2015 UT App 152

THE UTAH COURT OF APPEALS

STATE OF UTAH,

Plaintiff and Appellee,

v.

BENITA KENNEDY,

Defendant and Appellant.

Opinion

No. 20130229-CA

Filed June 18, 2015

Third District Court, Salt Lake Department

The Honorable Judith S.H. Atherton

No. 121900345

Scott S. Bell, Nicole G. Farrell, and Alan S. Mouritsen, 

Attorneys for Appellant

Sean D. Reyes and Christopher D. Ballard, Attorneys

for Appellee

JUDGE JOHN A. PEARCE authored this Opinion, in which JUDGES

J. FREDERIC VOROS JR. and STEPHEN L. ROTH concurred.

PEARCE, Judge:

¶1 Defendant Benita Kennedy appeals her obstruction-ofjustice conviction. She contends that the jury instructions were 

vague, that the court erred in rejecting her proposed mistake-offact instruction, and that she was deprived of her constitutional 

right to effective assistance of counsel when her trial counsel 

failed to object to the sufficiency of the evidence against her. We 

affirm.

BACKGROUND

¶2 We recite the facts in the light most favorable to the jury’s 

verdict, and we present conflicting evidence as necessary to 
State v. Kennedy

20130229-CA 2 2015 UT App 152

understand the issues raised on appeal. State v. Black, 2015 UT 

App 30, ¶ 2, 344 P.3d 644.

¶3 Eddie Garza hatched a plan to raise funds to throw his 

girlfriend’s son a birthday party by robbing Hiram Torez, a drug

dealer. Garza called Torez, asking to purchase drugs. They 

agreed to meet in a parking lot. To help pull off the robbery, 

Garza brought his girlfriend’s stepfather (Christian 

Lizarzaburu), her brother (Larry Davis), and a friend (Anthony 

Corona).

¶4 Kennedy was with Torez at the home of Natalie Jo Irish 

when Torez received Garza’s call. Before leaving for the meeting, 

Torez loaded his handgun. Kennedy drove Torez to the meeting 

point—a church parking lot—in Irish’s SUV.

¶5 Garza’s group arrived first, driving a sedan Garza’s 

cousin’s roommate had rented. Garza parked the sedan.

Lizarzaburu and Davis exited the car and hid behind a nearby 

building. Garza remained in the driver’s seat. Corona took the 

front passenger seat. When Kennedy arrived, she parked the 

SUV next to the sedan but facing the opposite direction, so that

the drivers’ doors faced each other about five feet apart.

¶6 Torez got out of the SUV and into the rear seat of the 

sedan. Garza, Torez, and Corona began to argue. Lizarzaburu 

and Davis ran to the sedan, opened both rear doors, and saw 

Garza and Torez fighting. Garza told Corona to shoot Torez. 

Corona shot Torez six times; one bullet grazed Garza’s finger.

¶7 Garza, Corona, Lizarzaburu, and Davis then ran from the 

sedan. As Garza exited the sedan, Torez pleaded for help. Garza 

responded, ‚Sorry, homey.‛ Corona ran to a nearby building.

¶8 Meanwhile, Kennedy remained in the driver’s seat of the 

SUV, playing a game on her cell phone. Out of the corner of her 

eye, and through the tinted windows of the SUV, she saw flashes 

and realized that the situation had soured. She saw three 
State v. Kennedy

20130229-CA 3 2015 UT App 152

people—Garza, Lizarzaburu, and Davis—approaching the SUV. 

According to Lizarzaburu, Kennedy recognized the three, rolled 

down her window, called them by name, and told them to get 

in.1 However, according to Irish, Kennedy later said she had not 

recognized them until after they had entered the SUV.

¶9 Irish also testified that Kennedy told her that, while 

driving away, Kennedy had exclaimed something to the effect of 

‚Oh my God‛ and ‚[W]hat have you guys done?‛ Her 

passengers instructed her to pick up Corona. According to 

Lizarzaburu, Kennedy told Corona to ‚get in, get in, get in the 

car.‛ After Corona got in, Kennedy asked the group if they had 

killed Torez. Corona replied that he had ‚dumped on *Torez] 

with the .22.‛

¶10 Kennedy dropped Corona, Lizarzaburu, and Davis off 

before taking Garza to Irish’s house. Irish cleaned Garza’s 

injured finger with hydrogen peroxide and drove him home. 

According to Garza’s cousin, Kennedy suggested to Garza that 

he tell the cousin to report the rented sedan as stolen.

