State v. Ikard

CourtNew Mexico Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 1, 2022
DocketA-1-CA-37948
StatusUnpublished

This text of State v. Ikard (State v. Ikard) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico 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. Ikard, (N.M. Ct. App. 2022).

Opinion

This decision of the New Mexico Court of Appeals was not selected for publication in the New Mexico Appellate Reports. Refer to Rule 12-405 NMRA for restrictions on the citation of unpublished decisions. Electronic decisions may contain computer- generated errors or other deviations from the official version filed by the Court of Appeals.

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO

No. A-1-CA-37948

STATE OF NEW MEXICO,

Plaintiff-Appellee,

v.

PAUL IKARD,

Defendant-Appellant.

APPEAL FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF DOÑA ANA COUNTY Conrad F. Perea, District Judge

Hector H. Balderas, Attorney General Anne Minard, Assistant Attorney General Santa Fe, NM

for Appellee

The Lahann Law Firm Jeff C. Lahann Las Cruces, NM

for Appellant

MEMORANDUM OPINION

HENDERSON, Judge.

{1} Following a jury trial, Defendant Paul Ikard was convicted of one count of sexual exploitation of a child, NMSA 1978, § 30-6A-3(A) (2016), and two counts of voyeurism of victims under the age of eighteen, NMSA 1978, § 30-9-20(A) (2007). On appeal, Defendant challenges his convictions, alleging that his confrontation and due process rights were violated, the district court erroneously admitted evidence, and the prosecution engaged in misconduct such that double jeopardy precludes retrial. We affirm. BACKGROUND

{2} Employees from Data Recovery Center (DRC), a company based in Cleveland, Ohio, contacted the local office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (the FBI) regarding suspicious images found on a hard drive that Defendant sent in for service. Agent Daniel Pillitiere of the FBI recovered two hard drives from DRC: Defendant’s crashed hard drive and a mirrored hard drive created by DRC that contained videos that DRC extracted from the crashed hard drive. DRC also sent the FBI the order form submitted to DRC containing Defendant’s name, address, and specific instructions for the repair. The videos extracted from the crashed hard drive showed Defendant’s face while setting up a camera, and his two minor children and their minor babysitters using the toilet, undressing, and showering.

{3} Based off the billing and shipping addresses on the order form submitted to DRC, Agent Pillitiere shipped Defendant’s original hard drive and the mirrored hard drive (containing the videos) to the FBI office in New Mexico. After receiving the hard drives, the Albuquerque office of the FBI determined that Defendant would not be charged with any federal crimes and referred the case to the Las Cruces Police Department (LCPD).

{4} LCPD obtained a search warrant for Defendant’s home. During their search, they discovered Velcro located in the vent above the toilet in the guest bathroom at Defendant’s home. Police also recovered a small camera with the mating Velcro from the vent attached in a safe at the home. Defendant was taken into custody, where LCPD Detective Dustin Lockridge interviewed him. During this interview, Defendant admitted that he set up the camera in his home and sent the hard drive to DRC for repair. Defendant was charged with two counts of voyeurism of a child, contrary to Section 30-9-20; four counts of attempted voyeurism, contrary to Section 30-9-20 and NMSA 1978, § 30-28-1 (1963); and sexual exploitation of a child, contrary to Section 30-6A-3(A).

{5} Prior to trial, Defendant moved to exclude testimonial statements made by DRC employees to Agent Pillitiere, as well as the videos and photographs extracted from Defendant’s hard drive, arguing that the State had no witnesses with direct knowledge of the extraction of the videos and photographs, and that admitting this evidence would violate his confrontation and due process rights. Defendant also moved to exclude testimony from the State’s expert witness because the State did not provide notice of its intent to call him as an expert witness. Lastly, Defendant moved to exclude the order form DRC provided to the FBI, arguing that it was inadmissible hearsay and that the State lacked proper foundation to have it admitted. The district court denied all three motions and overruled Defendant’s renewed objections on these matters during trial.

