State v. Ingram

CourtNew Mexico Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 8, 2013
Docket30,961
StatusUnpublished

This text of State v. Ingram (State v. Ingram) 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. Ingram, (N.M. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

This memorandum opinion was not selected for publication in the New Mexico Appellate Reports. Please see Rule 12-405 NMRA for restrictions on the citation of unpublished memorandum opinions. Please also note that this electronic memorandum opinion may contain computer-generated errors or other deviations from the official paper version filed by the Court of Appeals and does not include the filing date.

1 IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO

2 STATE OF NEW MEXICO,

3 Plaintiff-Appellee,

4 v. NO. 30,961

5 MOSES EARL INGRAM,

6 Defendant-Appellant.

7 APPEAL FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF QUAY COUNTY 8 Albert J. Mitchell, Jr., District Judge

9 Gary K. King, Attorney General 10 Sri Mullis, Assistant Attorney General 11 Albuquerque, NM

12 for Appellee

13 Law Offices of Nancy L. Simmons, P.C. 14 Nancy L. Simmons 15 Albuquerque, NM

16 for Appellant

17 MEMORANDUM OPINION

18 GARCIA, Judge. 1 Defendant appeals his convictions for kidnapping, attempted murder,

2 aggravated fleeing, criminal damage to property, and unlawful taking of a motor

3 vehicle. On appeal, Defendant challenges the jury selection process, the district

4 court’s denial of his request for change of venue, the jury instructions, various

5 evidentiary rulings, and his sentence. We affirm.

6 FACTUAL BACKGROUND

7 The charges were based on a July 24, 2009, domestic incident where Defendant

8 demanded to talk to Victim about her relationship with Defendant’s brother.

9 Defendant confronted Victim on her front porch and began to hit her in the head when

10 she refused to speak with him. When Defendant asked Victim for her car keys,

11 Victim set off the car alarm and threw the keys. When Victim’s neighbor (Neighbor)

12 heard Victim’s car alarm and some yelling, he opened his front door and saw

13 Defendant dragging Victim by her hair toward the street. Defendant dragged Victim

14 to her car and drove away. Neighbor called 911.

15 Officer Pete Vargas was the responding officer. Officer Vargas was familiar

16 with both Defendant and Victim. When Officer Vargas arrived at Victim’s residence,

17 he saw Victim’s car backing out of the driveway, so he blocked the driveway with his

18 patrol unit. Officer Vargas saw Defendant in Victim’s car when it sped over the curb

19 and drove off. Officer Vargas and Officer Clay Cullison, who was driving a second

2 1 patrol unit, both pursued Victim’s car. During the pursuit with the police, Defendant

2 continued to beat Victim and repeatedly told her that he intended to kill her. Victim’s

3 car ultimately came to a stop after it was driven off the road, through a barbed wire

4 fence, and crashed into a tree. Defendant fled on foot, and was arrested in Clovis,

5 New Mexico on August 10, 2009.

6 Prior to trial, Defendant unsuccessfully moved for change of venue. During

7 jury selection, Defendant unsuccessfully raised a due process objection to two of the

8 empaneled jurors. Defendant declined to challenge these jurors for cause.

9 Throughout the course of trial, Defendant raised numerous unsuccessful evidentiary

10 objections to the State’s evidence. Defendant did not raise any objections to the jury

11 instructions, and the jury was not instructed pursuant to UJI 14-141 NMRA, the

12 general intent instruction. In his defense, Defendant’s theory of the case was that of

13 mistaken identity by the witnesses.

14 The jury convicted Defendant of kidnapping, attempted murder, aggravated

15 fleeing, criminal damage to property, and unlawful taking of a motor vehicle. During

16 sentencing, Defendant argued that the district court could only sentence Defendant to

17 second-degree kidnapping because the State did not tender and the jury was not

18 instructed pursuant to UJI 14-6018 NMRA. At trial, Defendant had agreed with the

19 State that UJI 14-6018 was unnecessary because none of the elements listed in UJI 14-

3 1 6018 were at issue. The district court sentenced Defendant to first-degree kidnapping,

2 and found that Defendant had committed a serious violent offense not eligible for

3 standard day-for-day good time credit. Defendant timely filed an appeal of his

4 conviction and sentence.

5 DISCUSSION

6 Defendant raises eight issues on appeal. He challenges the jury selection

7 process, the district court’s denial of his request for change of venue, the jury

8 instructions, various evidentiary rulings, and his sentence. Defendant also claims

9 ineffective assistance of counsel. We will address each issue as necessary.

10 Evidence of Prior Bad Acts

11 We first address Defendant’s argument that the district court erred in allowing

12 the admission of Defendant’s order setting conditions of release and appearance bond

13 (the Order) stemming from a different case, and Victim’s testimony that she was a

14 witness in a third case against Defendant. On appeal, Defendant argues that this

15 evidence of his prior bad acts was admitted contrary to Rules 11-404(B) and 11-403

16 NMRA because “[t]he jury could logically decide that because Defendant had

17 apparently engaged in prior criminal behavior in relation to [V]ictim,” that he was

18 guilty of the most recent criminal charges as well.

19 We review the district court’s decision to admit evidence under Rules 11-

4 1 404(B) and 11-403 for an abuse of discretion. State v. Otto, 2007-NMSC-012, ¶ 9,

2 141 N.M. 443, 157 P.3d 8; State v. Martinez, 1999-NMSC-018, ¶ 31, 127 N.M. 207,

3 979 P.2d 718. “An abuse of discretion occurs when the ruling is clearly against the

4 logic and effect of the facts and circumstances of the case. We cannot say the trial

5 court abused its discretion by its ruling unless we can characterize it as clearly

6 untenable or not justified by reason.” Otto, 2007-NMSC-012, ¶ 9 (internal quotation

7 marks and citation omitted).

8 Before admitting evidence of a defendant’s prior bad acts pursuant to Rule 11-

9 404(B), the district court must find that the evidence is relevant to a material issue

10 other than the defendant’s character or propensity to commit a crime. See State v.

11 Gaitan, 2002-NMSC-007, ¶ 26, 131 N.M. 758, 42 P.3d 1207. In addition, the court

12 must determine that the probative value of the prior bad acts evidence substantially

13 outweighs the risk of unfair prejudice to the defendant. Rule 11-403. In this case, the

14 district court found that the prior bad act evidence was not unduly prejudicial because

15 it was relevant evidence of fleeing, and it could provide a motive for Defendant to

16 batter, kidnap, and attempt to murder Victim. We shall first address the district

17 court’s finding that the evidence was relevant, other than as proof of Defendant’s bad

18 character, and then discuss whether the evidence was unduly prejudicial to Defendant.

19 Rule 11-404(B)(1) prohibits the introduction of prior bad act evidence when

5 1 used “to prove a person’s character in order to show that on a particular occasion the

2 person acted in accordance with the character.” Evidence of prior bad acts, however,

3 “may be admissible for another purpose, such as proving motive, opportunity, intent,

4 preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, absence of mistake, or lack of accident.” Rule

5 11-404(B)(2). “The list of permissible uses of evidence of other wrongs in Rule 11-

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State v. Ingram, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-ingram-nmctapp-2013.