Meanwhile, people near the scene of the shooting had heard the 

gunshots and called the police. When officers arrived, they 

discovered Torez’s body inside the sedan.

¶11 Kennedy was eventually charged with one count of 

obstruction of justice. The charge was enhanced to a first-degree 

felony because the State alleged Kennedy had acted in concert

with two or more people. At trial, Kennedy primarily argued 

that she could not have formed the intent to obstruct justice, 

because she did not know a crime had been committed. The 

State argued that, given Kennedy’s proximity to the shooting, 

she must have known that a crime had occurred.

 

1. Kennedy told the investigating police officers that she had 

known some of her new passengers for years.
State v. Kennedy

20130229-CA 4 2015 UT App 152

¶12 At the close of the evidentiary phase, Kennedy asked the 

court to give the jury a mistake-of-fact instruction. The gist of the 

proffered instruction was that ‚*a+n act committed under an 

ignorance or mistake of fact, which disproves the culpable 

mental state, is a defense to any prosecution for the crime.‛ The 

court declined to give the instruction.

¶13 The court provided two jury instructions relevant to this 

appeal. The first (Instruction 15) was a general instruction 

concerning mental states:

[T]he prosecution must prove that at the time the 

defendant acted, he/she did so with a particular 

mental state. For each offense, the law defines what 

kind of mental state the defendant had to have, if 

any.

For the crime(s) charged in this case, the defendant 

must have acted ‚intentionally‛ or ‚knowingly‛ or 

recklessly. The prosecution must prove beyond a 

reasonable doubt that the defendant acted 

intentionally or knowingly or recklessly before the 

defendant can be found guilty of the crime 

charged.

¶14 Instruction 15 then defined each of the three mental states. 

For example, ‚*a+ person engages in conduct intentionally or 

with intent or willfully with respect to the nature of his conduct 

or to a result of his conduct, when it is his conscious objective or 

desire to engage in the conduct or cause the result.‛

¶15 The second instruction at issue is Instruction 19. Unlike 

Instruction 15, Instruction 19 referred to the specific defendant 

and crime charged:

Before you can convict the defendant, Benita 

Kennedy, of the offense of Obstruction Of Justice 

as charged in the Information, you must find from 
State v. Kennedy

20130229-CA 5 2015 UT App 152

all of the evidence and beyond a reasonable doubt 

all of the following elements of that offense:

1. That on or about the 10th day of December, 

2011, in Salt Lake County, State of Utah, the 

defendant, Benita Kennedy;

2. With the intent to hinder, delay, or prevent 

the investigation, apprehension, prosecution, 

conviction, or punishment of any person regarding 

a criminal offense;

3. Did one or more of the following:

(a) altered, destroyed, concealed, or 

removed any item or other thing; or

(b) harbored or concealed a person; or

(c) provided a person with transportation, 

disguise, or other means of avoiding 

discovery or apprehension; or

(d) warned any person of impending 

discovery or apprehension; or

(e) provided false information regarding a 

suspect, a witness, the conduct constituting 

an offense, or any other material aspect of 

the investigation; and

4. She knew or should have known the criminal 

offense was either criminal homicide, aggravated 

robbery, or discharge of a firearm causing serious 

bodily injury.

¶16 The jury convicted Kennedy of obstruction of justice. 

Kennedy appeals.2

 

2. The parties filed four letters with the court after briefing was 

complete. See generally Utah R. App. P. 24(j) (governing letters of 

(continued<)
State v. Kennedy

20130229-CA 6 2015 UT App 152

ISSUES AND STANDARDS OF REVIEW

¶17 Kennedy first contends that the jury instructions failed to 

require that the jury find that she specifically intended to 

obstruct justice. We review a challenge to jury instructions for 

correctness. State v. Featherhat, 2011 UT App 154, ¶ 8, 257 P.3d 

445.

¶18 Kennedy also contends that the trial court erred by failing 

to give the jury her proposed mistake-of-fact instruction. The 

issue of whether to instruct the jury on a theory that is supported 

by the evidence presents a legal question. State v. Berriel, 2013 UT 

19, ¶ 10, 299 P.3d 1133. We review the trial court’s resolution of 

that question for correctness. But whether the evidence 

introduced at trial supports a particular theory is ‚primarily a 

factual question,‛ and we review the trial court’s resolution of it 

for an abuse of discretion. Id. ¶¶ 9, 11.

