State v. Vanoli

937 P.2d 1166, 86 Wash. App. 643, 1997 Wash. App. LEXIS 923
CourtCourt of Appeals of Washington
DecidedJune 9, 1997
Docket37218-1-I
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 937 P.2d 1166 (State v. Vanoli) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Vanoli, 937 P.2d 1166, 86 Wash. App. 643, 1997 Wash. App. LEXIS 923 (Wash. Ct. App. 1997).

Opinion

Kennedy, A.C.J.

James Vanoli appeals his conviction and sentence for three counts of delivering LSD to minors within 1000 feet of a designated school bus stop. Vanoli contends: (1) that the jury was improperly instructed on the definition of knowledge under United States v. Aguilar, 80 F.3d 329 (9th Cir. 1996); (2) that the trial court erroneously determined that the first-offender waiver was unavailable in his case; (3) that his offender score was *646 improperly calculated because his three offenses constituted the same criminal conduct; (4) that the age and school zone sentence enhancement statutes unconstitutionally revise the delivery statute; (5) and that the court erred in imposing a sentence longer than the 120-month statutory limit by imposing both the statutory maximum term and 12 months of community supervision. 1 Finding no error, we affirm.

I

Guilty knowledge, i.e., knowledge that the drug being delivered is illegal, is an essential element of the crime of delivery of a controlled substance. State v. Johnson, 119 Wn.2d 143, 147, 829 P.2d 1078 (1992). Vanoli contends that the trial court’s jury instruction defining knowledge provides an alternative definition of knowledge that allows conviction based on probabilities, such as what a reasonable person would have known, and is, therefore, impermissible under United States v. Aguilar, 80 F.3d 329. The jury was given the following definition of knowledge, taken from WPIC 10.02:

A person knows or acts knowingly or with knowledge when he or she is aware of a fact, circumstances or result which is described by law as being a crime, whether or not the person is aware that the fact, circumstance or result is a crime.
If a person has information which would lead a reasonable person in the same situation to believe that facts exist which are described by law as being a crime, the jury is permitted but not required to find that he or she acted with knowledge.

Clerk’s Papers at 49. Vanoli did not object to the instruction at trial. However, an instructional error affecting a constitutional right may be raised for the first time on appeal. RAP 2.5(a)(3). Under Washington’s statutory scheme creating a hierarchy of mental states for crimes of increasing culpability, where knowledge is required to be proven *647 the jury must find actual, subjective knowledge; an instruction that effectively redefines knowledge to mean negligent ignorance violates due process. State v. Shipp, 93 Wn.2d 510, 515-16, 610 P.2d 1322 (1980). Accordingly, we will review the assignment of error.

The validity of jury instructions defining knowledge based upon a reasonable person standard was first considered by the Washington Supreme Court in Shipp. Under Shipp, a knowledge instruction passes constitutional muster if it permits, but does not compel, the jury to infer that the defendant acted with knowledge:

The comparison to the ordinary person has been imported into many legal definitions of knowledge to make it clear to the jury what level of circumstantial evidence is sufficient for it to conclude that the defendant had actual knowledge. But the comparison creates only an inference. The jury must still find subjective knowledge.

Shipp, 93 Wn.2d at 517 (citation omitted). Following Shipp, the Supreme Court has consistently upheld the validity of the instruction used in this case. See State v. Johnson, 119 Wn.2d 167, 174, 829 P.2d 1082 (1992); State v. Hoffman, 116 Wn.2d 51, 107, 804 P.2d 577 (1991), aff'd sub nom. McGinnis v. Blodgett, 67 F.3d 307 (9th Cir. 1995), cert. denied, 516 U.S. 1160, 116 S. Ct. 1046 (1996); State v. Leech, 114 Wn.2d 700, 709-10, 790 P.2d 160 (1990). Vanoli contends that the Ninth Circuit’s opinion in Aguilar is inconsistent with Shipp and its progeny and compels reversal in this case. In Aguilar, the Ninth Circuit examined the validity of an instruction that permitted the jury to find that the defendant had knowledge of a fact if the jury believed that the defendant was "aware of a high probability” that the fact existed. Aguilar, 80 F.3d at 331. The Aguilar court found the instruction improper, holding that the "high probability” language was only appropriate in cases of "deliberate ignorance,” i.e., where there was evidence that the defendant deliberately avoided gaining actual knowledge of a fact despite having his or her suspicions aroused. *648 Id. Because there was no such evidence in Aguilar, the court reversed. Id. at 331-32.

Contrary to Vanoli’s contention, the Aguilar opinion is not inconsistent with the Washington cases that have upheld the validity of the instruction in this case. The instruction at issue in those cases, and here, did not permit the jury to find knowledge based on a "high probability” of the existence of a fact, as did the instruction in Aguilar. Instead, the instruction required the jury to find that Vanoli acted with actual, subjective knowledge as required by Shipp. The second paragraph of the instruction does not provide an alternative definition of knowledge; rather, it permits but does not require the jury to infer actual, subjective knowledge if the defendant has information that would lead a reasonable person in the same situation to believe that facts exist that are described by law as being a crime.

II

At sentencing, defense counsel requested that the trial court apply the first-offender waiver. The Department of Corrections presentence report stated that Vanoli was eligible for the first-offender waiver, but recommended against it. The judge, in passing sentence, stated:

And I . . . think of what a harsh sentence the standard sentence range is, and then I look at the first-time offender [síc] which, frankly, I am not too sure even applies here. Perhaps it would. But I can’t really feel that the legislature — and everyone should be aware of the fact that it is the legislature who puts down the policy and changes the sentencing guidelines and decides one year they’re going to be tough on juveniles and two years later, they’re focusing on something else. And it’s up to the courts to interpret the law that the legislature passes. And it’s not up to the courts at this level to create policy.

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Bluebook (online)
937 P.2d 1166, 86 Wash. App. 643, 1997 Wash. App. LEXIS 923, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-vanoli-washctapp-1997.