State v. Horner

356 P.3d 111, 272 Or. App. 355, 2015 Ore. App. LEXIS 925
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedJuly 22, 2015
Docket201204868; A152003
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 356 P.3d 111 (State v. Horner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Horner, 356 P.3d 111, 272 Or. App. 355, 2015 Ore. App. LEXIS 925 (Or. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

SERCOMBE, J.

Defendant appeals his convictions for various property crimes, including two counts of identity theft, and crimes associated with flight from police. In his opening brief, defendant argues that, under OEC 404(3)1 and State v. Leistiko, 352 Or 172, 282 P3d 857, modified on recons, 352 Or 622, 292 P3d 522 (2012), the trial court erred in admitting evidence of his nine prior identity theft convictions to prove that he had an intent “to deceive or to defraud” in this case, because he did not concede that he “possesse[d] *** the personal identification[s] of [others],” ORS 165.800(1), and the court did not otherwise instruct the jury that it first had to find that defendant possessed the identifications before it considered the identity theft convictions as evidence of intent. After oral argument, the Supreme Court, in State v. Williams, 357 Or 1, 15, 346 P3d 455 (2015), concluded that OEC 404(4) “supersede[s] OEC 404(3) in criminal cases, except * * * as otherwise provided by the state or federal constitutions.”2 The court further concluded that, under OEC 404(4), evidence of a criminal defendant’s other crimes, wrongs, or acts may be admitted so long as (1) it is relevant under OEC 401, and (2) as required by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, “a trial court determines whether the risk of unfair prejudice posed by the evidence outweighs its probative value under OEC 403.” Id. at 24.3 In a supplemental brief, [358]*358defendant maintains that, under the framework announced in Williams, the challenged evidence was inadmissible without a Leistiko jury instruction. As we explain below, we conclude that defendant’s argument under Leistiko — a decision announced after his trial — was unpreserved and, given the “significant change in the law” announced in Williams, 357 Or at 20, defendant’s claim that the trial court was required to give the Leistiko instruction to properly admit evidence of his identity theft convictions is not cognizable as plain error. We further conclude that the trial court erred in modifying defendant’s sentence outside his presence, because the court denied defendant “earned time” on each felony sentence in the written judgment, even though the court had originally announced that he was eligible for earned time after the first 144 months of his sentence. We therefore remand for resentencing and otherwise affirm.4

We set out the pertinent facts, which were undisputed at trial, except as noted. Just after 7:00 a.m. on March 7, 2012, the owner of a truck, Woolley, reported to police that the truck had been stolen from his driveway in Eugene. Woolley had discovered that the truck was gone after one of his employees called and said that he had seen someone other than Woolley driving the truck in a convenience store parking lot. At trial, the employee identified defendant as the driver of the stolen truck.

An officer soon spotted the truck in a restaurant parking lot. After the officer pulled into the parking lot, defendant drove over a curb and sped away. (The officer testified that defendant drove away after the officer activated his lights and siren, but defendant testified that he never saw lights or a siren and thought he was being chased by someone who he recently had fought in a bar.) The officer observed defendant stop, drop off a female passenger, who was never identified, and speed away again.

[359]*359As defendant continued to flee, he reached speeds of over 70 miles per hour. At one point, he passed a “do not enter” sign and drove onto the Beltline Highway against traffic. Defendant passed several other drivers and at least one person walking along the road. Eventually, he ended up on a narrow, dead-end street, with the same officer in pursuit.

After he reached the dead-end street, defendant drove the truck into two parked minivans, and one of the minivans hit a nearby house. Defendant abandoned the truck, proceeded on foot, and lost the jacket he was wearing as he ran. (The officer testified that he told defendant that he was under arrest, yelled for him to stop, and grabbed at the jacket, which slipped off as defendant ran; defendant denied that any of that occurred.) Woolley’s loaded handgun was found in the jacket pocket. Defendant was apprehended a short time later, just a few blocks away, by other officers who had been setting up a perimeter.

It was later discovered that the property found in the truck matched property missing from two cars near where the truck had been stolen: A GPS unit, other property, and a wallet containing the personal identifications of a husband and wife were missing from one car; a car charger, mailbox key, change, and garage door opener were missing from another. A nearby garage — the one that matched the opener — was found open, and a $100 Wal-Mart gift card, car charger, and sunglasses were missing from a car parked in the garage. In the same neighborhood, a truck and trailer parked on the street near Woolley’s house had been sideswiped; paint found on the damaged truck and trailer matched the color of Woolley’s truck.

At 4:35 a.m. on March 7, defendant used a $100 gift card at a Wal-Mart. To make his purchase, defendant provided his birthdate and signature. Surveillance video recorded defendant making the purchase and climbing into the sunroof of the truck in the parking lot.

Defendant was charged with a number of crimes, including two counts of identity theft5 related to the personal [360]*360identifications of the husband and wife that were found in the truck, and, at trial, the state moved in limine to admit evidence that defendant had been convicted of nine counts of identity theft as part of four separate criminal episodes. The state argued that that evidence was relevant to show that defendant acted with the intent to defraud in this case. Defendant objected, arguing that admission of defendant’s prior identity theft convictions “would inject the worst kind of character evidence” into the case, and that, under “the balancing required by [State v. Johns, 301 Or 535, 725 P2d 312 (1986)],” that evidence “would blacken [defendant’s] character.” Defendant asked the court to “hear the circumstances rather than making a ruling now,” and the court agreed to defer a ruling until after opening statements.

The court revisited the admissibility of evidence of defendant’s identity theft convictions during the state’s case-in-chief. The state argued that that evidence met the five criteria set out in Johns and was therefore admissible to show defendant’s intent to deceive or defraud. Defendant responded that the prior crimes were not sufficiently similar to the charged crimes under the criteria set out in Johns and asserted that, if the court found that they were sufficiently similar, the probative value of the evidence was outweighed by its unfair prejudice.

The court granted the state’s motion to admit the evidence, concluding that “all the elements under Johns

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
356 P.3d 111, 272 Or. App. 355, 2015 Ore. App. LEXIS 925, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-horner-orctapp-2015.