Court Opinion

ID: 9568034
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:00:11.875934+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:24:17.143614
License: Public Domain

OPINION
MOELLER, Justice.
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
On May 20, 1994, Timothy Sterns’ truck was stolen from his place of employment. Six days later, a police detective told defendant, Mario Amado Terrazas, that he thought there were stolen vehicles on defendant’s property. When defendant gave the detective permission to look around, the detective found the frame and glove box of Sterns’ truck, both of which contained the truck’s vehicle identification number. On a later *581date, Sterns identified more parts of his truck among items that had been found on defendant’s property. When the detective asked defendant about the pieces to Sterns’ truck, defendant claimed that he had been gone for four days and, while he was away, the vehicle parts had been left on his property by an unknown individual.
Defendant waived his right to a jury trial. The state sought to introduce evidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts, and defendant sought to exclude such evidence. The trial court stated that it would receive the evidence subject to a later ruling on admissibility.
The state proceeded to offer evidence of three earlier incidents which it alleged showed defendant had committed earlier criminal acts with which he had never been charged. The first involved a 1985 Chevrolet Blazer S-10 owned by Tommy Medina that was stolen in March 1998. At that time, a friend of Medina’s saw someone driving Medina’s truck onto defendant’s property. The next day, Medina and the friend went with police onto defendant’s property and located parts belonging to Medina’s vehicle.
The second item involved Jennifer Vasquez’ 1991 Chevrolet S-10 truck that had been stolen in 1992, two years before the truck involved in this case was stolen. When the Vasquez truck was stolen, there were several items in it, including a maroon backpack containing library books. While searching defendant’s property in connection with the present case, a detective found a maroon backpack and three library books. He seized the books but not the backpack. The books proved to be the library books that had been in Vasquez’ truck when it was stolen. No other connection between Vasquez’ truck and defendant was shown.
The third item of alleged bad act evidence involved Richard Estrada’s stolen truck. A police detective showed Estrada pictures of items found on defendant’s property to determine whether they were parts of Estrada’s truck. Estrada, however, could not make any positive identification.
At the end of the trial, the court relied on the other act evidence regarding Medina’s Blazer and the books from Vasquez’ truck, but disregarded evidence regarding Estrada’s truck because of the lack of evidence connecting it to defendant.
The trial court found defendant guilty of class four felony theft, suspended his sentence, and placed defendant on probation. The court of appeals affirmed. We granted review and have jurisdiction pursuant to Arizona Constitution article VI, section 5(3) and Arizona Rules of Criminal Procedure 31.19.
ISSUE
In Arizona, what level of proof is required to show prior bad acts in a criminal case, assuming such evidence is otherwise admissible?
DISCUSSION
We granted review in this case to consider the level of proof trial judges should apply in determining whether to admit evidence of prior bad acts in a criminal case. We emphasize that this is a criminal case and is not intended to apply to civil cases, which present different considerations. This opinion assumes that all of the prerequisites for admission of the prior bad acts have been met and the only question remaining is with regard to the proper level of proof required for admission of those acts. At the trial court level, the defense argued for an admissibility standard similar to the standard set forth in State v. Hughes, 102 Ariz. 118, 426 P.2d 386 (1967). The defense stated that “there needs to be enough evidence of the prior bad act or wrong to survive a directed verdict.” The trial judge, on the other hand, applied a standard closer to the preponderance standard enunciated in Huddleston v. United States, 485 U.S. 681, 108 S.Ct. 1496, 99 L.Ed.2d 771 (1988). The trial judge státed that the only amount of evidence necessary was “enough to link the defendant to what’s going on.” He did not require “substantial evidence or beyond a reasonable doubt,” or enough evidence to “get past a directed verdict.”
On appeal, the court of appeals noted that although this court had never affirmatively adopted the Huddleston preponderance stan*582dard, we had referred to the Huddleston case in some of our opinions. State v. Terra-zas, 187 Ariz. 387, 390, 930 P.2d 464, 467 (App.1996). The court of appeals then applied Huddleston, holding that evidence of prior acts may be admitted “if the profferer produces sufficient proof to permit a fact-finder to conclude, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the prior act occurred and that the party against whom the evidence is offered committed the act.” Id. Upon consideration, we do not agree with the preponderance standard set forth in Huddleston, but hold that the standard to be applied to prior bad acts evidence is that set forth in Hughes, requiring proof by clear and convincing evidence.
