Court Opinion

ID: 9546383
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:28:38.484092+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:16:22.769423
License: Public Domain

Springer, J.,
with whom Steffen, C. J., agrees,
dissenting:
I have a very hard time understanding why this appellate court has intruded itself, “sua sponte,” into the trial court’s sentencing processes. The majority states that “[n]othing in the file indicates that the district judge did not read the letter and the notes.” *27Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence; and the mere fact that there is no evidence that the judge did not read the documents is not evidence that the judge either did or did not read them.
The manner in which the documents in question got into our files is doubtful. The majority apparently believes that the district judge placed the documents in the parole and probation envelope. To my mind this is all conjecture. It was found by this court’s staff, out of place, in an envelope that contained the pre-sentencing report. The envelope in question had been sealed when it was delivered to the district judge; and it is anyone’s guess how the contraband letter and accompanying documents got into the supreme court’s file at all, much less showing up in a previously-sealed envelope that had been intended to contain only the report from the department of parole and probation. Assuming for the moment that the letter and documents in question are properly a part of the record (they certainly were not designated as such), I am inclined to believe (guess) that the trial judge did not consider the documents. If he had, I am satisfied that he would have advised counsel for both parties. If there is any dispute on the point, I would resolve it in favor of the trial judge.
This court is not justified in concluding, because the file does not indicate whether or not the judge read the letter and notes, that “the district judge’s consideration of Todd’s confidential handwritten notes and Bull’s comments on those notes during the sentencing phase constituted reversible error.” In my opinion the reversal of the sentencing order in this case is an unwarranted and unnecessary intrusion into the trial judge’s realm. I would affirm the judgment of the trial court in its entirety.