Opinion ID: 874881
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Sanchez violated his probation.

Text: For the first step, a district court's finding of a probation violation will be upheld on appeal if there is substantial evidence in the record to support the finding. State v. Lafferty, 125 Idaho 378, 381, 870 P.2d 1337, 1340 (Ct.App.1994). This first step involves a wholly retrospective factual question. Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U.S. 471, 479, 92 S.Ct. 2593, 2599, 33 L.Ed.2d 484, 33 L.Ed.2d 484, 493 (1972). To comply with the principles of due process, a court may revoke probation only upon evidence that the probationer has in fact violated the terms or conditions of probation. Lafferty, 125 Idaho at 381, 870 P.2d at 1340. In the event of conflicting evidence, we will defer to the district court's determinations regarding the credibility of witnesses. State v. Knutsen, 138 Idaho 918, 923, 71 P.3d 1065, 1070 (Ct.App.2003). There is substantial evidence in the record to support the district court's finding that Sanchez violated his probation by failing to report to his probation officer. Sanchez's probation officer testified that he instructed Sanchez to contact him weekly starting July 21, and as of August 3, he did not receive any further contact from Sanchez. The officer also tried calling Sanchez at the halfway house on one occasion but was not successful in contacting him. Sanchez testified that he had failed to contact his Idaho probation officer as required because the only phone available to him at the halfway house was the public pay phone. He stated that he had left messages with his officer by making third-party calls using his girlfriend's phone, and that the last message he had left was on September 24, 2006. However, after reviewing his call logs, the officer testified that the last message he had received from Sanchez was on July 27, 2006. As the Court of Appeals stated in Knutsen, when there is conflicting evidence from witnesses, we defer to the district court's determinations regarding credibility. Here, the district court heard from both Sanchez and the probation officer regarding the communications between the two, and Sanchez's failure to contact the officer. The probation officer required Sanchez to contact him once a week, and the district court determined that Sanchez had violated his probation by failing to do so. There is substantial evidence in the record to support the district court's finding that Sanchez violated his probation.