Court Opinion

ID: 9761316
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 01:38:39.979538+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:22.247796
License: Public Domain

VOIGT, Justice,
specially concurring.
[d53] I concur in the result in this well-reasoned majority opinion, and I agree with nearly all of its analysis. I write separately only to address a particular point. Plainly stated, it is beyond me why the State did not offer Trooper Badura as an expert witness under W.R.E. 702 and offer some form of Wyoming Criminal Pattern Jury Instruction No. 6.08A (2004), which instruction tells the jury how to consider the opinion of an expert witness. The record clearly reflects that Trooper Badura is an expert in the field of accident investigation, and all of his opinions about the accident, including the position of the occupants within the vehicle, would have been admissible had he testified as an expert. It is true that opinion testimony as to the guilt of a defendant is inadmissible, whether from a lay witness or an expert witness. Bennett v. State, 794 P.2d 879, 881 (Wyo.1990). That prohibition is not based upon the fact that "guilt" is the ultimate issue, but upon the fact that the determination of guilt is a mixed question of law and fact that is the jury's province. Stephens v. State, 774 P.2d 60, 66-67 (Wyo.1989), overruled in part on other grounds by Large v. State, 2008 WY 22, ¶ 30, 177 P.3d 807, 816 (Wyo.2008). The law in Wyoming is as follows:
The selection of the particular testimony to which Saldana now objects suggests he would have us extend the holding in Stephens to reach, and exclude, all opinion testimony, expert or not, on any issue that could go to proving an element of the crime charged. Saldana's view is that any analysis offered by a witness on the evidence presented at trial is equivalent to a direct, and thus impermissible, comment on the defendant's guilt. We are not inclined to accept this premise, especially in light of the provisions of Wyo.R.Evid. 702 that permit opinion evidence even on an ultimate issue. Stephens; McCabe v. R.A. Manning Constr. Co., 674 P.2d 699 (Wyo.1983). An interpretation of the evidence by a witness, even though that interpretation may be important in establishing an element of the crime and thus leading to the inference of guilt, is not in the same category as an actual conclusional statement on the guilt or innocence of the accused party. We are particularly firm in this determination if the record demonstrates the proffered opinion was helpful to the jury in determining the facts of the case and was elicited for that reason. Wyo.R.Evid. 702.
Saldana v. State, 846 P.2d 604, 616-17 (Wyo.1993).
[d54] An expert in the field of accident investigation or reconstruction, particularly one who investigated the scene immediately after the accident and who interviewed the pre-accident witnesses, may opine as to the position of the occupants in the vehicle, assuming that he or she is able to testify as to a sufficient basis for that opinion. That is what should have happened here.