Court Opinion

ID: 9844669
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:06:26.806961+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:15:39.850630
License: Public Domain

JOHNSON, J.,
specially concurring.
YI.
WITHHOLDING OF EXCULPATORY EVIDENCE BY PROSECUTION
On May 15, 1987, the defense filed a request for discovery, asking for “[a]ll *605Bingham County and/or Blackfoot City Police Reports or investigative materials relative to the Stacy Baldwin homicide which is alleged to have occurred in Bingham County.” On July 2, 1987, the prosecution filed a Supplemental Response to Defendant’s Discovery Request, listing the items that it had provided pursuant to the discovery request, including “[a]ll Bingham County and/or Blackfoot City Police Reports” relative to the Baldwin case.
Part of the materials submitted to the defense in this exchange was a supplementary police report by Detective Newbold of the Blackfoot Police Department, which detailed the confession of Kevin Buckholz to the killing of Stacy Baldwin. Buckholz had been arrested by Blackfoot Police Officer Love on March 14, 1987, for drunk and disorderly conduct. Love’s brief report indicated that Buckholz stated he had “killed the girl at the mini barn.” Later, while he was in the holding tank, Buckholz initiated conversation with Officer Larry Christian. Christian filled out the following report of the conversation:
[A] prisoner in the holding tank started talking to me (Kevin Buckholt) [sic] said he “had problems and needed to be put away cause he couldn’t function in the regular world,” he then proceeded to tell me he shot a girl twice in the back. I said what girl and he said “You know the one from the mini barn.” I then asked how many shots did you fire, he said “I don’t know I shot several times, I hit her in the back twice.” ... I then asked him what kind of gun he used and he said “a ‘38’ then said no a ‘9’ mm I think.” ...
Christian reported the incident to Detective Newbold, who summarized the statement in his own report. That report was provided to defense counsel for Rhoades pursuant to the discovery request for Blackfoot police reports.
Newbold’s report mentions Christian’s written report and outlines that report in detail. However, neither Christian’s nor Love’s report was provided to the defense. On appeal, Rhoades argues that the prosecution’s compliance with the discovery request was inadequate and in violation of the prosecutor’s duty to turn over all exculpatory evidence to the defense.
Although this appeal concerns the conviction for the murder of Nolan Haddon, Buckholz’s confession is significant because the killings of Haddon and Baldwin were linked by ballistic evidence establishing that the same murder weapon was used in the commission of both crimes.
The test by which to measure the prosecutor’s duty to disclose evidence is the materiality of the information at issue. The determination of “materiality” is guided by whether the information tends to create a reasonable doubt about guilt, State v. Brown, 98 Idaho 209, 560 P.2d 880 (1977), or is otherwise “obviously of such substantial value to the defense that elementary fairness requires it to be disclosed even without a specific request.” United States v. Agurs, 427 U.S. 97, 110, 96 S.Ct. 2392, 2401, 49 L.Ed.2d 342 (1975).
We do not believe that the outcome of the trial would have been different had the defense received the two other police reports. Officer Newbold’s report provided enough detail to stimulate additional inquiry if the defense had been inclined to do so. The defense had the information that there was a confession to the Baldwin murder, the identity of the confessor, the details of the confession, and the name of the officer who heard the confession. With that information they could have contacted Officer Christian and Kevin Buckholz and determined from them whether the confession was worth pursuing. The defense claims that had they received the two additional reports from the prosecution then they would have made more of an effort to locate Buckholz. We believe that the defense could have made that determination without the other two police reports.
BAKES, C.J., JOHNSON, J., and SCHROEDER and REINHARDT, JJ., Pro Tern., concur.
VII.
FORM OF WEAPONS ENHANCEMENT CHARGES
Rhoades contends that the prosecution’s decision to charge weapons en*606hancements as separate counts in the indictment was prejudicial, in that it would lead a jury to believe that Rhoades was charged with additional crimes. He argues that I.C. § 19-2520, which allows enhanced sentences for the use of a firearm or deadly weapon in the commission of certain felonies, does not create a separate substantive crime, and should not be permitted to be present in the information in a format which could lend the impression that it constitutes a separate crime.
The statute specifically provides that a person convicted of certain enumerated felonies “who displayed, used, threatened, or attempted to use a firearm or other deadly weapon while committing the crime, shall, be sentenced to an extended term of imprisonment.” I.C. § 19-2520. In order to impose this additional term, the defendant must be “separately charged in the information or indictment and admitted by the accused or found to be true by the trier of fact____” The trial court followed the explicit language of the statute. This was not error.
BAKES, C.J., JOHNSON, J., and SCHROEDER and REINHARDT, JJ., Pro Tern., concur.
VIII.
CONCLUSION
Rhoades entered a conditional guilty plea to the murder of Nolan Haddon pursuant to Idaho Criminal Rule 11. That rule provides that if the appeal of issues raised in the conditional plea is successful, the defendant shall be entitled to withdraw the guilty plea and stand trial.
Our analysis has established no issue that constitutes reversible error thus permitting withdrawal of the plea entered by this appellant.