¶19 Finally, Kennedy contends that the evidence against her 

was insufficient to sustain a conviction. We will reverse a guilty 

 

(<continued)

supplemental authority). The State filed the second of these 

letters ‚to alert the Court to an oversight in its brief.‛ The 

oversight consisted of an argument for affirmance based on 

Instruction 18. Kennedy then filed the third letter, correctly 

noting that ‚Rule 24(j) does not identify ‘oversight’ as a basis for 

filing a Rule 24(j) letter‛ and asking the court to consider a new 

argument from her ‚in the interest of fairness.‛ The State 

responded in a fourth letter, urging us to ignore Kennedy’s new 

argument because it was raised for the first time in a rule 24(j) 

letter. Parties are not permitted to use letters of supplemental 

authority as an opportunity to raise new arguments. See Beynon 

v. St. George–Dixie Lodge No. 1743, Benevolent & Protective Order of 

Elks, 854 P.2d 513, 519 (Utah 1993). Accordingly, we do not 

consider the merits of the new arguments raised in the second, 

third, and fourth ‚letters of supplemental authority.‛
State v. Kennedy

20130229-CA 7 2015 UT App 152

verdict for insufficient evidence only when the evidence is so 

inconclusive or inherently improbable that reasonable minds 

must have entertained a reasonable doubt that the defendant 

committed the crimes of which he or she was convicted. State v. 

Nielsen, 2014 UT 10, ¶ 46, 326 P.3d 645.

ANALYSIS

I. Vague Jury Instructions

¶20 Kennedy contends that the jury instructions misled the 

jury into believing that they could convict her of obstruction of 

justice if they found that she acted knowingly or recklessly, 

rather than with the requisite mental state of acting intentionally. 

She argues that she preserved this claim for appeal by proposing 

a mistake-of-fact instruction. See Wohnoutka v. Kelley, 2014 UT 

App 154, ¶ 3, 330 P.3d 762 (explaining our requirement that 

issues be preserved for appeal).

¶21 An issue is preserved for appeal when it has been 

presented to the trial court in such a way that the trial court had

the opportunity to rule on it. Id. ¶ 4. The appellant must present

the legal basis for her claim to the trial court, not merely the 

underlying facts or a tangentially related claim. See id.

¶22 Kennedy’s proposed instruction would have informed the

jury that a defendant’s mistake of fact could disprove the 

required mental state. The proposed instruction thus did not 

inform the trial court of Kennedy’s apparent belief that

Instruction 15 would mislead the jury into believing that a 

mental state of knowledge or recklessness was sufficient to 

convict Kennedy. As a result, the proposed instruction did not 

raise the legal basis of Kennedy’s contention on appeal in such a 

way that the trial court would have had an opportunity to rule 

on it. See id. Her challenge to Instruction 15 is therefore 

unpreserved.
State v. Kennedy

20130229-CA 8 2015 UT App 152

¶23 Kennedy also argues that two exceptions to our 

preservation rule apply. Specifically, she asserts that the trial 

court plainly erred by giving Instruction 15 and that her trial 

counsel’s failure to object to it amounted to ineffective assistance 

of counsel. ‚The plain error standard of review requires an 

appellant to show the existence of a harmful error that should 

have been obvious to the district court.‛ State v. Waterfield, 2014 

UT App 67, ¶ 18, 322 P.3d 1194. ‚To succeed on a claim of 

ineffective assistance of counsel, a defendant must show that 

trial counsel’s performance was deficient and that the defendant

was prejudiced thereby.‛ State v. Hards, 2015 UT App 42, ¶ 18, 

345 P.3d 769. In this matter, neither the plain-error nor

ineffective-assistance-of-counsel exceptions to the preservation 

rule are available to Kennedy if the jury was instructed properly.

Accordingly, we consider whether the giving of Instruction 15 

constitutes error.

¶24 To analyze Instruction 15, we must view it within the 

context of the jury instructions as a whole. State v. Maestas, 2012 

UT 46, ¶ 148, 299 P.3d 892. If the jury instructions taken as a 

whole fairly instruct the jury on the law applicable to the case, 

the fact that one of the instructions, standing alone, ‚is not as 

accurate as it might have been‛ does not amount to reversible 

error. State v. Lucero, 866 P.2d 1, 3 (Utah Ct. App. 1993). Thus, we 

will affirm when the combined instructions fairly instruct the 

jury on the applicable law. See Maestas, 2012 UT 46, ¶ 148.

