Court Opinion

ID: 9781321
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 16:31:07.732585+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:09:33.997836
License: Public Domain

JAMES, District Judge,
dissenting.
[¶ 17] I respectfully dissent because I do not believe the district court has jurisdiction over a case where the defendant has not had a preliminary hearing in circuit court and has not properly waived his right to that hearing under the rules. Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 7-8-105 (LexisNexis 2007) entitled “Right to preliminary hearing” states, “In all eases triable in district court, except upon indictment, the defendant is entitled to a preliminary hearing.” Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 5-9-132(b) (Lexis-Nexis 2007) states, “Preliminary examinations for persons charged with a felony shall be conducted by the circuit court judge or magistrate.” (Emphasis added.) W.R.Cr.P. 5.1, Preliminary examination, sets forth the procedures for fulfilling those statutory requirements as follows:
(a) Right. — In all cases required to be tried in the district court, except upon indictment, the defendant shall be entitled to a preliminary examination in the circuit court. The defendant may waive preliminary examination but the waiver must be written or on the record. If the preliminary examination is waived, the case shall be transferred to district court for further proceedings.
(b) Probable cause finding. — If from the evidence it appears that there is probable cause to believe that the charged offense or lesser included offense has been committed and that the defendant committed it, the judicial officer shall enter an order so finding and the case shall be transferred to the district court for further proceedings....
(Emphasis added.)
[¶ 18] Reading these rules together, it is clear that a preliminary hearing is not only a right of every defendant, but also the mechanism by which the circuit court transfers jurisdiction to the appropriate district court. The rule allows the circuit court to accept adequate waiver of the right to a preliminary hearing as an alternate way for the case properly to be transferred to the district court. The record in this case shows that Appellant did not waive his right to a preliminary hearing in circuit court in writing or on the record. There is no evidence that Appellant was even informed of his right to a preliminary hearing on the charge for which he was eventually convicted. In fact, the record shows that the charge for which Appellant was convicted never went through circuit court at all, and so was never properly transferred to a district court for trial. The Trujillo case cited by the majority was a challenge involving alleged defects in the preliminary hearing. Trujillo v. State, 880 P.2d 575, 581-82 (Wyo.1994). That case determined that defects in a hearing were waived if not raised before trial, but did not address a total lack of such a hearing. Id. at 582. It is that important procedural defect that raises jurisdictional concerns here.
[¶ 19] The purpose of a preliminary hearing is to determine whether there is probable cause to believe that the charged offense, or some lesser included offense, has been committed, and that the defendant committed the offense. W.R.Cr.P. 5.1. This standard must be met in order to justify a trial on the merits. The burden of establishing the propriety of bind-over for a trial is on the prosecution. Garcia v. State, 667 P.2d 1148, 1154 (Wyo.1983). The circuit court’s determination of probable cause must be reviewed from *1086the information available at the time of the hearing, and not from events or facts that come to light afterward. “The question of probable cause must be determined as of the time that the prosecution was instituted. It depends upon the facts as they apparently existed at that time, and not upon the ultimate determination of the facts.” Henning v. Milter, 44 Wyo. 114, 8 P.2d 825, 829 (1932). Henning was a malicious prosecution case but the same principle is evident in our manner of review of other determinations of probable cause in criminal law. See, e.g., Holzheuser v. State, 2007 WY 160, ¶ 6, 169 P.3d 68, 74 (Wyo.2007) (only affidavit in front of court at time of determination may be considered in review of probable cause); Mascarenas v. State, 2003 WY 124, ¶ 10, 76 P.3d 1258, 1262 (Wyo.2003) (probable cause to be viewed “from the vantage point of a prudent, reasonable, cautious police officer on the scene at the time of the arrest”) (emphasis added, citation omitted).
[¶ 20] In light of the above-quoted precedent, I find the logic adopted by this Court in Trujillo unpersuasive. See supra ¶ 19. The reasoning in Trujillo is that a guilty verdict somehow “cures” the failure to find probable cause to bind a defendant over to trial. Trujillo, 880 P.2d at 582-83. By that logic, a search based on a faulty warrant would be upheld as long as it yielded evidence, because the fact that evidence was present would “cure” the lack of probable cause for the underlying search warrant. That is inconsistent with basic constitutional principles, as well as our own jurisprudence on the issue of probable cause. I would dismiss this case for lack of jurisdiction, because this Court cannot have jurisdiction over an appeal where the district court never acquired jurisdiction over the matter.