Opinion ID: 1264824
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The Statement of the Case Read to the Venire Was Proper

Text: Elmore asserts he was denied due process because the agreed statement of the case read to the panel at the beginning of voir dire misstated the evidence and constituted an impermissible judicial comment on the evidence. We disagree. First, the defense proposed the statement of facts and its presentation to the venire at the beginning of voir dire. As Elmore proposed such presentation, assisted in its drafting, and agreed to its content, he cannot now be heard to complain the trial court did as he requested. In Gentry, we held: We will adhere to our normal use of the invited error doctrine, but will review any invited instructional error in connection with an ineffectiveness of counsel argument ... Gentry, 125 Wash.2d at 646, 888 P.2d 1105. See also State v. Henderson, 114 Wash.2d 867, 869-70, 792 P.2d 514 (1990) (an invited error will not be reviewed on appeal even if it meets the standard for review under RAP 2.5); State v. Pam, 101 Wash.2d 507, 511, 680 P.2d 762 (1984) (a party is prohibited from setting up an error at trial and then complaining of it on appeal), overruled on other grounds by State v. Olson, 126 Wash.2d 315, 321, 893 P.2d 629 (1995); State v. Boyer, 91 Wash.2d 342, 345, 588 P.2d 1151 (1979) (party may not challenge on appeal an instruction which it proposed). Here, Elmore makes no assertion of ineffective assistance of counsel regarding this issue. Thus, under Gentry, consideration of such error, if any, is barred by the invited error doctrine. [7] Moreover, the agreed statement did not misstate the evidence, but was a faithful summation of Elmore's rambling confession. Elmore now claims two phrases contained in the agreed statement are inaccurate: He [Elmore] forcibly removed her clothing[,] 4 Report of Proceedings at 441, and the last sentence which reads Mr. Elmore said in his confession that the threat of disclosure cost Kristy Ohnstad her life. 4 Report of Proceedings at 441-42. Regarding the first statement, the record shows Kristy was not cooperative and Elmore forced himself on her. Elmore admits he raped, choked, and killed his stepdaughter. The events he described in his confession do not indicate a willing victim. He confessed he pulled her to the back of his van by the shirt, and told her to take off her clothes or she was going to get hurt. She did not, so Elmore took her clothes off[.] Clerk's Papers at 215. She was [c]rying, trying to talk her way out of it. Id. When asked if she fought, Elmore replied, She wasn't strong enough to fight me. Clerk's Papers at 216. The record supports the agreed statement that Elmore forcibly removed her clothing. The second asserted misstatement relates to questions and comments during Elmore's confession. Elmore: Monday morning I woke her up, made her read the note, that her mother had left her. Took KAYLA to daycare. Come back and picked her up. Instead of taking her to school, I drove her out to south Lake Samish, where you found her. Choked her. Raped her. Killed her. Detective: Is that something you planned on doing ahead of time, or is it, or did something cause it to happen? Elmore: When she was about 5, I molested her. She's used that as a threat over my head. Many, many times. Every time she gets mad at me. I guess I just snapped and did it. Detective: Did she use this threat over your head quite often? Elmore: About every six months. Detective: When was the last time? Did she threaten you that morning, she was going to turn you in? Elmore: No. Detective: When was the last time prior to that? Or the time just prior to this incident? Elmore: Probably a week before. Detective: What led to those events, that she made that threat? Elmore: Every time I try to discipline her, if she didn't like it. I wish she would've turned me in. Cost her her life. Trashed everybody around her. Trashed life [sic], SUE's life, KAYLA's life, my life. Detective: After the last threat, did the idea come in that you can't have this hanging over your head anymore, and if she does this, I'm not sure what I'm going to do? Or did you think, maybe, that you might kill her to..? Elmore: I, I just did it. Detective: Okay. Elmore: The thought had been there before. Detective: Was it .... when the thought was there before, did you, was there, at that time, a plan on how you would go about doing it, even though you didn't carry it out? Elmore: I thought about doing it before. I never really laid any plans. Detective: Was it just. had you thought about it just one time before, or every so often when you really get angry? Elmore: Just about every time I get threatened with it. Clerk's Papers at 204-05. This colloquy indicates Elmore was tired of being threatened by his stepdaughter with disclosure of his prior molestation; he had frequently contemplated doing something about the problem, and he finally did. In saying the threat of disclosure cost the victim her life, the agreed statement accurately conveys the gist of Elmore's lamentation about the rationale for his actions. Elmore's complaints regarding the agreed statement of the case or the circumstances of its presentation to the venire are groundless, particularly in light of his counsel's participation in its creation. [8]