Court Opinion

ID: 9548094
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:57:20.83169+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:18:27.488617
License: Public Domain

HALL, Chief Justice
(dissenting):
I do not join the opinion of the Court because it violates the cardinal rule of appellate review that precludes this Court from substituting its judgment for that of the jury on issues of fact.1
When faced with a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence, this Court is bound by the following standard of review:
*1227This Court will not lightly overturn the findings of a jury. We must view the evidence properly presented at trial in the light most favorable to the jury’s verdict, and will only interfere when the evidence is so lacking and insubstantial that a reasonable man could not possibly have reached a verdict beyond a reasonable doubt. We also view in a light most favorable to the jury’s verdict those facts which can be reasonably inferred from the evidence presented to it. “Thus, intent to commit [a crime] ... may be found from proof of facts from which it reasonably could be believed that such was the defendant’s intent.”2
Thus, this Court has the prerogative to determine the sufficiency of the evidence, but it must view the evidence and all reasonable inferences to be drawn from it in a light most favorable to the jury verdict.3 We are therefore precluded from assuming the role of fact finder or from surveying the evidence and drawing independent conclusions as to its weight, sufficiency and effect.
The facts of this case, when viewed in a light most favorable to the jury verdict, adequately support defendant’s conviction of second degree murder.
Defendant admits that he caused the death of Kaysie Sorensen by strangulation. During his initial interrogation by investigating officers prior to his arrest, defendant lied about his involvement in the death of Sorensen, claiming that he simply dropped her off at Mark Anger’s apartment without going in. Following his arrest, three days after the killing, defendant made an oral statement that was recorded and thereafter reduced to writing. The statement recites that defendant took Sor-ensen to Anger’s apartment where they listened to music and danced and that each consumed a sufficient amount of whiskey to inebriate them. In his words, he became “pretty high” and Sorensen became “intoxicated.” Thereafter, they engaged in a single act of intercourse lasting a “half hour maybe. Maybe less ... when we got done she got kinda weird like. I ... uh, indignant, I don’t know what the word is.” Defendant then pulled the radio cord from the wall and wrapped it around Sorensen’s neck once. When asked if Sorensen did anything, he responded: “Nothin’ ... she just laid there ... she wasn’t really all the way passed out but she was more or less, I guess. [I] just started pullin’ on it ... it only seemed like just a second. And then it was over." In response to a question whether defendant thought Sorensen knew what he was doing when he put the electrical cord around her neck, he stated: “I hope not. I don’t know. I just hope not.” When asked if she fought back, he responded: “No.” Defendant then emptied Sorensen’s purse on the floor, but found no money; pulled a sheet over her head; stole a stereo set and left the premises.
Defendant’s testimony at trial, nearly a year later, materially contradicted his prior written statement in several respects. He testified that they engaged in sexual intercourse about five minutes without climaxing. He stopped to rest, and Sorensen asked him not to stop. She rolled over and picked up the radio and set it down next to her, and they again engaged in intercourse. He opened his eyes and Sorensen had the cord around her neck. She was holding the cord and said, “Pull.” While lying on top of Sorensen, he took the cord in his hands, pulled it tight “like tying your shoes” for a period of “fifteen-twenty seconds,” all the while continuing the act of intercourse from which he climaxed. This he supposedly accomplished while deprived of the leverage of his arms and hands that were otherwise utilized in pulling on the cord. After climaxing, he relaxed and remained lying atop Sorensen for about a minute. He then rolled off, saw a “strange, weird” look on Sorensen’s face, became scared, emptied her purse, took the stereo and left.
*1228Defendant further testified that he lied in his prior written statement in order to avoid the death penalty for rape-murder, he being of the opinion that the truth was so bizarre that it was unbelievable.
An autopsy was performed by the state medical examiner. He testified that he found ligature abrasions encircling the victim’s neck, scratches on her right cheek consistent with fingernail scratches, bruises on the back of the left hand and top of the right foot, and hemorrhages in the skin around the eyes, chin and in front of the right ear. His expert opinion was that the cause of death was strangulation by ligature.