¶25 The relevant portion of Instruction 15 states, ‚For the 

crime(s) charged in this case, the defendant must have acted 

‘intentionally’ or ‘knowingly’ or recklessly. The prosecution 

must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant acted 

intentionally or knowingly or recklessly before the defendant 

can be found guilty of the crime charged.‛ We agree with 

Kennedy that, when read in isolation, these sentences could be 

read to instruct the jury that any of the three mental states could 

be sufficient to sustain a conviction. However, the instructions as 

a whole do not suffer from the same infirmity.
State v. Kennedy

20130229-CA 9 2015 UT App 152

¶26 Unlike Instruction 15, which provides definitions that 

apply generally, Instruction 19 is specific to the crime of 

obstruction of justice. It refers to the jury as ‚you,‛ lays out the 

elements of the crime, and includes Kennedy’s name. It also 

provides the imperative command, ‚[Y]ou must find from all of 

the evidence and beyond a reasonable doubt all of 

the . . . elements‛ of obstruction of justice before ‚you can 

convict the defendant, Benita Kennedy.‛ Instruction 19 defines

the charge against Kennedy, providing in pertinent part that the 

jury could only convict Kennedy if it found that she had acted 

‚With the intent to hinder, delay, or prevent the investigation, 

apprehension, prosecution, conviction, or punishment of any 

person regarding a criminal offense.‛ (Emphasis added.)

¶27 Kennedy asserts that ‚Instruction 19’s unadorned use of 

the term ‘intent’ did not correct Instruction 15’s error because it 

did nothing to specify what kind of intent was required.‛ She 

claims that ‚the jury could have reasonably believed—indeed 

should have believed, in light of Instruction 15—that Instruction 

19’s use of the term ‘intent’ included specific intent, knowledge, 

and recklessness.‛ But Instruction 15 never uses the term 

‚intent‛ as a category incorporating the three mental states. 

Rather, Instruction 15 explains that three culpable mental states 

exist in law—‚intentionally or knowingly or recklessly‛—and 

then defines each separately.

3

 

3. We note that the Utah Supreme Court has ‚encourage*d+ 

courts to take specific care to focus jury instruction language to 

apply narrowly to each applicable offense or element, rather 

than providing general statements which could be susceptible to 

misreading.‛ State v. Hutchings, 2012 UT 50, ¶ 23 n.9, 285 P.3d 

1183. This admonition does not absolve us of the responsibility 

to review a challenge to a particular jury instruction in light of 

the instructions as a whole. See State v. Maestas, 2012 UT 46, 

¶ 148, 299 P.3d 892.
State v. Kennedy

20130229-CA 10 2015 UT App 152

¶28 ‚Instructions should be read in their entire context and 

given meaning in accordance with the ordinary and usual 

import of the language as it would be understood by lay jurors.‛ 

Biswell v. Duncan, 742 P.2d 80, 88 (Utah Ct. App. 1987). Reading 

the instructions in context and ascribing the ordinary meaning to 

their language, we cannot agree with Kennedy’s assertion that 

the jury would have understood Instruction 19’s use of ‚with the 

intent‛ to mean knowingly or recklessly.4 Kennedy asks us to 

presume that the jury, seeking to understand the phrase ‚with 

the intent to hinder,‛ would have skipped past Instruction 15’s 

guidance that a person acts ‚with intent‛ ‚with respect to the 

nature of his conduct or to the result of his conduct, when it is 

his conscious objective or desire to engage in the conduct or 

cause the result‛ and that the jury would have focused instead 

on the definitions of reckless and knowing. Kennedy asks us to 

further believe that the jury would have then taken the unlikely 

step of interpreting Instruction 19’s phrase ‚with the intent to 

hinder‛ to mean ‚recklessly hinder‛ or ‚knowingly hinder.‛ We 

cannot presume that the jury deviated in this manner from the 

‚ordinary and usual import of the language.‛ Biswell, 742 P.2d at 

88.

