Opinion ID: 1217596
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: issues relating to the preliminary hearing

Text: The defendant has raised three issues relating to his preliminary hearing: (1) did the district court have jurisdiction to conduct the preliminary hearing? (2) were the defendant's due process and confrontation rights violated by the admission of the opinion testimony of the ballistic expert at the preliminary hearing? and (3) was the defendant deprived of equal protection of the law by virtue of being unable to seek review in a superior court of the bind-over ruling after the preliminary hearing in district court? A. Jurisdiction of the district court to conduct a preliminary hearing. Because the defendant was seventeen years old at the time of the murder, a certification hearing was held in juvenile court to determine whether it should retain jurisdiction. The juvenile court ruled, pursuant to U.C.A., 1953, § 78-3a-25(1), that the defendant should be tried as an adult and certified the case to the district court. The statute provides that once a case is certified from juvenile court to district court, the child is to be held for criminal proceedings ... with a hearing before a committing magistrate to be held as in other felony cases. U.C.A., 1953, § 78-3a-25(1). A preliminary hearing was held by a district court judge sitting as a committing magistrate in March of 1982. The defendant claims that the district court judge was without authority to act as a committing magistrate because such a procedure violates the requirement of the statute that the hearing be held as in other felony cases. In other felony cases, preliminary hearings are conducted in circuit court. He also relies on the language of section 78-3a-25(9) (1977), which states that the juvenile court shall regain jurisdiction over a juvenile whose case is in the adult system when [a] magistrate of the circuit court determines that there is insufficient probable cause for the juvenile to stand trial on the allegation or amended allegations... . The defendant claims that the reference to a circuit court judge makes it clear that the statute contemplates that preliminary hearings in certified cases must be conducted in the circuit court. While we agree that the language cited supports the defendant's position, we do not agree that this indirect statutory reference constitutes a jurisdictional mandate. The general provisions contained in section 77-35-7 governing proceedings before magistrates do not preclude district court judges from sitting as magistrates. There is only one phrase contained in section 77-35-7(d)(3) that even refers to any of the courts. It says, If the magistrate orders the defendant bound over to the district court, the magistrate shall execute in writing a bind-over order and shall forthwith transmit to the clerk of the district court all pleadings in and records made of the proceedings before the magistrate... . Again, while the statute implies that magistrates will ordinarily sit in courts other than the district court, it does not contain any jurisdictional limitations. Furthermore, we are not inclined to read into any of the above statutes a jurisdictional limitation that is not explicit. In the definitional section of the Utah Code of Criminal Procedure, U.C.A., 1953, § 77-1-3, magistrate is specifically defined as a justice of the supreme court, a judge of the district courts, a judge of the juvenile courts, a judge of the circuit courts and a justice of the peace or a judge of any court created by law... . There is no indication that the use of the term magistrate in section 77-35-7 has a fundamental definition that is more narrow than that applicable in the rest of the Code. Section 78-4-5 (Supp. 1985) refers to some of the powers of a magistrate. In specifying that circuit court judges may exercise those powers, section 78-4-5 provides: The judge of the circuit court shall have and exercise the powers and jurisdiction of a magistrate, including proceedings for the preliminary examination to determine probable cause... . The foregoing language, in conjunction with the statutory definition of the term magistrate, makes it clear that circuit court judges do not have exclusive jurisdiction to conduct preliminary examinations. Whether the statutes intended that preliminary examinations in cases involving juveniles certified for trial as adults be conducted in the circuit courts rather than in the district courts is uncertain, since the statutes contain several ambiguities. But there can be no uncertainty about the fundamental jurisdiction of a district court judge to sit as a magistrate and conduct a preliminary examination for purposes of determining probable cause for a bind-over for trial on felony charges. We believe that the language of U.C.A., 1953, § 78-3-4 is conclusive on that issue: The district court shall have original jurisdiction in all matters civil and criminal, not excepted in the Constitution and not prohibited by law.... (Emphasis added.) Thus the circuit and district courts have concurrent jurisdiction to conduct preliminary hearings. B. Admission of expert ballistics testimony at the preliminary hearing. The defendant objected at the preliminary hearing to the admission of the opinion testimony of the ballistics expert on the ground that there was inadequate foundation to permit proper cross-examination. Peterson, a ballistics expert with the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms, testified that he had compared a bullet fired from the alleged murder weapon with bullets taken from the body of Franklin Bradshaw, the victim. Peterson testified that his comparison showed that the test bullet and one of the other bullets matched in their caliber and in the striations created by the passage of the bullets through the gun barrel. Peterson then stated that in his opinion the match indicated that the two bullets were fired by the same gun. Peterson was, however, unable at the preliminary hearing to give an exact description of the striations, nor did he have photographs of them available with him in court. Peterson's testimony was properly admitted at the preliminary hearing if that testimony was permissible under the then-applicable provisions of the Utah Rules of Evidence and if the admission of the testimony did not in any way infringe upon the defendant's constitutional right to be confronted by the witnesses against him. The Utah statute governing preliminary hearings requires that the rules of evidence for trial of criminal cases be applied to preliminary examinations, with the exception of certain hearsay evidence. U.C.A., 1953, § 77-35-7(d)(1). The defendant claims that the admission of Peterson's opinion testimony violated Rule 56(2) of the