State v. Sacoman

762 P.2d 250, 107 N.M. 588
CourtNew Mexico Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 27, 1988
Docket17321
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 762 P.2d 250 (State v. Sacoman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico 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. Sacoman, 762 P.2d 250, 107 N.M. 588 (N.M. 1988).

Opinion

OPINION

RANSOM, Justice.

This is an appeal by defendant Ernie Sacoman from his conviction of first degree murder in which a sentence of life imprisonment has been imposed. Sacoman complains of (1) juror misconduct, (2) denial of discovery of psychological records of a key prosecution witness, and (3) admission of a prior juvenile delinquency adjudication. We affirm.

Sacoman was charged with murder, armed robbery, conspiracy to commit each of those offenses, and tampering with evidence, all arising from the killing of Brian Martinez on February 17, 1986. The first trial ended in a mistrial with a hung jury. Upon retrial, Sacoman was convicted of all charges and moved for a new trial based on allegations of juror misconduct. Following two hearings, the motion for new trial was denied. We first will review the evidence necessary for an understanding of the juror misconduct issue.

The bedroom of one Michael Donald was known, by young adult men who frequented it, as “the dungeon.” Life in the dungeon involved drinking and drugs. Sacoman shared the dungeon with Donald. Others who visited the dungeon included trial witnesses Ian Dewing, Beau Mantai and Scott Bloemker.

Donald and Dewing originally were charged as codefendants in the crimes stemming from the killing, but they were allowed to plead guilty to lesser charges in return for their testimony against Sacoman. They testified that they enlisted Sacoman as the driver of a car to be used in a planned robbery of Martinez during a drug purchase on the Albuquerque east mesa the afternoon of Monday, February 17. In the course of the robbery, which progressed not at all as planned, Sacoman grabbed Donald’s small caliber rifle from the back seat and jumped out of his car. He fired the rifle, hitting Martinez whom he had ordered from the Martinez car. Sacoman then chased Martinez, firing another shot. He came back to the Martinez car and took a larger caliber pistol belonging to Martinez, and with this pistol Sacoman shot Martinez in the head.

Sacoman asserted an alibi defense. He testified that on Monday, at the time of the killing, he was at his job as a busboy at the Classic Hotel. Work records showed that he had “clocked in” at 7:48 a.m. and had not “clocked out,” but was paid as if he had clocked out at 2:47 p.m., the end of his shift.

Sacoman’s supervisor testified that no employee is permitted to leave before the end of the shift without checking with the cashier or hostess, that she did not recall Sacoman leaving early on that Monday, and that if an employee fails to clock out, the payroll clerk checks with the cashier to determine when that employee left. The supervisor further stated that in such circumstances the payroll clerk has to verify when the employee departed and cannot “just take their word for it.” She also testified that she had supervised Sacoman, and that although sometimes he was tardy, she never had a problem with him “cutting out early.”

A waitress testified that the hotel's policy on failing to sign out and to check out is “very stringent.” She “got in trouble a few times [herself]” for failing to do both because “they frowned on it heavily.” If an employee is absent for as much as fifteen minutes it causes “too much of a problem,” and someone begins to look for the missing person. If an employee fails to punch out, the time of departure has to be verified with another employee.

In rebuttal, the State called another waitress who testified that Sacoman told her that he planned to leave early to meet his girlfriend for lunch. She thought that he would be coming back, but he didn’t and “they missed a busperson that day.” She also stated that one busboy (of two) was present until the end of the shift on Monday. The work records showed that the other busboy was only paid for six hours that day, suggesting that he rather than Sacoman left early.

At the hearings on the motion for a new trial, it was established that one juror injected his personal expertise as a busboy into the deliberations, relating that on many occasions when he wanted to take off work early he would work extra hard, make sure his tasks were accomplished, and then leave without punching out. He would argue with management the next day as to the number of hours he should be paid. These statements arguably contradicted the testimony presented at trial.

Another juror injected into the jury deliberations a fabricated story to the effect that over the weekend, intervening between the beginning and conclusion of jury deliberations, she had gone skiing with the payroll clerk of a Santa Fe hotel. In the process of making out the payroll, the clerk commented that it looked like someone had not clocked out but that she assumed that the person had worked and she went ahead and gave the person the benefit of the doubt. At the initial hearing on the motion for a new trial, this latter juror perjured herself by reiterating her story, but she then contacted the trial judge and told him her testimony was untrue. She admitted concocting the story about the Santa Fe hotel and her friend’s paperwork. The juror explained to the judge that she had failed to reveal her fabrication at the hearing because of fear of publicity and because she did not want to be responsible for Sacoman getting off or going free.

We begin our analysis by determining whether statements made by the two jurors to their fellow jurors constituted extraneous information, improperly brought to the jury’s attention. See State v. Doe, 101 N.M. 363, 683 P.2d 45 (Ct.App.1983), cert. denied, 101 N.M. 276, 682 P.2d 61 (1984). SCRA 1986, 11-606(B) specifically provides that, upon inquiry into the validity of a verdict, a juror may testify on the question of whether extraneous prejudicial information was improperly brought to the jury’s attention or whether any outside influence was improperly brought to bear upon any juror. See Doe, 101 N.M. at 365, 683 P.2d at 47; Duran v. Lovato, 99 N.M. 242, 656 P.2d 905 (Ct.App.1982), cert. denied, 99 N.M. 226, 656 P.2d 889 (1983). We are not dealing with an improper attempt to explain the verdict of the jury. See Biebelle v. Norero, 85 N.M. 182, 510 P.2d 506 (1973).

Extraneous information. Communication of specific knowledge from a particular juror to others involves extraneous information. See State v. Thacker, 95 Nev. 500, 596 P.2d 508 (1979) (per curiam) (in reaching verdict, jurors are confined to facts and evidence elicited during trial). Defendant asserts that the communications by the two jurors regarding restaurant procedures for paying employees who fail to clock out constituted extraneous information. He relies upon the following cases to support his argument. See State v. Larue, 722 P.2d 1039 (Haw.1986) (juror’s communication of personal experience similar to victim’s sexual abuse held reversible error); State v. Wisham, 384 So.2d 385 (La.1980) (two jurors see defendant’s alibi witness arrested in courthouse hallway for perjury); Rogers v. State, 551 S.W.2d 369 (Tex. Crim.App.1977) (juror, once victim of robbery, tells jury “you never forget a face” in robbery case involving eyewitness identification); State v. Lorenzy, 59 Wash. 308, 109 P.

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Bluebook (online)
762 P.2d 250, 107 N.M. 588, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-sacoman-nm-1988.