State v. Fina

902 P.2d 30, 273 Mont. 171, 52 State Rptr. 887, 1995 Mont. LEXIS 193
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 25, 1995
Docket93-292
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 902 P.2d 30 (State v. Fina) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Montana 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. Fina, 902 P.2d 30, 273 Mont. 171, 52 State Rptr. 887, 1995 Mont. LEXIS 193 (Mo. 1995).

Opinion

JUSTICE GRAY

delivered the Opinion of the Court.

George Fina (Fina) appeals from orders of the Thirteenth Judicial District Court, Yellowstone County, denying his motions for a new trial and from the Judgment and Commitment entered on the jury verdict finding him guilty of the offense of deliberate homicide. We affirm.

We réstate the issues on appeal as follows:

1. Did the District Court abuse its discretion in denying Fina’s motion for a new trial based on newly discovered evidence?
2. Did the District Court abuse its discretion in denying Fina’s motion for a new trial with regard to certain evidentiary rulings?

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

The State of Montana (State) charged Fina and Eric Anderson (Anderson) with the offense of deliberate homicide, alleging that in the nighttime hours of November 26, 1991, or the early morning hours of November 27, 1991, they shot Stacie Kline (Kline) to death in the area of Shepherd-Acton Road and Highway 87 outside of Billings, Montana. Anderson agreed to testify against Fina.

The State’s evidence at trial generally showed the following. In November of 1991, Fina and Anderson acquired a number of handguns which had been stolen in a pawn shop burglary. They sold one of the guns, a .22 caliber revolver, to Dick Hallam (Hallam), an acquaintance of Fina’s, for $165. Hallam paid only $100 at the time of the transaction. In the early evening hours of November 26, 1991, Fina and Anderson went to Hallam’s place of employment in a *174 borrowed red and white Mazda pickup. They were agitated over Hallam’s failure to pay the remaining amount and threatened him with 9mm pistols each was carrying.

Following this incident, Fina and Anderspn drove to a K-Mart store where Fina purchased a box of 9mm Blazer CCI ammunition. They then proceeded to the Riverboat Casino where they gambled and drank beer. After leaving, they discussed robbing a prostitute.

Anderson drove the pickup to downtown Billings where he and Fina struck up a conversation with Kline, a local prostitute with whom Fina was acquainted. They offered Kline $200 in cash and she agreed to accompany them. The trio proceeded to Shepherd-Acton Road north of Billings, where Anderson and Kline engaged in sexual intercourse on the bench seat of the pickup. Fina did not have intercourse with Kline.

Fina then told Kline that he and Anderson were police officers. He ordered Kline out of the pickup and emptied her pockets of the $200 he and Anderson had given her, plus an additional $7, a motel key and miscellaneous papers. Fina ordered Kline to remove her clothing from the waist up and to face away from the pickup. A few moments later, Anderson shot Kline in the back. Both men then fired at Kline, who fell to the ground.

Fina and Anderson reentered the pickup, drove west and turned around. As they passed Kline, they noticed she was still moving. Anderson stopped the truck and Fina got out and shot Kline twice in the head. The coroner opined that these were the shots that killed Kline. Fina and Anderson then drove east on Shepherd-Acton Road toward Highway 87.

Chris Tucker (Tucker) was walking near the intersection of Shepherd-Acton Road and Highway 87 at about this time. As he reached the intersection, he heard gunfire coming from the west. He observed a vehicle approaching from the direction of the gunfire five to ten minutes later. When the vehicle neared Tucker and the intersection, its lights were turned off and it “ran” the stop sign, increasing in speed. Tucker was picked up approximately 20 to 30 minutes later by a passing Montana Highway Patrol Officer, Lynn Halvorsen (Halvorsen). Halvorsen recorded the time as 11:30 p.m. Tucker later identified the vehicle he had seen as the borrowed red and white Mazda pickup.

A local couple found Kline’s body on Shepherd-Acton Road the following morning. The Yellowstone County Sheriff’s Office (Sheriff’s Office) recovered Blazer CCI and Federal 9mm shell casings, as well *175 as the condom Anderson had used when having intercourse with Kline, from the scene of the crime. The pathologist who performed the autopsy on Kline’s body estimated her time of death as the late evening to early morning hours of November 26-27, 1991.

A few days later, Fina’s wife contacted Anderson and told him that Fina had been taken to the Sheriff’s Office for questioning. Anderson went to Fina’s home, took both Fina’s and his 9mm pistols, placed them in an athletic bag and threw the bag into the Yellowstone River. The bag and guns ultimately were recovered and Fina’s pistol was determined to have fired the fatal shots into Kline’s head.

Fina presented an extensive defense case. He testified on his own behalf, denying Anderson’s story and asserting that he had been at home at the time the homicide occurred. He also presented witnesses who testified that they had seen Kline talking to two men in a red pickup and, indeed, getting into the pickup with the men, in the early morning hours of November 27,1991. The testimony was intended to discredit Anderson’s version of the events, as well as Tucker’s. The jury found Fina guilty of the offense of deliberate homicide.

Fina subsequently filed a motion for a new trial. The District Court denied the motion and Fina appealed.

During the pendency of the appeal, Fina moved this Court to stay the appeal and remand to the District Court for a hearing on whether he was entitled to a new trial on the basis of newly discovered evidence. We granted Fina’s motion.

On remand, the District Court held a hearing on Fina’s motion for a new trial based on newly discovered evidence. The court subsequently issued an Order and Memorandum denying the motion. Fina appealed.

1. Did the District Court abuse its discretion in denying Fina’s motion for a new trial based on newly discovered evidence?

Fina argues that he satisfied this Corut’s criteria for establishing entitlement to a new trial based on newly discovered evidence and that the District Court erred in denying his motion. A district court’s decision to grant or deny a motion for a new trial, including a motion based on newly discovered evidence, lies within the sound discretion of the court. Matter of J.R.T. (1993), 258 Mont. 520, 522, 853 P.2d 710, 711. We will not disturb that decision unless an abuse of discretion is shown. Matter of J.R.T., 258 Mont. 520, 853 P.2d at 711.

The newly discovered evidence in this case first came to light in May of 1993, approximately one and one-half years after Kline was *176 killed. Lanor Bordner (Bordner), a postal employee in Billings, contacted Fina’s counsel’s office at that time. She related that she had seen two men in a small red pickup talking to a girl in the area of Montana Avenue and 27th Street in Billings at approximately 12:10 to 12:15 a.m. on an unknown date around the time Kline’s murder had been discovered.

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Bluebook (online)
902 P.2d 30, 273 Mont. 171, 52 State Rptr. 887, 1995 Mont. LEXIS 193, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-fina-mont-1995.