Court Opinion

ID: 9852119
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:24:48.790824+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:22:22.802130
License: Public Domain

ROSE, Justice,
separately dissenting.
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused “shall enjoy the right . . to be confronted with the witnesses against him.” Amendment VI, Constitution of the United States.
I join in the dissent of Justice McClin-tock. I would, however, add the following:
My opinion is based upon these facts which I believe are reflected by the record.
Ted Moore, the undercover agent, was a friend of Sam Cooper, the bartender. Moore asked Cooper to introduce him to someone who would sell him marihuana. Defendant Jasch asked Cooper if he knew someone who would buy a “lid” and Cooper told him that Moore wanted to buy. Later, Cooper saw Moore and they arranged to look up defendant Jasch for the purpose of setting up the “buy.” They found him in Barquin’s Bar and Cooper introduced undercover agent Moore to defendant Jasch. Moore, Jasch and Cooper went to the restroom and made a deal for Moore to buy a “lid” from Jasch — delivery to take place at another bar.
Whether codefendant Steve Jevne was in Barquin’s at this time is in controversy. Cooper knew Jevne and testified that he “didn’t see him in there [Barquin’s], while Moore said he was present and Cooper could have seen him. Neither Moore, Cooper nor Jasch spoke to or in any way communicated with Jevne at the Barquin Bar. No witness — at any time — observed or overheard Jevne and Jasch communicating with each other. Moore testified that Jevne left the bar premises alone after Moore, Cooper and Jasch came out of the restroom but prior to when they left the Barquin Bar.
Some time later, Moore went to “Bernie’s” bar, the appointed place for the meeting, where he found Jevne playing pool at one table and Cooper playing at another. Jasch was not there. Jevne tapped Moore to say — “I have the lid of grass from Jasch.” Jevne and Moore went into the restroom and Jevne delivered the grass to Moore.
There is no evidence in this record concerning whether Jevne asked or received payment from Moore. We do not know what transpired between Moore and Jevne with respect to the transfer of the marihuana, but we do know that whatever it was cannot cast a shadow of guilt upon Jasch because, even though rebuttable, the presumption of his innocence in this context and at every other stage of the proceeding *1340goes with him. Cone v. Ivinson, 4 Wyo. 203, 33 P. 31, aff’d 4 Wyo. 203, 35 P. 933.
We said in Stuebgen v. State, Wyo., 548 P.2d 870, 879:
“One accused of a crime is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and this presumption applies to every element of the crime charged. Christoffel v. United States, 338 U.S. 84, 89, 69 S.Ct. 1447, 93 L.Ed. 1826 (1949); 22A C.J.S. Criminal Law § 581. . . .”
Even though Jasch testified that he and Jevne were friends, there is no evidence that Jevne and Jasch had even seen each other since they attended grade school together.
The basic underlying issue in this appeal is whether it was or was not reversible error for the trial judge to refuse to separate the trials of Jevne and Jasch under Rule 13 of the Wyoming Rules of Criminal Procedure.1
It is to be remembered that after Moore testified about what Jevne said to him inculpating Jasch, Jasch took the stand in his own defense but Jevne, exercising his rights under the Fifth Amendment, did not testify-
The case was not tried upon criminal charges of conspiracy, but to reach the holding of the majority to the effect that error was not committed by the court’s refusal to order separate trials, it was necessary for the majority to call up the law of conspiracy with its attendant exception to the hearsay rule, even though conspiracy was not considered at any stage below or here. I continue to reject, as I have in the past, this approach to decision-making because I think it is unfair to Bench, Bar and litigants for us to decide appeals upon issues which have not been raised for our consideration in the appellate process.2 See my dissents in Allen v. Allen, Wyo., 550 P.2d 1137, and Simpson v. Petroleum, Inc., Wyo., 548 P.2d 1.
In order to come to the majority’s result, the conspiracy exception to the hearsay rule must be invoked. Before this can happen prima facie proof of the conspiracy, absent any consideration of Jevne’s statement to Moore, must be made.3 The rationale of the rule is well-expressed in Glasser v. United States, 315 U.S. 60, 75, 62 S.Ct. 457, 467, 86 L.Ed. 680, where it was held that the declarations of one conspirator are admissible over the objection of an alleged co-conspirator who was not present when they were made, only if there is proof aliun-de of a conspiracy, “[otherwise hearsay would lift itself by its own bootstraps to the level of competent evidence.” In my opinion, there was no such proof, notwithstanding the majority’s conclusions that “Jevne *1341was the agent of Jasch” and that there was an “established association between defendant and his codefendant” so that “conspiracy was present.”
Additionally, as the authorities mentioned in Justice McClintock’s dissent hold, there must be an independent lower court determination of conspiracy before the hearsay exception may be utilized. As Justice McClintock demonstrates, the question of conspiracy was never even before the lower court. It follows that no such required finding of conspiracy was ever made.
The proof of a conspiracy between Jevne and Jasch is not supported by the evidence when Jevne’s statement to Moore is excluded, as we all agree it must be. After this exclusion, the required proof cannot be found in the record which will serve to establish a conspiracy between the two, nor do the facts support a circumstantial evidence proof of conspiracy.
Criminal conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to do an unlawful act. Goldsmith v. Cheney, 10 Cir., 447 F.2d 624. The gravamen of the crime is the agreement. 15A C.J.S. Conspiracy § 36, pp. 726, 727-728. It is sufficient to constitute a conspiracy agreement if there is a meeting of the minds with the parties working together for a common purpose. 15A C.J.S. Conspiracy § 40, pp. 734, 735. A conspiracy may be inferred but is not to be presumed from presence at, and participation in a criminal act in the absence of a statute providing for such presumption. State v. Winkler, 142 W.Va. 266, 95 S.E.2d 57. In criminal conspiracy the unlawful combination, the confederacy and agreement between two or more persons, that is, the conspiracy itself, is the gist of the action, and is the corpus delicti charged, and therefore the agreement must be established to sustain a conviction. Shannabarger v. United States, 8 Cir., 99 F.2d 957. Absent the statement of Jevne to Moore, I do not find the necessary agreement to commit an unlawful act to have been proved.