¶29 Moreover, other instructions signaled to the jury that 

Instruction 15 was not a list of mental states that could be 

applied to any crime but definitions of the mental states other 

instructions referenced. Instruction 18 explained that the defense 

of compulsion was not available if the defendant had 

‚intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly placed herself in a 

 

4. Kennedy argues in her reply brief that ‚Instruction 15 wrongly 

informed the jury that the mental states of knowledge and 

recklessness applied to a specific intent crime‛ and that 

‚Instruction 15 still wrongly told the jury to apply knowledge 

and recklessness to a specific intent crime.‛ This argument 

considers Instruction 15 in isolation. Because jury instructions 

must be read as a whole, Instruction 15 cannot fairly be read in 

the manner Kennedy urges.
State v. Kennedy

20130229-CA 11 2015 UT App 152

situation where it was probable that she would be subjected to 

duress.‛ Instruction 22 explained that criminal homicide murder 

(one of the offenses underlying the obstruction charge) meant 

inter alia ‚intentionally or knowingly causing the death of 

another.‛ Likewise, Instruction 23 stated that felony discharge of 

a firearm requires a finding that the shooter fired the gun while 

‚knowing or having reason to believe that any person‛ might be 

endangered thereby. And Instruction 24 explained that 

aggravated robbery (another underlying offense) occurs when 

an actor ‚intentionally or knowingly‛ uses force against another 

while committing a theft.

¶30 We conclude that Kennedy has not demonstrated the 

existence of an error, because the jury instructions when read 

together could not have misled the jury into believing that the 

lesser mental states of ‚knowingly‛ or ‚recklessly‛ were 

sufficient to convict Kennedy. She has therefore failed to show 

that the trial court plainly erred in instructing the jury or that 

trial counsel’s failure to object to Instruction 15 constituted 

ineffective assistance of counsel.

II. Mistake-of-Fact Instruction

¶31 Kennedy next contends that the trial court erred by 

refusing to give the jury her proposed mistake-of-fact 

instruction. She argues that she introduced substantial evidence 

in support of her claim that she mistakenly believed that no 

crime had been committed and that, absent the proposed 

instruction, the jury would not have understood that this belief 

negated the required mental state.

¶32 A defendant is entitled to have the jury instructed on the 

defense’s theory of the case if there is any basis in the evidence 

to support that theory. State v. Berriel, 2013 UT 19, ¶ 12, 299 P.3d 

1133. But the defense is not entitled to further instruction 

regarding the defense’s theory of the case when the other 

instructions already fairly instruct the jury on the law applicable 

to that theory. See State v. Lucero, 866 P.2d 1, 3 (Utah Ct. App. 
State v. Kennedy

20130229-CA 12 2015 UT App 152

1993) (explaining that the fact that one instruction, considered

alone, is not ‚as accurate as it might have been‛ is not reversible 

error so long as the instructions as a whole fairly instruct the jury 

on the applicable law). Accordingly, in order to demonstrate 

reversible error stemming from the trial court’s refusal to give a 

proposed instruction, a defendant must show that the 

instructions that were given failed to fairly instruct the jury on 

the applicable law.

¶33 Kennedy first asserts that the trial court mistakenly 

believed that Instructions 15 and 19 correctly instructed the jury 

when it denied her proposed instruction. As we explain above, 

there was no error in those instructions; accordingly, we do not 

further address Kennedy’s first assertion. However, Kennedy 

also asserts that her proposed instruction would have headed off 

possible misreadings of Instruction 19.

¶34 Kennedy points to the language of the fourth element of 

Instruction 19: ‚She knew or should have known the criminal 

offense was either criminal homicide, aggravated robbery, or 

discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury.‛5 She 

argues that this language risked ‚allowing the jury to convict 

Kennedy if she ‘should have known’—rather than actually 

knew—that an underlying crime had been committed.‛ In other 

words, the second element required the jury to find Kennedy

acted with intent to hinder the prosecution of a crime. The fourth 

 

5. This portion of the instruction was apparently intended to 

comport with State v. Bingham, 575 P.2d 197 (Utah 1978). Bingham

concerned an earlier version of the obstruction-of-justice statute 

which provided that obstruction was a class B misdemeanor 

unless the defendant knew or should have known that a capital 

offense or a first-degree felony had been committed, in which 

case obstruction was a second-degree felony. Id. at 198. Here, as 

the State points out, the degree of the obstruction charge against 

Kennedy required that she knew or should have known that one 

of the listed first-degree felonies had been committed.
State v. Kennedy

20130229-CA 13 2015 UT App 152

element required the jury to find Kennedy knew or should have 

known that the crime that had been committed was one the 

instruction listed; Kennedy argues this created confusion that 

her proposed mistake-of-fact instruction would have eliminated.