Utah Rules of Evidence. That rule states: If the witness is testifying as an expert, testimony of the witness in the form of opinion or inferences is limited to such opinions as the judge finds are (a) based on facts or data perceived by or personally known or made known to the witness at the hearing and (b) within the scope of the special knowledge, skill, experience or training possessed by the witness. There is no question that Peterson's testimony was within the scope of his special knowledge as a ballistics expert, and the defendant does not claim otherwise. Furthermore, the court found that Peterson's opinion was based on facts perceived by or personally known to the witness, a finding supported by the evidence. The defendant argues that Peterson's failure to produce photographs of the bullets examined or to give a description of the striations on the bullets constituted a violation of Rule 56(2) because it constituted a failure to present the facts upon which the expert's opinion was based. Although there are no Utah cases concerning foundational requirements for ballistics testimony, this Court has dealt with such requirements for other types of expert testimony. See State v. Lairby, Utah, 699 P.2d 1187, 1200-01 (1984) (opinion testimony of child abuse expert); Edwards v. Didericksen, Utah, 597 P.2d 1328, 1330-31 (1979) (opinion of police officer as to cause of accident he investigated); Day v. Lorenzo Smith & Son, Inc., 17 Utah 2d 221, 408 P.2d 186 (1965). In Day, this Court considered the admission of an opinion from an expert in accident reconstruction and approved it  when a proper foundation for the opinion has been laid.  17 Utah 2d at 223, 408 P.2d at 189. (Emphasis in original.) The Court in that case determined that the expert had not observed the actual impact and that his opinion of the precise point of impact therefore had to be based upon facts derived from his investigation. The Court then found that it was error to admit the opinion, because it was not based on facts personally known to the expert. The circumstances in this case are different from Day for two reasons. First, Peterson's opinion that the two bullets were fired from the same gun was based on his personal observations of the marks on the two bullets, rather than upon a review of second-hand data. Second, Peterson's opinion was supported by facts relating directly to the opinion  he saw the two bullets together and was therefore able to form an opinion based on personal knowledge. Cases in other jurisdictions generally support the admissibility of expert testimony of ballistics tests without photographs. See, e.g., Commonwealth v. Ellis, 373 Mass. 1, 364 N.E.2d 808, 812 (1977) (expert ballistics testimony admissible although not accompanied by comparison photographs); State v. White, La., 321 So.2d 491, 496 (1975) (comparison photographs not required); People v. Buckowski, 37 Cal.2d 629, 233 P.2d 912, 913 (1951) (oral testimony without photographs sufficient for opinion of ballistics expert). Peterson's inability at preliminary hearing to remember the exact nature of the striations would not require the exclusion of the evidence in most other jurisdictions, the general rule being that uncertainty on the part of an expert goes to weight rather than to admissibility. Shurtleff v. Jay Tuft & Co., Utah, 622 P.2d 1168, 1173 (1980) (opinion that machine is improperly maintained without foundation of specific acts of abuse permitted with the jury to decide what weight it deserved); Willard v. State, Alaska App., 662 P.2d 971, 974-75 (1983) (fact that expert couldn't remember if he personally had performed medical test goes to weight, not admissibility); State v. Kelly, 111 Ariz. 181, 187-88, 526 P.2d 720, 727 (1974), cert. denied, 420 U.S. 935, 95 S.Ct. 1143, 43 L.Ed.2d 411 (1975) (lack of exactness in expert testimony linking defendant's shoe with footprint goes to weight, not admissibility); State v. Wasinger, 220 Kan. 599, 605, 556 P.2d 189, 194 (1976) (inability of police expert to identify positively a screwdriver as the item which made marks at the scene of an attempted burglary affected weight, not admissibility). The defendant's position is that he was denied the right guaranteed to him by the Utah Constitution to confront witnesses against him because he could not effectively cross-examine Peterson without access to photographs or a specific description of the similarities between the two bullets to which Peterson testified. The defendant mistakenly relies on State v. Anderson, Utah, 612 P.2d 778 (1980). Anderson held that the Utah Constitution's right to confrontation was violated when the prosecution in a criminal case based its showing of probable cause on hearsay evidence. Id. at 786. In the instant case, however, the defendant was able to attack the credibility of the witness and the strength of his testimony. As the Anderson opinion notes: The prosecution is not required to introduce its entire case at the hearing but, rather, need only introduce that quantum of evidence necessary to surmount [its] burden of proving probable cause. The recognition of the right of confrontation at the preliminary examination merely demands [that] the prosecution's use of hearsay at the hearing may not circumvent the defendant's substantive rights to a fair hearing and a fair trial, by denying the defendant an opportunity to cross-examine the witnesses who offer testimony at the hearing. 612 P.2d at 786. In this case, the defendant was not denied the opportunity to cross-examine Peterson. Anderson must be distinguished from the instant case because the evidence offered in Anderson was clearly inadmissible at trial. Here, the defendant's objections go to the weight of the evidence, not to its admissibility. The State properly met its burden of showing probable cause at the preliminary hearing and did so with competent, admissible evidence. C. Denial of equal protection. The defendant raises an equal protection argument related to the fact that his preliminary examination was conducted in district court rather than in circuit court, claiming that he has been denied the right to review of the bind-over order by a superior court, a right which is afforded to all adult defendants whose preliminary hearings are conducted in circuit rather than in district court. We treat this argument summarily. Section 77-35-26(b)(3) provides that an appeal may be taken by the defendant [f]rom an interlocutory order when, upon petition for review, the supreme court decides that such an appeal would be in the interest of justice... . That statute governs all appeals from bind-over orders entered in any court. The defendant had the same right to seek review as does any other criminal defendant, and no equal protection problem arises.