Evidence of prior bad acts committed by a defendant is usually inadmissible at trial. Ariz. R. Evid. 404(b); see Hughes, 102 Ariz. at 122, 426 P.2d at 390; State v. Garcia, 96 Ariz. 203, 205, 393 P.2d 668, 670 (1964). However, evidence of prior bad acts may be admissible to establish “motive, intent, absence of mistake or accident, identity and common scheme or plan.” Hughes, 102 Ariz. at 122, 426 P.2d at 390; Ariz. R. Evid. 404(b).1 The issue presented in this case is by what standard these prior bad acts must be proved to be admissible against the defendant in a criminal case.
The first case to set forth the standard in Arizona was State v. Hughes. 102 Ariz. at 122-23, 426 P.2d at 390-91. In Hughes, this court noted that the overwhelming majority of other states required the proof to be “clear,” or “clear and convincing,” or that there must be “substantial proof’ that the other crime was committed by the defendant. Id. The court stated that, whether the standard is given by any of these phrases, “the test appears to be that the proof both as to the commission of another crime and its commission by the defendant, must be by.‘substantial evidence sufficient to take the case to a jury.’ ” Id. at 123, 426 P.2d at 391 (quoting State v. Hyde, 234 Mo. 200,136 S.W. 316, 331 (1911)). This court has subsequently cited and followed Hughes. See, e.g., State v. Valles, 162 Ariz. 1, 5, 780 P.2d 1049, 1053 (1989); State v. McGann, 132 Ariz. 296, 298, 645 P.2d 811, 813 (1982).
In 1977, Arizona adopted the Federal Rules of Evidence. Even so, “we are not bound by the United States Supreme Court’s non-constitutional construction of the Federal Rules of Evidence when we construe the Arizona Rules of Evidence.” State v. Bible, 175 Ariz. 549, 580, 858 P.2d 1152, 1183 (1993). The United States Supreme Court interpreted the standard of proof required to allow evidence of prior bad acts under Federal Rules of Evidence 104(b)2 in Huddleston, 485 U.S. at 689-91, 108 S.Ct. at 1501-02. The standard adopted by the Supreme Court differs from the standard set forth in Hughes. Huddleston only requires a jury to be able to find the conditional fact by a preponderance of the evidence. Id. Hughes requires the judge to find the conditional fact by “substantial evidence sufficient to take the case to a jury.” 102 Ariz. at 123, 426 P.2d at 391 (quoting Hyde, 136 S.W. at 331). Because both Huddleston and Hughes have been cited by this court, a question has arisen as to which standard should now be used in Arizona. We clarify that we did not adopt the preponderance standard set forth in Huddleston. Rather, we adhere to Hughes and clarify that, for prior bad acts to be admissible in a criminal case, the profferer must prove by clear and convincing evidence that the prior bad acts were committed and that the defendant committed the acts.
Although we have cited to Huddleston, we have not previously adopted the preponderance standard of Huddleston. When we last identified the issue, we declined to decide it. *583See State v. Schurz, 176 Ariz. 46, 51-52, 859 P.2d 156, 161-62 (1998). In a few cases where we cited to Huddleston, we cited it merely to highlight the four factors that Huddleston identifies as safety precautions embedded within the Federal Rules of Evidence. See State v. Gulbrandson, 184 Ariz. 46, 60, 906 P.2d 579, 593 (1995), cert, denied, — U.S. -, 116 S.Ct. 2558, 135 L.Ed.2d 1076 (1996); State v. Atwood, 171 Ariz. 576, 638, 832 P.2d 593, 655 (1992). The protective provisions found in the rules of evidence are:
(1) rule 404(b)’s requirement that the evidence be admitted for a proper purpose; (2) the relevancy requirement of rule 402; (3) the trial court’s assessment that the probative value of the similar acts evidence is substantially outweighed by its potential for unfair prejudice, see rule 403; and (4) rule 105’s provision for an appropriate limiting instruction, if the party requests one.