¶35 We disagree. We are constrained to read jury instructions 

as a whole and to give the language of the instructions their 

ordinary and usual import. Biswell v. Duncan, 742 P.2d 80, 88 

(Utah Ct. App. 1987). When given its ordinary and usual 

meaning, the language of Instruction 19 required the jury to find 

that Kennedy acted with the intent to hinder the wheels of justice 

with regard to ‚any person regarding a criminal offense.‛ It then 

adds, in a separately numbered paragraph, the additional 

requirement that Kennedy knew or should have known that the 

crime that person had committed was one of the three listed. To 

reach Kennedy’s understanding of the instruction, the jury 

would have had to interpret ‚knew or should have known the 

criminal offense was *one of three listed+‛ to include ‚knew or 

should have known an offense occurred.‛ We cannot presume 

that the jury would have made this mistake, because the 

ordinary and usual meaning of Instruction 19’s language simply 

does not lend itself to such a misreading.

¶36 Kennedy’s proposed mistake-of-fact instruction amounts 

to an alternative way of stating the defense’s theory that 

Kennedy could not be convicted because she did not know a 

crime had been committed. Instruction 19 already instructed the 

jury that, to convict Kennedy of obstruction of justice, it had to 

find that she acted ‚*w]ith the intent to hinder, delay, or prevent

the investigation, apprehension, prosecution, conviction, or 

punishment of any person regarding a criminal offense.‛ The 

jury could not have concluded that Kennedy acted with that 

intent without finding that she actually knew the criminal 

conduct had occurred. Accordingly, Kennedy was not entitled to 

an essentially duplicative instruction. See supra ¶ 32. The trial 

court’s refusal to give the proposed instruction was therefore 

neither a legal error nor an abuse of discretion, because the other 

instructions already fairly advised the jury about the significance 
State v. Kennedy

20130229-CA 14 2015 UT App 152

of Kennedy’s mistake-of-fact claim. See State v. Berriel, 2013 UT 

19, ¶¶ 8–9, 299 P.3d 1133; State v. Lucero, 866 P.2d 1, 3. In short, 

we conclude that while Kennedy was entitled to have the jury 

instructed regarding the import of her mistake-of-fact defense,

Instruction 19 adequately did so. Consequently, the trial court 

did not abuse its discretion by declining to further instruct the 

jury on the same topic.6

III. Sufficiency of the Evidence

¶37 Kennedy next contends that the evidence the State

presented was insufficient to sustain her conviction for 

obstruction of justice. Specifically, she argues that there was no 

evidence that she knew beforehand that Torez would be robbed 

or killed and that the only evidence of her state of mind after the 

shooting was that she believed the shots were directed at her 

and that Torez was firing them. On this basis, she asserts that 

there was no evidence of her specific intent to obstruct the 

course of justice. The State responds that, on appeal, Kennedy 

‚argues the evidence from only her point of view‛ and ‚fails to 

view it in the light most favorable to the jury’s verdict.‛ 

¶38 Kennedy’s trial counsel did not preserve this issue by 

moving for a directed verdict at trial. Kennedy therefore raises it 

as a matter of ineffective assistance of counsel. ‚To succeed on a 

 

6. The State argues that Kennedy’s trial counsel invited any error 

on this point by agreeing with the trial court that Instruction 19 

was a correct statement of the law. See State v. Geukgeuzian, 2004 

UT 16, ¶¶ 9–12, 86 P.3d 742 (explaining the invited-error 

doctrine). While counsel did concede that Instruction 19 correctly

stated the law, he did not concede that Instruction 19 fully stated 

the law applicable to Kennedy’s defense theory. Indeed, when 

the court asked whether he was withdrawing the defense’s 

proposed instruction, counsel did not withdraw it and 

responded that he preferred that the court rule that Kennedy’s 

proposed instruction would not be given to the jury.
State v. Kennedy

20130229-CA 15 2015 UT App 152

claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, a defendant must show 

that trial counsel’s performance was deficient and that the 

defendant was prejudiced thereby.‛ State v. Hards, 2015 UT App 

42, ¶ 18, 345 P.3d 769. 

¶39 When considering an insufficiency-of-the-evidence claim, 

we review the evidence and all reasonable inferences in the light 

most favorable to the jury’s verdict. State v. Nielsen, 2014 UT 10, 

¶ 46, 326 P.3d 645. We may reverse Kennedy’s conviction only if 

we determine that the evidence is so inconclusive or inherently 

improbable that reasonable minds must have entertained a 

reasonable doubt as to whether she committed the crime. Id.

