State v. Sell

CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedSeptember 13, 2023
DocketA176091
StatusPublished

This text of State v. Sell (State v. Sell) 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. Sell, (Or. Ct. App. 2023).

Opinion

82 September 13, 2023 No. 460

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF OREGON

STATE OF OREGON, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. BRYAN A. SELL, aka Bryan Alan Sell, Defendant-Appellant. Coos County Circuit Court 21CR06842; A176091

Andrew E. Combs, Judge. Argued and submitted February 2, 2023. Meredith Allen, Deputy Public Defender, argued the cause for appellant. Also on the briefs was Ernest G. Lannet, Chief Defender, Criminal Appellate Section, Office of Public Defense Services. Joanna Hershey, Assistant Attorney General, argued the cause for respondent. Also on the briefs were Ellen F. Rosenblum, Attorney General, and Benjamin Gutman, Solicitor General. Before Shorr, Presiding Judge, and Mooney, Judge, and Pagán, Judge. PAGÁN, J. Affirmed. Cite as 328 Or App 82 (2023) 83 84 State v. Sell

PAGÁN, J. Defendant appeals his convictions for assaulting a public safety officer, ORS 163.208 (Count 1),1 resisting arrest, ORS 162.315 (Count 2), and interfering with a peace officer, ORS 162.247 (Count 3). During their deliberations over the course of a few hours, the jurors sent the trial court a total of seven notes reflecting their frustrations with each other and asking questions. In his first assignment of error, defendant argues that the trial court abused its discretion by denying his motion for a mistrial based on the notes. However, absent a clear indication that the jurors could no longer be impar- tial, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to declare a mistrial after only three hours of deliberations. As a result, we reject defendant’s first assignment of error. In his other assignments, defendant argues that the trial court erred by failing to instruct the jury regarding a culpable mental state for material elements of the crimes charged in Counts 1 and 2. Although the trial court committed plain error, we decline to exercise our discretion to correct the error in the instruction on Count 1, and the error in the instruction on Count 2 was harmless. We therefore affirm. I. FACTS As noted, defendant assigns error to the jury instructions and to the trial court’s decision not to declare a mistrial during deliberations. As such, we begin by discuss- ing the underlying facts as they relate to the culpable men- tal state of defendant, and we will then turn to the interac- tions between the court and jury during deliberations. On February 6, 2021, police officers for the City of Coos Bay responded to a reported violation of a restrain- ing order. The officers had three affidavits of probable cause to arrest defendant for prior violations. When the officers located defendant, he “took off running.” Officer Rule chased defendant on foot, while Officer O’Connor got ahead of defen- dant in a patrol car. Rule yelled at defendant to stop, but he failed to do so.

1 ORS 163.208 was amended since the conduct at issue here. See Or Laws 2021, ch 489, § 12 (effective Jan 1, 2022). Those amendments do not affect our analysis, and we refer to the current version of the statute. Cite as 328 Or App 82 (2023) 85

When the officers confronted defendant, he had his right hand concealed in his jacket, and the officers were wor- ried that he had a weapon. Rule and O’Connor simultane- ously deployed their tasers, but the tasers were not effective because defendant was wearing thick clothing. O’Connor deployed pepper spray, after which defendant lay on the ground. Defendant concealed his arms under his torso and refused orders to put his arms behind his back. O’Connor had to use force to move defendant’s hands, while Rule kept pressure on defendant to prevent him from standing up or running away. Eventually, O’Connor managed to place defendant in handcuffs. Because defendant had been tasered and pepper sprayed, the officers called for a medical evaluation. Officer Myers arrived at the scene around the same time that this was occurring. When paramedics examined defendant, he com- plained of back pain, so the officers decided to take defen- dant to the hospital before transporting him to jail. As defendant was being escorted to a patrol car by Myers and O’Connor, defendant began to pull away from the officers, and he screamed at them. He threatened to spit on the offi- cers. Defendant refused to sit down in the back of the car. He was “extremely resistant to getting in the vehicle.” While officers were attempting to place him inside, he managed to stand up on the seat of the vehicle, and he yelled to his wife that he loved her. The officers pulled defendant to the ground “and got into another altercation with him.” Defendant was “thrash- ing, and kicking, and rolling, and screaming at” the offi- cers. O’Connor focused on getting defendant’s feet secured, and he kept his body weight on defendant “to keep him from kicking at us any further.” It took all three officers to hold defendant on the ground and get him under control. When defendant was secured in the patrol car, he continued “thrashing around.” Defendant was “bashing his head into the Plexiglas and trying to kick out the windows.” After defendant was secured, Rule told O’Connor that O’Connor’s head was bleeding. O’Connor did not have 86 State v. Sell

the injury before he struggled with defendant. O’Connor had a contusion across the right side of his face above his right eye. The medics cleaned his wound and applied anti- biotic ointment. O’Connor had a headache for the rest of the day, he could not sleep on his face, the wound stung in the shower, and he could not wear a patrol hat. No one saw defendant land a kick or punch on O’Connor. Defendant was charged with assaulting a public safety officer, ORS 163.208; resisting arrest, ORS 162.315; and interfering with a peace officer, ORS 162.247. At his jury trial, the jury heard testimony from the three officers and viewed exhibits, including body camera footage of the incident. The jury instruction on assault provided that the state was required to prove that defendant “acted with an awareness that his conduct was assaultive and would likely cause physical injury.” The jury instruction on resisting arrest stated in part that “a person commits the crime of resisting arrest if the person intentionally resists a person known by him to be a peace officer in making an arrest.” The instructions also stated: “Guilty verdicts must be unanimous, which means that each and every juror must agree on a guilty verdict. But not-guilty verdicts may be nonunanimous.” That brings us to the deliberations. At around 3:00 p.m., after the jury had been deliberating for an hour, a juror sent a handwritten note to the trial court. It stated: “So we are stuck on one count. We are 50% - 50% on one, and unanimous on the other two. Do we have to get 10 for not guilty or 100% guilty or stay here?” The trial court proposed responding to the note by stating that “not guilty verdicts do not have to be unanimous.” The prosecutor agreed. The trial court suggested telling the jury to continue deliberating but indicated that it was not otherwise inclined to respond fur- ther.

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Bluebook (online)
State v. Sell, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-sell-orctapp-2023.