State v. Limoz

112 P.3d 745, 107 Haw. 259
CourtHawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 15, 2005
DocketNo. 25415
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 112 P.3d 745 (State v. Limoz) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Hawaii Intermediate 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. Limoz, 112 P.3d 745, 107 Haw. 259 (hawapp 2005).

Opinion

Opinion of the Court by

LIM, J.

Travis Anthony Limoz (Defendant, Appellant or Travis) appeals the August 22, 2002 judgment of the Circuit Court of the First Circuit (circuit court) that convicted him, after a bench trial, of reckless manslaughter, an included offense of the charge of murder in the second degree.

The charge arose out of an incident that occurred during the early morning hours of August 13, 2000, in which the seventeen-year-old Defendant drove his mother’s car at Cecil Edward Mosley (Mosley), who ended up splayed across the hood and windshield of the car, whereupon Defendant sped away then screeched to a halt — dislodging Mosley and causing him to hit his head on the pave[261]*261ment — then sped away again. Mosley died of his head injuries four days later.

On appeal, Defendant avers that the Family Court of the First Circuit (family court) erred at the hearing1 on the petition for waiver of the family court’s original, exclusive jurisdiction, filed by the State pursuant to Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS) § 571-22(a) (Supp.2004),2 when the family court admitted the police report into evidence without affording Defendant the opportunity to call, confront and cross-examine the percipient witnesses to the offense named in the police report.3 Defendant also avers that the circuit court4 committed constitutional error in-accepting his waiver of jury trial because the colloquy the circuit court conducted with him was inadequate. We disagree with both of Defendant’s averments, and affirm.

I. Background.

A. Waiver of Family Court Jurisdiction.

In connection with his point of error regarding the waiver of family court jurisdiction, Defendant references the following from the transcript of the November 30, 2000 waiver hearing:

[THE COURT: ]The record should reflect that the Court did have a prehearing ' discussion with both counsel present with regard to Travis’s waiver just this morning. And at that time I was informed by counsel that defense did call certain witnesses which would have been relevant to the underlying violation that-that Travis is facing.
At that time, because we were unsure when we were going to begin proceeding, I did instruct [defense counsel] to release them. But I would, however, wish to put on record [defense counsel’s] intention to call them and the reason therefor and then I can make my finding on record. [Defense counsel]?
[DEFENSE COUNSEL]: All right, thank you.
[262]*262Your Honor, it’s my understanding that at some point the State is going to ask the Court to receive, in connection with the hearing, the police report compiled in this case. That report has a number of statements, some of them are handwritten, some of them are transcripts of tape recorded statements, of numerous witnesses who purportedly witnessed the incident in question.
I subpoenaed the following witnesses, Alfred Furtado-and I believe the Court file will indicate that these subpoenas were returned and these gentlemen were present this morning outside the court-Alfred Furtado, Ryan Bolosang (phonetic), Jonas Robinson, Courtney Bareng (phonetic), Shawn (phonetic) Decosta, Troy Mendoza, and I believe John Sykes (phonetic) as well. I did have subpoenas out also for David Gibson and Kuulani Lepan (phonetic) although I don’t believe that they were served. In any event, those witnesses who did appear, I did release pursuant to the Court’s instruction.
THE COURT: Mm-hmm.
[DEFENSE COUNSEL]: And we have this objection. To the extent that the Court is going to receive the report in evidence, it is my understanding, based on my reading of [In re Dinson, 58 Haw. 522, 574 P.2d 119 (1978), overruled, on other grounds, State v. Sanders, 102 Hawai'i 326, 330, 76 P.3d 569, 573 (2003)], that the issue raised in that case to the Supreme Court had to do with whether or not hearsay evidence would be admissible in a-in a waiver proceeding like this.
The court and the Supreme Court made it clear, I think, that hearsay evidence is admissible because the waiver of [sic] proceeding is usually called dispositional primarily dispositional and essentially of the nature of the ordinary sentencing proceeding, and so apparently there was a-the opinion that there was some relaxation of the rules with respect to hearsay.
However, [in Dinson, 58 Haw. at 528, 574 P.2d at 124,] the Supreme Court also indicated that the appellant in that ease did have the full opportunity to ascertain the sources of all factual statements in this report that contained hearsay statements and that the appellant in that case did not complain of any lack of oppoi’tunity to call the informants who were the sources of the factual statements in that report.
By subpoenaing these witnesses and having them present today, it was my intention to do what the appellant in [Din-son] apparently had the opportunity to do—
THE COURT: Mm-hmm.
[DEFENSE COUNSEL]: — which would be to question those out-of-court declar-ants whose statements appear in the police report.
THE COURT: Mm-hmm.
[DEFENSE COUNSEL]: And that was the reason for having these — these witnesses present and it was my intention to cross-examine them with respect to their statements which are in the police report.
THE COURT: Thank you. And [the deputy prosecuting attorney (DPA) ]?
[DPA]: Your Honor, the State’s position is that the defense or State is not allowed to call witnesses as to the charge involved, that the taking of evidence in a later ease could preclude subsequent trial on double jeopardy grounds and so that defeats the whole purpose of the waiver. Whether it is a waiver or not, the purpose of the waiver is not to determine whether the minor has committed — or whether there is even probable cause to believe that he committed the offense, but to decide, you know, which court should determine the charge, [that’s In re John Doe, 61 Haw. 48, 594 P.2d 1084 (1979)].
THE COURT: The—
[DEFENSE COUNSEL]: Your Honor, may I respond just briefly?
THE COURT: Of course, yeah.
[DEFENSE COUNSEL]: Your Honor, with respect to — well, you know, the Court has indicated that clearly we’re proceeding under [HRS § 571-22(a)]. And in that subsection basically — well [HRS § 571-22(e) (Supp.2004) ] tells us that if we’re proceeding under [HRS § 571-22

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Bluebook (online)
112 P.3d 745, 107 Haw. 259, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-limoz-hawapp-2005.