¶40 Kennedy argues that there ‚was no evidence to dispute 

that [she] was nothing more than an indifferent bystander up 

until the gunshots were fired‛; that ‚*e+ven after the shots were 

fired, the only evidence as to Kennedy’s state of mind suggests 

Kennedy thought the shots were directed at her and that Torez 

was firing them‛; and that ‚*e+ven after Corona told Kennedy he 

had shot Torez, Kennedy could still have believed that Torez 

was shot in self-defense.‛ She highlights evidence that she had 

seen Torez loading his gun and that she had believed Torez was 

the one shooting.

¶41 In response, the State highlights several pieces of evidence 

it introduced at trial, arguing that the evidence supports a jury 

finding that during the drive away from the scene Kennedy 

knew a crime had been committed. For example, the State 

presented evidence that the parking lot was well-lit, that 

Kennedy’s seat in the SUV afforded her a view down into the 

sedan, that the two vehicles were about five feet apart, and that 

the police officers who arrived at the scene within minutes of the 

shooting could ‚clearly‛ see from approximately ten feet away 

that Torez had suffered gunshot wounds. The State also

presented evidence that Kennedy admitted to seeing a struggle 

inside the sedan and that after the shooting Kennedy exclaimed 

words to the effect of ‚Oh my God‛ and ‚*W+hat have you guys 

done?‛ And the State elicited testimony from Irish that Kennedy
State v. Kennedy

20130229-CA 16 2015 UT App 152

told Irish that she had asked if Torez had been killed and that 

Corona had replied that he had ‚dumped on *him+ with the .22.‛

¶42 When the evidence presented is conflicting or disputed, 

the trier of fact assesses both the credibility of witnesses and the 

weight to be given to particular evidence. State v. Black, 2015 UT 

App 30, ¶ 19, 344 P.3d 644. It is also the role of the trier of fact to 

then conclude which of the competing theories of the case it

believes. See State v. Cardona-Gueton, 2012 UT App 336, ¶ 11, 291 

P.3d 847. This is true even when the trier of fact is confronted 

with alternative hypotheses based on the same evidence. See id.

¶43 At trial, the State argued that the evidence showed 

beyond a reasonable doubt that Kennedy had committed all the 

elements necessary to be convicted of obstruction of justice. 

Kennedy argued that she drove away from the scene to avoid 

being ‚killed or shot.‛ She claimed that she did not have the 

intent to ‚hinder, delay or prevent the investigation‛ and that 

her only intent was ‚to stay alive.‛ The jury evidently 

determined that the evidence supported the State’s hypothesis of 

intent rather than Kennedy’s. 

¶44 Kennedy’s contention on appeal is essentially that the jury 

could not have properly convicted her, because the evidence 

presented did not exclude a reasonable alternative hypothesis of 

her intent. ‚*F+raming a claim as a reasonable-alternativehypothesis claim presupposes that the alternative hypothesis is 

reasonable.‛ Cardona-Gueton, 2012 UT App 336, ¶ 12. ‚But a 

finding that a defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt is 

necessarily a finding that any alternative hypothesis of 

innocence presented at trial was not reasonable under the jury’s 

view of the evidence.‛ Id.

¶45 When the jury has reached a verdict based on one of the 

competing theories advanced by the parties, we will reverse that

verdict only if the evidence is so insubstantial or inconclusive 

that the reasonable inferences drawn from it cannot preclude the 

alternative hypothesis presented by the defense. Id. ¶ 11. Here, 
State v. Kennedy

20130229-CA 17 2015 UT App 152

however, the evidence was not so insubstantial or inconclusive 

that the jury’s inferences were unreasonable. The evidence was 

sufficient to support the jury’s inferences that Kennedy knew a 

crime had been committed, that she knew or should have known

her passengers had committed one of the specified crimes, and 

that she intended to hinder, prevent, or delay their arrest by 

driving them away from the scene. See State v. Nielsen, 2014 UT 

10, ¶ 46, 326 P.3d 645; Cardona-Gueton, 2012 UT App 336, ¶ 12; see 

also State v. James, 819 P.2d 781, 789 (Utah 1991) (‚It is well 

established that [mental state] can be proven by circumstantial 

evidence.‛).

¶46 Kennedy also draws parallels between her case and State

v. Bingham, 575 P.2d 197 (Utah 1978). In Bingham, the Utah 

Supreme Court held that the evidence supporting an inference of 

intent on the part of an accused getaway driver (Bingham) was 

insufficient to sustain his conviction for first-degree-felony 

obstruction of justice. Id. at 199. To sustain a conviction, the State 

needed to prove that a first-degree felony had been committed 

and that Bingham knew of that fact when he drove the 

perpetrators away. Id. at 198. Bingham and his friends had 

stopped their car and approached a parked truck on foot. Id. 

