State v. Jaramillo

2016 UT App 70, 372 P.3d 34, 810 Utah Adv. Rep. 27, 2016 WL 1391444, 2016 Utah App. LEXIS 67
CourtCourt of Appeals of Utah
DecidedApril 7, 2016
Docket20130988-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 2016 UT App 70 (State v. Jaramillo) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Utah primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Jaramillo, 2016 UT App 70, 372 P.3d 34, 810 Utah Adv. Rep. 27, 2016 WL 1391444, 2016 Utah App. LEXIS 67 (Utah Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

Opinion

VOROS, Judge:

'{1 Paul Raymond Jaramillo appeals his convictions on multiple felony counts arising from a crime spree in Salt Lake City and Centerville. During the spree, he entered a | young woman's car, held a knife to her throat, and ordered her to drive him home; attempted to rob a convenience store customer; broke mto a fast food restaurant; and Jumped on a vehicle in an apparent attempt to steal it. His principal claim on appeal is that his trial counsel provided constitutionally ineffective assistance when she did not introduce expert testimony that he might have ingested a large amount of anti-anxiety medication some time before these events. He also challenges his sentence of 15 years to life for aggravated kidnapping.. We affirm on the first issue and remand for further proceedings on the second.

*37 BACKGROUND

T2 Around midnight on April 20, 2010, a grocery 'store clerk finished her shift in downtown Salt Lake City, As she left the parking lot, Jaramillo flagged her down. Thinking he needed to ask her a question, the clerk slowed her car. Jaramillo opened the passenger-side car door and jumped in. He asked her to "give him a ride just down the street." He said that "Thlis friends had left him" and that he "was very tired and didn't want to walk anymore,"

1 3 The clerk agreed to drive him down the street, but once they left the parking lot, Jaramillo demanded that she drive him to Ogden. When she refused, he cupped one hand over her mouth and held a knife to her throat with the other, She began driving, but told him she could not drive with his hand on her mouth and a knife at her throat. He lowered the knife, but kept his hand on the back of her neck until they reached the freeway. At the freeway on-ramp, Jaramillo made her pull over and told her that he would drive. She refused, telling him her car was "temperamental." He eventually allowed her to keep driving but told her not to look in the rearview mirror, speed, or do anything suspicious, He asked her questions about her car and its sound system, and whether she had any money, credit cards, or bank accounts. He rummaged through her car, taking and lighting a cigarette, and donning a hooded sweatshirt he found in the car.

T 4 The clerk told Jaramillo that she had to stop for gas. He let her stop in Centerville. But he warned her not to "do anything stupid," because he was not afraid to stab her, She pulled the car into a gas station and stopped at a fuel pump. Jaramillo demanded that she give him her money and cell phone. She gave him nine dollars but told him her cell phone was dead. When he responded that she could do this "the easy way or the hard way," she surrendered the . phone. They both got out of the car and, as soon as he walked toward the convenience store, she ran across the parking lot and hid.

5 Inside the convenience store, a customer was buying a snack. Jaramillo walked into the store, said he had a gun, and demanded the clerk's car key, The clerk pushed Jar-amillo 'away. - Jaramillo then turned his attention to the customer, demanding his car key, Before the customer could answer, Jar-amillo hit him. The -two struggled until the customer pushed Jaramillo out the door. Jaramillo ran away and the customer went to his SUV in the parking lot.

T6 Jaramillo ran across the parking lot to a closed fast food restaurant and pounded on the drive-through window. When no one responded, 'he began pulling on the locked doors. An employee called the police just before Jaramillo broke the lock and walked in. Jaramillo demanded money from one of the employees. When the employee ran out the door, Jaramillo followed him.

T7 In the parking lot, Jaramillo again encountered the convenience store customer, now sitting in his idling SUV. Jaramillo stood in front of the SUV and demanded the car key. When the customer refused, Jaramillo jumped onto the hood of the SUV. The customer thought he could get Jaramillo off of his SUV if he drove forward slowly and then hit the brakes. When the customer tried this, Jaramillo fell, and the SUV ran over him. When the police arrived, Jaramillo was unconscious, his legs under the SUV. Paramedics life-flighted him to the hospital.

T8 Jaramillo was charged with multiple felony counts. The trial court appointed a defense attorney. +After a preliminary hearing and some discovery, Jaramillo requested and received a new attorney. . Jarmillo did this two more times, and each time the court appointed new attorneys. Finally, trial counsel entered her appearance. Although Jar-amillo filed multiple pre-trial complaints about trial counsel's representation, in the end he cooperated with her, and she represented him throughout the remaining trial court proceedings.

T9 Trial counsel did not present an opening statement or any evidence to the jury. Counsel relied on eross-examination to attack the adequacy of the police investigation and advance a voluntary intoxication defense. Counsel established that witnesses told police that Jaramillo demonstrated "bizarre" and erratic behavior, 'The court also allowed counsel to question a police officer about *38 witness statements that Jaramillo "might be 'high on drugs" and that "he might be drunk or something" for the limited purpose of calling into question the adequacy of the police investigation. The court did not allow counsel to present to the jury Jaramillo's claim that he ingested 15 Xanax 2 pills the day of the attack,

T10 The jury convicted Jaramillo of two counts of aggravated robbery, both first-degree felonies; aggravated kidnapping, a first-degree felony; aggravated assault, a third-degree felony; possession of a dangerous weapon by a restricted person, a third-degree felony; and eriminal trespass, a class B misdemeanor, He appeals. .

ISSUES ON APPEAL

. T11 Jaramillo contends that his trial counsel "rendered ineffective assistance of counsel by failing to investigate and present clearly exculpatory evidence" showing that Jaramillo had "ingested a mind-altering chemical" before committing the-crimes. He also requests that we remand this case to the trial court under rule 28B of the Utah Rules of Appellate Procedure to create a record to support his ineffective assistance of counsel claim.

112 Jaramillo also contends that in sentencing him to a term of fifteen years to life, the court did not consider proportionality or rehabilitation as required by the aggravated kidnapping statute. See Utah Code Aun. § 76-5-802 (LexisNexis Supp. 2018).

ANALYSIS

I. Rule 28B Remand

T13 Jaramillo seeks remand to the trial court to create a record supporting his claim that he received ineffective assistance from his trial counsel. He contends that trial counsel failed to "investigate the facts" and present evidence to support a voluntary intoxication defense.

I 14 Utah Rule of Appellate Procedure 23B "provides a mechanism for eriminal defendants to supplement the record with facts that are necessary for a finding of ineffective assistance of counsel but which do not appear in the record." State v. Griffin, 2015 UT 18, ¶ 17, — P.3d —.

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Bluebook (online)
2016 UT App 70, 372 P.3d 34, 810 Utah Adv. Rep. 27, 2016 WL 1391444, 2016 Utah App. LEXIS 67, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-jaramillo-utahctapp-2016.