State v. Hauser

150 P.3d 296, 143 Idaho 603, 2006 Ida. App. LEXIS 78
CourtIdaho Court of Appeals
DecidedAugust 2, 2006
Docket31695
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 150 P.3d 296 (State v. Hauser) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Hauser, 150 P.3d 296, 143 Idaho 603, 2006 Ida. App. LEXIS 78 (Idaho Ct. App. 2006).

Opinions

LANSING, Judge.

Summer L. Hauser was convicted by a jury in the district court as an accessory to malicious injury to property. Hauser argues several trial errors on appeal.

[606]*606I.

FACTUAL & PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

In the wee hours of March 9, 2004, ten windows at Thornley’s restaurant in Post Falls and several vehicles in that town were damaged by B.B.s shot from an air-gun. This case revolves around the conflicting stories told to the police by defendant-appellant Summer Hauser, and three other individuals who were with her around the time the windows were shot.

About a week after opening an investigation to determine who caused the damage to the windows, in response to a lead, Detective Richard White contacted one of Hauser’s acquaintances, Julie Browning. At her first meeting with Detective White, Browning told him that she was with Hauser, Hauser’s future-husband Chris Clapper, and Browning’s then-boyfriend Jared Baisden, on the night in question. Browning also told Detective White that she saw a B.B. gun in her apartment, that she recalled Clapper and Baisden admitting that they shot out a van window near her apartment, and that the others had left her at home for awhile as they went “driving around shooting things.” Browning denied any knowledge of the broken restaurant windows, however.

Two days later, Detective White interviewed Hauser at her home. Hauser admitted to socializing with Browning, Clapper, and Baisden at Browning’s apartment on the night in question, but denied knowledge of the existence of a B.B. gun or any damaged windows.

Following his visit with Hauser, Detective White again interviewed Browning. This time, Browning told Detective White a somewhat different version of the night’s events' — • this time she said that she was with Hauser, Baisden, and Clapper when Clapper shot B.B.s toward Thornley’s restaurant from a car that Hauser was driving. Browning gave Detective White a written statement relating this version of the story, and Detective White also recovered several B.B.s and two carbon dioxide (CO2) cartridges1 from Browning’s apartment. Over the next couple of weeks, Detective White interviewed Baisden and Clapper separately, both of whom denied any knowledge of the shootings.

Hauser was eventually charged with both felony and misdemeanor counts of malicious injury to property, Idaho Code §§ 18-204, - 7001, for her alleged involvement in the shooting incident. At a preliminary hearing, however, the magistrate found that there was insufficient evidence to charge Hauser as a principal and that Hauser could only be tried as an accessory after the fact, I.C. § 18-205. An information charging Hauser with the latter offense was filed, and at trial Hauser was convicted as an accessory after the fact to malicious injury to property. The district court imposed a suspended sentence, placed Hauser on probation, and ordered Hauser to pay $1,565.28 in restitution for the broken windows.

Hauser appeals, arguing (1) that the State failed to present evidence from which a jury could find all of the required elements of the accessory after the fact charge, (2) that the district court erred in refusing to excuse a biased juror for cause, (3) that the district court erred in allowing the State to present evidence regarding the truthfulness of other individuals’ statements and evidence regarding Baisden’s drug purchase on the night in question, and (4) that the district court erred in ordering Hauser to pay restitution.

II.

ANALYSIS

A. Sufficiency of Evidence

We first address Hauser’s argument that she is entitled to an acquittal because the evidence was insufficient to prove guilt. An appellate court will not set aside a judgment of conviction entered upon a jury verdict if there is substantial and competent evidence upon which a rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt, even if the evidence is conflicting. State v. Porter, 130 Idaho 772, 787, 948 P.2d 127, 142 (1997); State v. Osborne, 130 Idaho [607]*607365, 371, 941 P.2d 337, 343 (Ct.App.1997); State v. Reyes, 121 Idaho 570, 572, 826 P.2d 919, 921 (Ct.App.1992). In conducting this review, the appellate court will not substitute its view for that of the jury as to the credibility of witnesses, the weight to be given to the testimony, or the reasonable inferences to be drawn from the evidence. State v. Knutson, 121 Idaho 101, 104, 822 P.2d 998, 1001 (Ct.App.1991). Rather, the facts and inferences to be drawn from those facts are construed in favor of upholding the jury’s verdict. State v. Hughes, 130 Idaho 698, 701, 946 P.2d 1338, 1341 (Ct.App.1997). As for the application and construction of statutes, this Court exercises free review. State v. Reyes, 139 Idaho 502, 505, 80 P.3d 1103, 1106 (Ct.App.2003); State v. Schumacher, 131 Idaho 484, 485, 959 P.2d 465, 466 (Ct.App.1998).

The crime of accessory is defined in I.C. § 18-205 as follows:

All persons are accessories who, having knowledge that a felony has been committed:
(1) Willfully withhold or conceal it from a peace officer, judge, magistrate, grand jury or trial jury; or
(2) Harbor and protect a person who committed such felony or who has been charged with or convicted thereof.

Hauser was charged only under subsection (1) of this statute. Hauser concedes that the State presented sufficient evidence to prove the elements of the underlying offense of felony malicious injury to property, I.C. § 18-7001, but asserts that the State did not present evidence by which a jury could find that she was an accessory to that crime— namely, that she had actual knowledge that the felony had been committed, or that she willfully withheld or concealed such knowledge from Detective White.

Initially, we must address Hauser’s contention that the State was required to prove she had “actual” knowledge that a felony had been committed. That is, Hauser asserts that the State did not prove she had actual knowledge of a felony because there was no evidence that she actually saw or heard the windows at Thornley’s restaurant get broken. In State v. Teasley, 138 Idaho 113, 116, 58 P.3d 97, 100 (Ct.App.2002), this Court held that section 18-205 does not require actual knowledge when prosecuting under subsection (2) of the statute, which pertains to harboring and protecting a person who has committed or been charged with a felony. We reasoned that requiring actual knowledge would lead to absurd results because, even if a fugitive were charged with or convicted of a felony, the person harboring the fugitive could escape liability as an accessory by asserting a belief that the fugitive was innocent. Id. A similar rationale commands a similar result in the context of subsection (1). To paraphrase

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Bluebook (online)
150 P.3d 296, 143 Idaho 603, 2006 Ida. App. LEXIS 78, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-hauser-idahoctapp-2006.