Opinion ID: 867478
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Incorrect Jury Instruction on Intoxication

Text: ¶ 188 Moody alleges that the court improperly instructed the jury on the effect of intoxication. When Moody committed the murders in November of 1993, A.R.S. § 13-503 (1989) provided as follows: [W]hen the actual existence of the culpable mental state of intentionally or with the intent to is a necessary element to constitute any particular species or degree of offense, the jury may take into consideration the fact that the accused was intoxicated at the time in determining the culpable mental state with which he committed the act. That statute was amended effective January 2, 1994, to eliminate temporary intoxication as a defense for any criminal act or requisite state of mind. A.R.S. § 13-503 (2001); 1993 Ariz. Sess. Laws, ch. 256, §§ 2, 3. Rather than instructing the jury that intoxication could be considered in determining Moody's mental state at the time of the acts, the trial court instructed the jury on the later version of the statute, which disallows intoxication as a defense. ¶ 189 Normally, we review de novo a claim that a jury instruction misstates the law. State v. Orendain, 188 Ariz. 54, 56, 932 P.2d 1325, 1327 (1997). However, Moody failed to object to the instruction and therefore did not preserve this issue for appeal. [15] See State v. Valles, 162 Ariz. 1, 6, 780 P.2d 1049, 1054 (1989) (Failure to object to a jury instruction below precludes defendant from claiming error on appeal unless the error is fundamental.). ¶ 190 Moody offers two separate arguments that the error in this case is fundamental and requires reversal: (1) the instruction was erroneous because it misstated the law, and (2) the instruction violated the Ex Post Facto Clauses of the United States and Arizona Constitutions. U.S. Const. art. I, § 9; Ariz. Const. art. 2, § 25. ¶ 191 We agree that the instruction given misstated the law in effect at the time Moody committed his crimes and therefore constitutes error. See State v. Walker, 138 Ariz. 491, 494, 675 P.2d 1310, 1313 (1984) (finding an instruction that misstates the law is an error). Moreover, the change in A.R.S. § 13-503 was substantive because it deprived Moody of a defense that existed at the time he committed his crimes. Thus the Ex Post Facto Clauses of the United States and Arizona Constitutions require that the version of § 13-503 in effect at the time the crimes were committed be applied. See State v. Correll, 148 Ariz. 468, 481-82, 715 P.2d 721, 734-35 (1986) (finding that a change in a capital sentencing aggravating factor was a substantive change that required application of the version in effect at the time the offense was committed). ¶ 192 The error in giving the incorrect jury instruction was compounded by the prosecutor, who argued the improper instruction to the jury. He stated: just so we're clear, temporary intoxication is not insanity. That's not me saying that[;] you're going to get an instruction that says this: the fact he's using drugs and on drugs or withdrawing from drugs is not insanity.... It is not a defense and it is not insanity. ¶ 193 However, because Moody failed to object and our review is limited to fundamental error, we can reverse on this basis only if the error is of such dimensions that it deprived him of a fair trial. See Smith, 114 Ariz. at 420, 561 P.2d at 744. Because of the defenses asserted and the facts placed before the jury in this case, we do not find the error fundamental. ¶ 194 Throughout trial, the defense strategy was to distance Moody from drug use and show that the murders were the result of psychosis, not cocaine addiction or intoxication by drug use. Indeed, arguing against a State-proposed instruction on intoxication, defense counsel urged that the court could not give it because it was unsupported. He denied that there was any evidence of intoxication during the event. He noted that the only evidence that Moody was using drugs was Dora King's statement that Moody had smoked crack approximately seven days before the first murder. Thus, defense counsel argued, the jury was provided no evidence [Moody] was intoxicated at the time of the killings. While the State attempted to argue that evidence presented of Moody's past drug use suggested that the motive for committing the crimes was to get money to buy more cocaine, defense counsel argued that an instruction on intoxication would be inviting the jury to speculate where there is no evidence. Although there was substantial evidence of extensive drug use in the weeks before the murders, see supra ¶¶ 183-84, there was no evidence of intoxication at the time of the offense. ¶ 195 In urging that reversal is required here, Moody relies on State v. Hudson, 85 Ariz. 77, 331 P.2d 1092 (1958), in which we reversed the defendant's murder conviction and remanded for a new trial because the trial court failed to give an instruction on voluntary intoxication. The defendant in that case, however, expressly defended on the grounds that he lacked the requisite mental state because he was intoxicated, and, unlike Moody's case, in Hudson there was some evidence of intoxication at the time of the murders, as well as intoxication in the days preceding them. Id. The evidence indicated that the defendant had helped consume a total of two and three-fourths gallons or eleven quarts of wine on the day of the killing and the day preceding it. Id. at 81, 331 P.2d at 1095. In light of this evidence, we held that the trial court's failure to properly instruct the jury on the effect of intoxication deprived the defendant of an important right, which the law accorded him, to have the jury pass on the truthfulness of his story, and, if they believed that he was intoxicated to any extent to say whether such intoxication prevented him from entertaining the malice necessary to constitute murder in the second degree. Id. ¶ 196 In Moody's case, the defense attempted to defeat any evidence of drug use and consistently argued that there was no evidence that Moody used drugs near the time of the murders. Moody presented evidence throughout trial demonstrating that these crimes were caused by psychosis and not by cocaine. Nor did the State present any evidence that Moody was intoxicated at the time of the murders. As a result, instructing the jury regarding the effect of intoxication at the time of the murders did not negate a culpable mental state and did not render Moody's trial fundamentally unfair. Consequently, relief is denied on this ground.