The medical examiner described the process of ligature strangulation, explaining that application of pressure cuts off blood to the brain, closes the airways to the lungs, and slows the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. He testified that significant pressure on the ligature would have to be applied continuously for a minimum of 30 seconds to 2V2 minutes to cause death if there was no attempt to resuscitate the victim. Unconsciousness would occur 5 to 10 seconds after pressure was applied, and the victim’s natural reaction would be to struggle, even after becoming unconscious. He stated that the ligature was applied only once to the victim’s neck. He further testified that it is impossible for a person to strangle himself with a ligature because unconsciousness would result before enough pressure to cause death could be exerted. He classified the manner of death as a homicide.
The chief medical examiner of San Francisco County, California, testified on behalf of the defendant. The examiner represented himself as having acquired an expertise in the area of asphyxia during sexual practice, advising that restricting the flow of oxygen and blood to the brain as a means of sexual gratification was not uncommon in California, particularly in the area of San Francisco. He considered the autopsy photographs and the facts as related by the defendant and concluded that Sorensen was accidentally strangled during intercourse. He testified that the amount of pressure applied to Sorensen’s neck by use of the cord was not great, but also acknowledged that the degree of pressure applied was not indicative of whether the killing was accidental or intentional. He also testified that the act of placing a ligature around the neck is intentional and that it always poses a danger to life, particularly so when the victim is intoxicated. Soren-sen had a blood-alcohol level of .22% at the time of the autopsy.
The factual issue thus presented to the jury for its determination was concise and unambiguous. Did the defendant kill Sor-ensen intentionally or accidentally? Wherein did the truth lie between defendant’s two conflicting accounts of the death?
As was its prerogative as fact finder, the jury chose to accept as truth defendant’s initial written statement that clearly depicted an intentional act on his part that caused the death of Sorensen. That statement, coupled with the totality of the evidence, including the testimony of the Utah state medical examiner, the autopsy, and the evidence at the scene of the crime, is wholly consistent with an intentional killing and adequately supports the jury verdict.
The fact that the two medical experts had differing opinions as to whether death .was caused intentionally is commonplace and of no particular significance. Jurors need only consider the opinions of experts and weigh the reasons, if any, given for them. However, they are not bound by such opinions. They may give them the weight they deem them to be entitled to and may reject them entirely if, in their judgment, the reasons given for them are unsound. The jury appropriately was so instructed in this case.
In any event, under the facts peculiar to this case, it was only the defendant who knew the true circumstances that caused the death of Sorensen. Again, it was the prerogative of the jury, and not this Court, to carefully and conscientiously consider and compare all of the testimony and all of the facts and circumstances having a bearing on the issues and to determine from *1229them what the facts were. The jury was not bound to believe all of the testimony unless it was reasonable and convincing in light of all of the facts and circumstances. Furthermore, since the defendant was known to have made false statements on one occasion and at trial he professed to have lied about the content of his prior written statement, his trial testimony was certainly suspect. Under those circumstances, the jurors were entitled to disregard the whole of the defendant’s testimony given at trial or give it only the weight they deemed it was entitled to.
The jury clearly chose to accept defendant’s version of the facts of death as set forth in his written statement as being the most trustworthy. That statement is adequately supported by the totality of the evidence, and this Court should not be disposed to conclude otherwise.
I would affirm the conviction and judgment of the trial court.
ZIMMERMAN, J., does not participate herein.

. State v. Lamm, Utah, 606 P.2d 229, 231 (1980).

. State v. McCardell, Utah, 652 P.2d 942, 945 (1982) (citations omitted). See also State v. Romero, Utah, 554 P.2d 216, 218 (1976); State v. Lamm, supra note 1, at 231.

. Id.