{6} At trial, the State presented evidence of the following facts pertinent to our analysis. Defendant admitted that at least one of the videos was taken in the guest bathroom at his home. He also positively identified himself as being on the video that the camera captured while being set up. Agent Weir, an investigator from LCPD, participated in the execution of the warrant to search Defendant’s home and recognized Defendant’s guest bathroom as the same bathroom in the videos recovered from the hard drive. One of the victims, who was a minor and worked as a babysitter for Defendant, identified herself and one of Defendant’s children on the videos and testified that some of the videos were recorded in Defendant’s guest bathroom. Finally, Defendant’s ex-wife identified Defendant’s minor children in the videos.

{7} The jury convicted Defendant of one count of sexual exploitation of a child, and two counts of voyeurism of victims under eighteen. He appeals.

DISCUSSION

{8} Defendant raises four issues on appeal: (1) his confrontation rights were violated because the State did not present any witness who actually performed work on his hard drive; (2) his due process rights were violated as a result of the State not providing notice prior to trial of its intent to call Agent Weir as an expert witness; (3) the DRC order form was hearsay and admitted in error; and (4) the prosecutor engaged in misconduct prior to and during trial.1 We address each issue in turn.

I. Confrontation Clause

{9} Defendant raises multiple confrontation issues. Defendant contends that his right to confrontation was violated because (1) the enforcement of the Touhy2 regulations precluded him from discovering the identities of the DRC employees and denied him the opportunity to cross-examine the employees who had direct knowledge related to recovering data from the hard drive; (2) Agent Weir testified to statements made by DRC witnesses who were not present at trial; and (3) enforcement of Touhy regulations prevented the DRC employees who actually worked on the hard drive and reported the suspicious images to the FBI from being identified. We assume without deciding that Defendant’s confrontation rights were violated but hold that any error was harmless for the reasons discussed below.

{10} “Questions of admissibility under the Confrontation Clause are questions of law, which we review de novo.” State v. Lopez, 2013-NMSC-047, ¶ 7, 314 P.3d 236 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). The Confrontation Clause of the United States Constitution guarantees the right of a criminal defendant “to be confronted with the witnesses against him.” U.S. Const. amend VI. This is interpreted to mean that a defendant has the “right to confront those who bear testimony against him.” Melendez- Diaz v. Massachusetts, 557 U.S. 305, 309 (2009) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). A statement is “testimonial if the declarant made the statement primarily intending to establish some fact with the understanding that the statement may be used in a criminal prosecution.” State v. Navarette, 2013-NMSC-003, ¶ 8, 294 P.3d 435.

1We direct counsel to our Rules of Appellate Procedure, which require briefing to contain record proper citations. Rule 12-318(A)(3), (4) NMRA. Defendant’s briefing is deficient in this regard. Thus, we feel it is necessary to remind counsel of the critical importance of adhering to the requirements of these rules. See Lukens v. Franco, 2019-NMSC-002, ¶ 7,

Related

United States Ex Rel. Touhy v. Ragen
340 U.S. 462 (Supreme Court, 1951)
Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts
557 U.S. 305 (Supreme Court, 2009)
State v. Navarette
2013 NMSC 3 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 2013)
State v. Sosa
2009 NMSC 056 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 2009)
State v. Leyba
2012 NMSC 37 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 2012)
State v. Tollardo
2012 NMSC 008 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 2012)
State v. Ortiz
2009 NMCA 092 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2009)
State v. Gonzales
2011 NMCA 007 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2010)
State v. Lopez
2013 NMSC 047 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 2013)
State v. Allen
2000 NMSC 002 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1999)
State v. Duarte
2007 NMCA 012 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2006)
State v. Vallejos
9 P.3d 668 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2000)
State v. McDaniel
2004 NMCA 022 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2004)
State v. Trujillo
2002 NMSC 005 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 2002)
State v. Montoya
2014 NMSC 032 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 2014)
State v. Cordova
2014 NMCA 81 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2014)
State v. Smith
2016 NMSC 007 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 2016)
Lukens v. Franco
433 P.3d 288 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 2018)
State v. Dominguez
2014 NMCA 064 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2014)
State v. Schwartz
2014 NMCA 066 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2014)

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Bluebook (online)
State v. Ikard, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-ikard-nmctapp-2022.