State v. Mata

677 P.2d 497, 106 Idaho 184, 1984 Ida. App. LEXIS 433
CourtIdaho Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 28, 1984
Docket13911
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 677 P.2d 497 (State v. Mata) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho 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. Mata, 677 P.2d 497, 106 Idaho 184, 1984 Ida. App. LEXIS 433 (Idaho Ct. App. 1984).

Opinion

BURNETT, Judge.

Carlos Mata stands convicted of delivering marijuana and heroin. His appeal raises two general issues concerning the heroin charge. (1) Did the state entrap Mata into delivering the heroin? (2) Did the trial court err by limiting testimony regarding events after the heroin transaction, and by ruling that alibi testimony would be inadmissible? For reasons explained below, we hold that Mata was not entrapped and that the district court did not commit reversible error in its rulings on trial testimony. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of conviction.

I

First, we consider the entrapment issue. This issue poses a twofold task — identifying the legal standards that govern the entrapment defense, and applying those standards to the record before us. We will take each task in turn.

A

“Entrapment” has been defined as “[t]he act of officers or agents of the government in inducing a person to commit a crime not contemplated by him, for the purpose of instituting a criminal prosecution against him.” BLACK’S LAW DICTIONARY 477 (rev. 5th ed. 1979); see also W. LaFAVE & A. SCOTT, HANDBOOK ON CRIMINAL LAW 369-74 (1972). Entrapment occurs “when an otherwise innocent person, not inclined to commit a criminal offense, is induced to do so by a State agent who, desiring grounds for prosecution, originates the criminal design and im *186 plants in the mind of the innocent person the disposition to commit the alleged offense.” State v. Hansen, 105 Idaho 816, 817, 673 P.2d 416, 417 n. 1 (1983); see also State v. Mantis, 32 Idaho 724, 187 P. 268 (1920). There is a distinction between originating the idea for an offense and merely-furnishing the opportunity to commit it. The latter is not entrapment; rather, it is a legitimate method of ferreting out crime. E.g., State v. Bush, 93 Idaho 538, 466 P.2d 578 (1970); State v. Webster, 46 Idaho 798, 271 P. 578 (1928).

Idaho recognizes, as do nearly all jurisdictions, that a defendant cannot be convicted of a crime he was entrapped into committing. E.g., State v. McKeehan, 48 Idaho 112, 279 P. 616 (1929). However, despite its universality, the entrapment defense is not a constitutional doctrine. United States v. Russell, 411 U.S. 423, 433, 93 S.Ct. 1637, 1643, 36 L.Ed.2d 366 (1973). Rather, it is a creature of common law. Historically it has been grounded upon the principle that where criminal intent is an element of an offense, such intent must originate in the defendant’s mind. It must not be placed there by the government. E.g., Sherman v. United States, 356 U.S. 369, 78 S.Ct. 819, 2 L.Ed.2d 848 (1958); Sorrells v. United States, 287 U.S. 435, 53 S.Ct. 210, 77 L.Ed. 413 (1932). This principle invites a narrow focus upon the defendant’s subjective state of mind. Moreover, because it links entrapment with proof of the elements of an offense, the subjective test implicitly treats entrapment as a question for the jury.

Recently, another purpose has been ascribed to the entrapment defense — to discourage official lawlessness in the name of law enforcement. This purpose invites a broader focus upon the objective conduct of government agents. See generally Annot., 62 A.L.R.3d 110, 113-17 (1975); cf. Hampton v. United States, 425 U.S. 484, 96 S.Ct. 1646, 48 L.Ed.2d 113 (1976) (outrageous police tactics may violate due process, precluding conviction even though a defendant’s predisposition to crime would bar the traditional entrapment defense). Under the objective approach, the government’s conduct is weighed in light of its probable impact not upon the particular defendant but upon “an average person, other than one who is ready and willing, to commit such an offense.” Evans v. State, 550 P.2d 830, 843-44 (Alaska 1976). A third, hybrid, test — suggesting a balance of subjective and objective factors — also has emerged. See People v. Barraza, 23 Cal.3d 675, 153 Cal.Rptr. 459, 591 P.2d 947, 954 (Cal. 1979). When an objective or hybrid test is applied, evidence of the government’s conduct may involve evidence not germane to the offense charged. Consequently, these tests of entrapment ordinarily present questions of law for the court, rather than for a jury, to decide. W. La-FAVE & A. SCOTT, supra at 373-74.

The Idaho Supreme Court has not yet examined, in a majority opinion, the comparative merits of the subjective and objective tests of entrapment. But see State v. Hansen, supra (Bistline, J., dissenting). However, on several occasions the court has discussed entrapment as a jury issue. State v. Hansen, supra; State v. Mojica, 95 Idaho 326, 508 P.2d -556 (1973); State v. Whitlock, 82 Idaho 540, 356 P.2d 492 (1960). Implicitly, then, the court to date has employed the subjective test of entrapment. Accordingly, we will apply that test here. However, in the discussion to follow, we also note how an objective approach would yield the same result upon the facts of this case. Thus, we do not close the door today against future application of an objective or hybrid test. We reserve that question for a case in which the choice squarely confronts us.

B

The record here discloses without dispute that a police informant and a deputy sheriff in plain clothes drove to Mata’s house. The informant spoke with Mata and asked if he would help them purchase heroin. Mata agreed and the three drove in the informant’s car to another house where Mata gave the occupant one hundred dollars in money furnished by the deputy. *187 The three then drove to yet another location where Mata picked up a tinfoil packet containing heroin and gave it to the informant. Mata later was arrested and charged with delivery of the heroin.

Prior to this transaction, the informant had obtained heroin from Mata on other occasions. The number of such purchases is controverted in the record, but it is undisputed that at least one such prior transaction had occurred. It is also undisputed that the informant was a drug user and once had “shot up” heroin in Mata’s presence. There was disputed evidence as to whether Mata ever had turned down a request by the informant to obtain heroin for him.

Upon this evidence, the question of entrapment was presented to the jury. The jury was instructed on entrapment; but those instructions are not in the record, and no issue has been raised about them. Consequently, we presume that the jury applied proper instructions to the evidence when it convicted Mata and rejected his entrapment defense.

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Bluebook (online)
677 P.2d 497, 106 Idaho 184, 1984 Ida. App. LEXIS 433, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-mata-idahoctapp-1984.