Opinion ID: 2590797
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Ruiz's Plea Negotiations with the State

Text: ¶ 38 Pinder's final Brady claim relates to plea negotiations between Ruiz and the State. Specifically, Pinder claims that the State failed to disclose that Ruiz refused the State's initial plea offer and only agreed to testify after the State agreed to provide a more favorable plea bargain. ¶ 39 In denying Pinder's motion for a new trial, the trial court specifically found that Pinder was aware of the prior plea offer to Ruiz. This finding was based on comments made by the State during a pretrial conference addressing the potential impact a plea agreement with Ruiz would have on Pinder's trial. The State specifically stated that [w]e've made, actually over the course of the last couple months, two different offers. The one that's currently on the table we have represented to [Ruiz's] counsel to be our final offer. ¶ 40 On appeal, Pinder has made no effort to challenge the trial court's conclusion that he was aware of the State's prior plea offer, and we therefore assume that the trial court's conclusion is adequately supported by the record. See State v. Widdison, 2001 UT 60, ¶ 60, 28 P.3d 1278 (noting that a party who wishes to challenge a factual finding must first marshal the evidence in support of that finding and then show why the marshaled evidence is insufficient to support the finding). Regardless, such a challenge would be unavailing because, under the facts presented, we cannot conclude that the trial court's factual finding was clearly erroneous. Pinder's knowledge of the prior plea offer to Ruiz is fatal to his Brady claim. It cannot be said that the evidence in question was suppressed within the meaning of Brady. ¶ 41 Because we conclude that none of the evidence identified by Pinder was suppressed, there is no need to conduct an analysis into whether the absence of the evidence, taken cumulatively, is so significant as to undermine faith in the fairness of Pinder's prosecution. [5] Consequently, we next address his claims regarding alleged evidentiary errors at trial.