Atwood, 171 Ariz. at 638, 832 P.2d at 655. We continue to agree with these four protective provisions. They are, in essence, merely a restatement of part of the Federal Rules of Evidence. See State v. Roscoe, 184 Ariz. 484, 493, 910 P.2d 635, 644 (stating that the four factors are “[f]our rules of evidence [that] protect defendants from the admission of unfairly prejudicial other acts ____”), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 117 S.Ct. 150, 136 L.Ed.2d 96 (1996).
We also cited Huddleston in support of our holding in State v. Williams, 183 Ariz. 368, 378, 904 P.2d 437, 447 (1995). In Williams, we said that “[e]vidence whose relevancy depends on the fulfillment of a condition of fact is admissible when a jury could reasonably believe from the evidence that the condition was fulfilled.” Id. We realize that this language may have caused some ambiguity. However, in Williams, we were only addressing an issue of admissibility, not the required level of proof. Now that the issue of the level of proof is squarely presented, we hold that Hughes is still good law.
We further hold that Hughes was not overruled by our adoption of the Arizona Rules of Evidence in 1977, which are patterned after the Federal Rules of Evidence. This court has continued to apply Hughes after the adoption of the Arizona Rules of Evidence. See Valles, 162 Ariz. at 5, 780 P.2d at 1053; McGann, 132 Ariz. at 298, 645 P.2d at 813; State v. Woods, 121 Ariz. 187, 190, 589 P.2d 430, 433 (1979); State ex rel LaSota v. Corcoran, 119 Ariz. 573, 576, 583 P.2d 229, 232 (1978). No conflict is present between the Rules of Evidence and the Hughes standard; the standard does not change the Rules, but merely provides a standard that must be met to admit the evidence under the Rules.
Many other courts require clear and convincing proof of evidence of prior bad acts (both that the act occurred and that the defendant committed the act) before they will allow the evidence to be admitted. Johnson v. United States, 683 A.2d 1087, 1093 (D.C.App.1996) cert, denied, — U.S. -, 117 S.Ct. 1323,137 L.Ed.2d 484 (1997); Phillips v. State, 591 So.2d 987, 989 (Fla.App.1991); State v. Jackson, 625 So.2d 146, 149 (La.1993); Ayers v. State, 335 Md. 602, 645 A.2d 22, 37 (1994); State v. Spaeth, 552 N.W.2d 187, 193 (Minn.1996); State v. Wilson, 5 Neb-App. 125, 556 N.W.2d 643, 652 (1996); State v. Smith, 300 S.C. 216, 387 S.E.2d 245, 247 (1989); State v. McCary, 922 S.W.2d 511, 514 (Tenn.1996); see also State v. Cohen, 634 A.2d 380, 386 (Del.Super.1992); People v. Oaks, 169 Ill.2d 409, 215 Ill.Dec. 188, 208, 662 N.E.2d 1328, 1348 (1996), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 117 S.Ct. 191, 136 L.Ed.2d 129 (1996) (requiring less than a reasonable doubt but “more than mere suspicion”); State v. Howell, 557 N.W.2d 908, 911 (Iowa App.1996) (requiring “clear proof’); Winiarz v. State, 107 Nev. 812, 820 P.2d 1317, 1321 (1991); State v. Michaud, 135 N.H. 723, 610 A.2d 354, 356 (1992) (requiring “clear proof’ “firmly establishing”); Daniel v. State, 923 P.2d 728, 734 (Wyo.1996).