After Bingham saw that one of his friends was carrying a pistol, 

he turned back towards the car because ‚he wanted no part of 

it.‛ Id. As he was doing so, he heard two shots. Id. His two 

friends then returned to the car ‚excited and desiring to get 

away in a hurry.‛ Id. at 198–99. Before driving them away from 

the scene, Bingham bent the car’s license plate so that it could 

not be seen. Id. at 198. It later emerged that two men in the truck 

had been shot, one fatally.7Id. at 198.

 

7. At the time State v. Bingham was argued, neither of Bingham’s 

friends had been tried. 575 P.2d 197, 198 (Utah 1978). Thus, it 

was not clear whether a first-degree felony had been committed 

(as required to sustain Bingham’s first-degree-felony 

obstruction-of-justice conviction). One of those friends later 

(continued<)
State v. Kennedy

20130229-CA 18 2015 UT App 152

¶47 The supreme court noted that there was no ‚direct proof 

that the defendant went near the cab of the pickup truck, or that 

he saw [the shooting], or that [his friends] told him what had 

happened when they hurriedly returned to his car.‛ Id. The court 

also noted that there were ‚a number of possibilities as to what 

happened and why the firing of shots made *Bingham’s friends+

excited and desiring to get away in a hurry.‛ Id. at 199.

Accordingly, the court concluded that the evidence was not 

sufficient to support a finding, beyond a reasonable doubt, that

Bingham knew or should have known that a homicide had been 

committed. Id. The Utah Supreme Court therefore reversed 

Bingham’s conviction and entered a conviction for class B 

misdemeanor obstruction of justice. Id.

¶48 Bingham differs from the case currently before us. In 

contrast to Bingham, the State presented evidence that Kennedy 

was within several feet of the sedan when Torez was killed 

inside it, that the murder scene was visible from outside the 

sedan, that Kennedy admitted seeing flashes out of the corner of 

her eye during the shooting, and that Kennedy’s passengers 

informed her that a shooting had taken place. We cannot 

conclude that the evidence as a whole is so inconclusive or 

inherently improbable that reasonable minds must have 

entertained a reasonable doubt as to whether Kennedy had the 

intent to obstruct justice when she drove Garza, Corona, 

Lizarzaburu, and Davis away from the scene the crime. See 

Nielsen, 2014 UT 10, ¶ 46.

¶49 Moreover, in Bingham, the question before the Utah 

Supreme Court was whether Bingham knew or should have 

known the nature of his friends’ crimes, not whether Bingham 

had intended to hinder, prevent, or delay their apprehension. 

 

(<continued)

killed the other to prevent him from testifying about the events

described in Bingham. See State v. Brown, 607 P.2d 261, 262, 267 

(Utah 1980).
State v. Kennedy

20130229-CA 19 2015 UT App 152

Indeed, Bingham conceded that the evidence was sufficient to 

sustain his conviction for misdemeanor obstruction of justice. 

Bingham, 575 P.2d at 198. He argued only that the evidence was 

insufficient to support his conviction for felony obstruction of 

justice because he was unaware that his friends had committed a 

first-degree felony. Id. Because Bingham began with a concession 

that the evidence was sufficient to prove at least one form of 

obstruction of justice, the case possesses little utility to address

Kennedy’s assertion that the evidence against her was 

insufficient to support a conviction for any degree of obstruction 

of justice.

¶50 For the foregoing reasons, a motion for directed verdict 

based on insufficiency of the evidence would have been fruitless.

Failure to raise futile objections or motions does not constitute 

ineffective assistance of counsel. See State v. Hanigan, 2014 UT 

App 165, ¶ 4, 331 P.3d 1140; see also State v. Kelley, 2000 UT 41, 

¶ 26, 1 P.3d 546. Kennedy has thus not established that the 

ineffective-assistance-of-counsel exception to the preservation 

rule applies.

CONCLUSION

¶51 Kennedy’s challenge to Instruction 15 was not preserved,

and neither the plain-error nor the ineffective-assistance-ofcounsel exceptions apply. The law underlying Kennedy’s 

defense theory was adequately explained by Instruction 19; 

consequently, the trial court had the discretion to refuse to give 

the jury her proposed mistake-of-fact instruction. Kennedy’s 

challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence is unpreserved. 

¶52 Affirmed.