State v. Madera

670 P.2d 552, 206 Mont. 140, 1983 Mont. LEXIS 815
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 6, 1983
Docket82-251
StatusPublished
Cited by44 cases

This text of 670 P.2d 552 (State v. Madera) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Montana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Madera, 670 P.2d 552, 206 Mont. 140, 1983 Mont. LEXIS 815 (Mo. 1983).

Opinions

MR. JUSTICE SHEEHY

delivered the opinion of the Court.

Gary LaMere and Dave Madera appeal from their convictions of robbery and felony theft in the District Court of the Second Judicial District, Silver Bow County. They also appeal from the sentences given them by the District Court [144]*144of 50 years each in the Montana State Prison. We affirm both convictions.

On the night of October 3, 1981, two masked gunmen robbed the occupants of the Dumas Hotel, a reputed house of prostitution in Butte. To gain entry, one of the robbers posed as a patron. When the door was opened, the two men pushed their way in and proceeded to rob the four women they found in the building. The women were bound and threatened with death if they did not cooperate. After robbing the women, the men fled.

The police were notified a day or two later and an investigation was begun. Police officers watched LaMere’s residence for three days. After observing no activity during this time, they contacted LaMere’s landlord for information about LaMere. After being informed that LaMere was a suspect in their investigation, the landlord invited an officer to enter LaMere’s apartment with him. The officer and the landlord entered the apartment and discovered that it had been recently abandoned. The apartment, which the landlord testified was always neat and clean, was strewn with garbage and contained no personal possessions. The landlord and the officer walked through the apartment, looked around, and then left. Later that day, the landlord signed a consent to search the apartment. During the search, the officers found what appeared to be a map of the layout of the Dumas Hotel and a piece of pantyhose which the officers believed to be a mask worn by one of the robbers.

On December 10, 1981, an information was filed in the District Court charging LaMere with one count of felony theft and one count of robbery. The count of robbery was based upon section 45-5-401(1)(a), MCA, charging that LaMere “in the course of committing a theft, purposely or knowingly inflicted bodily injury upon [a woman].”

Shortly thereafter, on January 8, 1982, an information was filed against Madera charging him with criminal responsibility for one count of felony theft and one count of robbery, which was also based upon section 45-5-401(l)(a), [145]*145MCA.

The information against LaMere was later amended so that the robbery count was based upon section 45-5-401(l)(b). LaMere was charged with “in the course of committing a theft, purposely or knowingly put [ting] a person in fear of immediate bodily injury.” The information against Madera was never amended.

On February 2, 1982, the trials of Madera and LaMere were ordered consolidated by the District Court and trial began on March 2, 1982. The jury reached a verdict finding both defendants guilty of count I, robbery, and count II, theft. Both defendants now appeal their convictions and sentences to this Court.

In connection with the issues raised it will be explanatory to note that in each case counsel representing the defendant in the lower court is different from counsel representing each on this appeal.

THE LAMERE APPEAL

Issue 1. The District Court erred in allowing the State to use rebuttal witnesses at trial when the State had failed to give notice of said witnesses as required by statute.

Section 46-15-301(3), MCA, requires the State, for the purpose of notice only and to prevent surprise, to furnish to the defendant and file with the clerk of the court, no later than five days before trial “or at such later time as the court may for good cause permit,” a list of witnesses the prosecution intends to call as rebuttal witnesses to the defense of alibi, among other defenses.

Jury trial of these consolidated cases began on March 2, 1982. On the last day of trial, March 8, 1982, the State, without the notice required by section 46-15-301(3), presented rebuttal witnesses over the objection of counsel for LaMere.

LaMere claims that the State was aware of these witnesses before the trial, but failed to apprise LaMere of their existence. The State contends that since the attorney for [146]*146LaMere refused to inform the State of the exact nature of LaMere’s alibi, but rather, claiming lawyer-client privilege, gave only the information required by statute) the State did not know if the information possessed by the rebuttal witnesses would be relevant until the alibi witnesses testified at trial.

On Friday, March 5, 1982, LaMere’s alibi witnesses testified that LaMere was in Wallace, Idaho, on October 2 and 3, 1981. The crime is alleged to have occurred on October 3. On Monday, March 8, 1982, the State notified LaMere of the rebuttal witnesses that would be presented. The State offered LaMere, through his counsel, the opportunity to talk to the rebuttal witnesses. The rebuttal witnesses were from St. James Community Hospital in Butte, and they testified that LaMere had received attention at the hospital at 10:38 p.m. on October 2, 1981.

The District Court agreed with the State that until LaMere’s alibi witnesses had testified, the State had no way of knowing what those witnesses would testify to, and until the testimony of the alibi witnesses, the rebuttal witnesses’ testimony that LaMere was present in Butte on October 2, 1981, would not be relevant. The District Court also felt that the defense counsel were given adequate opportunity to talk to the rebuttal witnesses before they testified. On those bases, the District Court permitted the testimony of the rebuttal witnesses.

The State contends on appeal that it therefore gave notice to defendant’s counsel at the earliest practicable time. In the meantime, defense counsel had refused to give the State copies of statements, if any, taken from the alibi witnesses, or to divulge the nature and extent of their testimony to the State.

LaMere points out that in State v. Johnson (1978), 179 Mont. 61, 585 P.2d 1328, this Court approved the limitation of testimony from the defendant’s mother as to the whereabouts of the defendant during the time of the robbery, when the defendant had not given notice of an alibi de[147]*147fense; in McGuinn v. State (1978), 177 Mont. 215, 581 P.2d 417, this Court held that an alibi could not be relied on by the defendant since no notice of that defense was given as required by the then pertinent statute. LaMere contends that this Court has been quick to deny witnesses when the defendant has not given an alibi notice, and should be equally prompt to deny State witnesses when it fails to give the statutory notice.

Finally, on this issue, LaMere contends that although the Montana statute is facially constitutional because it provides reciprocal revelation of alibi and rebuttal witnesses by the State and the defendant, the failure here of the State to give the 5-day notice has unconstitutionally deprived him of due process.

LaMere bases his constitutional argument by drawing on the decision in Wardius v. Oregon (1973), 412 U.S. 470, 93 S.Ct. 2208, 37 L.Ed.2d 82. There the Supreme Court held that the due process clause of the United States Constitution forbids enforcement of alibi rules unless reciprocal discovery rights are given to the defendant.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
670 P.2d 552, 206 Mont. 140, 1983 Mont. LEXIS 815, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-madera-mont-1983.