erroneous, In re D.M., 790 P.2d 562, 566-67 (Utah Ct.App.1990), we presume that the ruling is adequately supported by the clear weight of the evidence. When raising objections on appeal, appellant has the burden to see that the record contains the materials necessary to support his appeal. “We cannot speculate on the existence of facts that do not appear in the record. When crucial matters are not included in the record, the missing portions are presumed to support the action of the trial court.” State v. Theison,

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Bluebook (online)
793 P.2d 944, 135 Utah Adv. Rep. 75, 1990 Utah App. LEXIS 97, 1990 WL 71811, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-christofferson-utahctapp-1990.