However, a number of states have chosen to apply a “preponderance”-type standard. See Ex Parte Hinton, 548 So.2d 562, 567 (Ala.1989); People v. Gamer, 806 P.2d 366, 370 (Colo.1991); State v. Kay, 129 Idaho 507, 927 P.2d 897, 905 (App.1996); State v. Krause, 82 Wash.App. 688, 919 P.2d 123, 126 (1996); see also Hawks v. State, 223 Ga.App. 890, 479 S.E.2d 186, 188 (1996) (state made “sufficient showing” that defendant committed the crimes); State v. Wilson, 108 *584N.C.App. 117, 423 S.E.2d 473, 476 (1992) (requiring “substantial evidence”); State v. McDonald, 500 N.W.2d 243, 246 (S.D.1993) (requiring “substantial evidence”); State v. McGinnis, 193 W.Va. 147, 455 S.E.2d 516, 525 (1994). Additionally, one state applies the standard of “beyond a reasonable doubt.” See Harrell v. State, 884 S.W.2d 154, 157 (Tex.Crim.App.1994).
We believe there are important reasons to apply a clear and convincing standard, rather than some lesser standard, to evidence of prior bad acts. Such evidence is quite capable of having an impact beyond its relevance to the crime charged and may influence the jury’s decision on issues other than those on which it was received, despite cautionary instructions from the judge. Note, Winship on Rough Waters: The Erosion of the Reasonable Doubt Standard, 106 Harv. L.Rev. 1093, 1103 (1990). Studies confirm that the introduction of a defendant’s prior bad acts “can easily tip the balance against the defendant.” Edward J. Imwinkelried, Uncharged Misconduct Evidence, 1-SUM Crim. Just. 6, 8 (1986). Because of the high probability of prejudice from the admission of prior bad acts, the court must ensure that the evidence against the defendant directly establishes “that the defendant took part in the collateral act, and to shield the accused from prejudicial evidence based upon ‘highly circumstantial inferences.’” Vivian M. Rodriguez, The Admissibility of Other Crimes, Wrongs or Acts Under the Intent Provision of Federal Rule of Evidence JM(B): The Weighing of Incremental Probity and Unfair Prejudice, 48 U. Miami L.Rev. 451, 457 (1993). Applying the standard of “clear and convincing evidence” establishes a “clear, recognizable standard for courts and lawyers and is consistent with the due process owed under the federal and state constitutions.” Smith v. State, 267 Ga. 363, 478 S.E.2d 379, 381 (1996) (Fletcher, P.J., concurring). To allow a lesser standard in a criminal case is to open too large a possibility of prejudice. We have recently noted the potentially prejudicial effects of prior bad acts evidence and cautioned trial courts and counsel to exercise extreme care in its use, even where it is admissible. State v. Ives, 187 Ariz. 102, 111, 927 P.2d 762, 771 (1996). Therefore, before admitting evidence of prior bad acts, trial judges must find that there is clear and convincing proof both as to the commission of the other bad act and that the defendant committed the act.3
In this case, library books that had been located in a truck stolen two years earlier were found on defendant’s property. We believe that this evidence is not clear and convincing proof that defendant controlled the stolen truck, knowing or having reason to know that the truck was stolen. Therefore, evidence concerning the books was improperly admitted and used.
CONCLUSION
The trial judge relied on prior bad act evidence in determining defendant’s guilt and stated that he probably would have reached a different conclusion if he had not received and considered prior bad act evidence. We cannot determine how the judge would have decided the case had he not received and considered improper bad act evidence. Therefore, defendant’s conviction and sentence must be set aside and the case remanded for a new trial consistent with this opinion.
ZLAKET, C.J., and FELDMAN, J., concur.

. Rule 404(b) states:
Evidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts is not admissible to prove the character of a person in order to show action in conformity therewith. It may, however, be admissible for other purposes, such as proof of motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake or accident.

. Rule 104(b) states:
When the relevancy of evidence depends upon the fulfillment of a condition of fact, the court shall admit it upon, or may admit it subject to, the introduction of evidence sufficient to support a finding of the fulfillment of the condition.

. In arriving at this conclusion, we are aware that, in federal courts, the fact that the defendant has been charged with and acquitted of the prior bad acts does not necessarily preclude their admission. Dowling v. United States, 493 U.S. 342, 348, 110 S.Ct. 668, 672, 107 L.Ed.2d 708 (1990). Assuming, without deciding, that Arizona would opt for a similar rule, it is not inconsistent with the rule we apply in this case, as the earlier acquittal could be based upon the failure of the state to have proved the prior bad acts beyond a reasonable doubt.