State v. Manning

417 P.3d 509, 290 Or. App. 846
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedMarch 21, 2018
DocketA159475
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 417 P.3d 509 (State v. Manning) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Manning, 417 P.3d 509, 290 Or. App. 846 (Or. Ct. App. 2018).

Opinion

TOOKEY, P.J.

*847Defendant appeals a judgment of conviction for unlawful use of a weapon, ORS 166.220, menacing constituting domestic violence, ORS 163.190, and two counts of recklessly endangering another person, ORS 163.195. Defendant assigns error to the trial court's ruling that sustained the state's objection to a portion of defendant's closing argument. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

The underlying convictions arose from an escalating altercation between defendant and his then-wife, the victim, that occurred during a birthday party at their home. Subsequently, DHS received a report about the altercation after one of the children who had been at the party reported the altercation to someone at the child's school. In response to a DHS cross-report,1 Deputy Baltzor visited the victim's house and spoke with the victim.

At trial, during defendant's cross-examination of Baltzor, Baltzor clarified that he had first heard about the altercation from the DHS cross-report, which was initiated after a child reported the incident to DHS. Baltzor confirmed that a child, not the victim, was the impetus for the DHS report. Defendant did not ask Baltzor whether he had told the victim about the existence of the DHS cross-report; similarly, defendant did not ask the victim whether she was aware of the DHS cross-report.

During closing argument, defense counsel argued that the victim's testimony against defendant was fueled by her fear that DHS would take her children and, thus, she was biased against defendant:

"[DEFENSE COUNSEL]: Now, what's [the victim] going to think when she gets the telephone call from a deputy sheriff saying, 'I need to talk to you about child abuse or', about an incident involving a child. 'DHS has this report. I need to talk to you.' Yeah. What goes through a mother's mind, a father's mind? 'DHS is thinking about taking my child.'
*848"[PROSECUTOR]: Objection. Facts not in evidence.
"THE COURT: Sustained. You are to disregard.
"[DEFENSE COUNSEL]: Excuse me?
"THE COURT: Those are facts not in evidence.
"[DEFENSE COUNSEL]: It's a reasonable inference.
"THE COURT: It is not.
"[DEFENSE COUNSEL]: Very well."

On appeal, defendant argues that the trial court erred by sustaining the prosecutor's objection to his argument, because it infringed on his federal and state constitutional rights to make a closing argument to the jury. Defendant contends that his argument *511"was based on reasonable inferences drawn from logic and common knowledge," and, as a result, "the trial court abused its discretion in precluding" his argument. In response, the state argues that the trial court did not err in sustaining the objection. In the state's view, defendant's argument was based on impermissible speculation and facts that were not in evidence.

We review a trial court's decisions regarding its control of jury argument for abuse of discretion. State v. Goodin , 8 Or. App. 15, 23-24, 492 P.2d 287 (1971), rev. den. , (1972) ("Absent abuse, the control of closing arguments is left to the trial court judge, who has broad authority to control the conduct of the trial.").

Article I, section 11, of the Oregon Constitution and the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantee a defendant's right to make a closing argument. State v. Rogoway , 45 Or. 601, 612, 81 P. 234 (1905). Generally, "in presenting closing arguments to the jury, counsel have a large degree of freedom to comment on the evidence submitted and urge the jury to draw all legitimate inferences from that evidence. However, that freedom is not without limitations[.]" Cler v. Providence Health System-Oregon , 349 Or. 481, 487-88, 245 P.3d 642 (2010) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). For example, a trial court has the authority to prevent the parties from arguing about matters outside of the record, *849State v. Williams , 322 Or. 620, 628, 912 P.2d 364 (1996), or based upon impermissible speculation, State v. Bivins , 191 Or. App. 460, 467, 83 P.3d 379 (2004). Evidence outside of the record may not be suggested to the jury by any means, including through closing argument. Rieker v. Kaiser Foundation Hospitals , 194 Or. App. 708, 712, 96 P.3d 833 (2004) ; see Cler , 349 Or. at 488, 245 P.3d 642 ("[C]ounsel may not make statements of facts outside the range of evidence." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) ); Atlas Copco Industrial v. Karn Repair Service , 172 Or. App. 317

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Related

State v. Duran
336 Or. App. 340 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2024)
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459 P.3d 261 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2020)

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Bluebook (online)
417 P.3d 509, 290 Or. App. 846, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-manning-orctapp-2018.