The evidence of a conspiracy was held to be insufficient where defendant was seen before and after the declarant sold heroin to an undercover agent in Ong Way Jong v. United States, 9 Cir., 245 F.2d 392, where the court found that the only basis from which a conspiracy and the defendant’s connection with the crime could be inferred would be through guilt by association. The court observed that just because the defendant was constantly with the declarant, who sold narcotics, it does not follow that defendant must have supplied him with the heroin. The court held that the trial judge erred in considering the extra-judicial statements of the declarant against the defendant.
In Panci v. United States, 5 Cir., 256 F.2d 308, evidence that the government agent observed the defendant and a declarant together, saw the defendant pass him a brown paper bag and that declarant had taken heroin from a brown paper bag and sold it to the agent was wholly insufficient to establish a conspiracy and defendant’s connection with it. The court reversed because of erroneous admission of statements made by the declarants in defendant’s absence. The court said that to let the verdict and judgment stand would be to hold the defendant guilty of the crime charged through guilt by association.
That the defendant was shown to be in the general area where the narcotics transaction took place between declarant and the government agent and had been seen with declarant a short time before declarant delivered heroin to the agent was insufficient independent evidence of a conspiracy to render incriminating statements made by declarant admissible against the defendant in Glover v. United States, 10 Cir., 306 F.2d 594, 595. The court said in its per curiam opinion:
“To render evidence of the acts or declarations of an alleged conspirator admissible against an alleged co-conspirator, the existence of the conspiracy must be shown and the connection of the latter therewith established by independent evidence. The existence of the conspiracy cannot be established against an alleged conspirator by evidence of acts or decía-*1342rations of his alleged co-conspirators, done or made in his absence.
“While the evidence may have been sufficient to cast suspicion upon Glover, that was not enough. Evidence which creates a mere suspicion of guilt is not enough. Guilt may not be inferred from mere association.” [Footnote numbers omitted]
Where the only evidence of defendant’s participation in the sale of narcotics consisted of the fact that he was present at the time of the sale, the court, in People v. Garcia, 201 Cal.App.2d 589, 20 Cal.Rptr. 242, held that there was insufficient evidence of the existence of a conspiracy involving the defendant to permit the introduction of extra-judicial statements of an alleged conspiracy.
Where the defendant, upon discovering the officers searching his premises, fled, throwing two capsules of heroin away in the process, and, upon arrest, admitted that a hypodermic needle and other paraphernalia found in the area were his, this did not supply the essential evidence of a conspiracy necessary to admit the statements of an alleged co-conspirator under the exception to the hearsay rule. White v. State, Tex.Cr.App. 1969, 451 S.W.2d 497. The declar-ant had been found in the defendant’s apartment and had told the officers where the paraphernalia could be found. Her statements were clearly hearsay, said the court.
I would surmise that the independent proof of conspiracy here was less convincing than in any of the above cases where the courts held the proof to be insufficient to permit the invocation of the hearsay exception.
Under the facts expressed by the record here, I would have held that the trial court has effectively decided that there was no proof of conspiracy in this case, and therefore our appellate offices do not allow us to decide to the contrary.4 It is my judgment that we must assume, unless the contrary is clearly shown, that the trial judge, in making his rulings, knows and understands the law applicable to the issue at hand. In the instant matter, he heard the evidence and thereafter instructed the jury that — as to Jasch — declarant Moore’s testimony about what Jevne said inculpating Jasch was hearsay and should be disregarded. A necessary application of the most rudimentary of the logical processes lead inevitably to the conclusion that the trial judge, in denominating the statement as hearsay also held that since the statement is hearsay it therefore does not and cannot fall within any exception to the rule of hearsay.
I would not see how evidence could be, on the one hand, classified as hearsay and, on the other hand, regarded as falling within the conspiratorial exception to the hearsay rule — all in' one fell swoop. The trial judge having determined (I think properly) that there was no proof of conspiracy — a factual decision — I would have held that we have no right to second-guess him upon a fact question.
If it can be assumed that there was no proof of a conspiracy and hence the statement was in fact hearsay — as the district judge held it was — then I would hold that it was error for him not to have granted the motion for separate trials. I understand the law on this point to be that the admonition to the jury to disregard the hearsay testimony inculpating Jasch, where the right to cross-examine is unavailable, is insufficient to cleanse the jurors’ minds of the poison where constitutional rights of confrontation hang in the balance. Where the same problem was in issue, the United States Supreme Court said, in Bruton v. United States, 391 U.S. 123, 137, 88 S.Ct. 1620, 1628, 20 L.Ed.2d 476:
“. . . Despite the concededly clear instructions to the jury to disregard Evans’ inadmissible hearsay evidence inculpating petitioner, in the context of a joint *1343trial we cannot accept limiting instructions as an adequate substitute for petitioner’s constitutional rights of cross-examination. . . . ”
We held in Dobbins v. State, Wyo., 483 P.2d 255, that care should be taken to see that prejudice does not result from joinder. Our Rule 13 of the Rules of Criminal Procedure contemplates the possibility of and relief from such prejudicial joinder (see note 1, supra), and I would have held that such joinder was prejudicial in this case for the reasons and under the authority set out herein.
I, like Justice McClintock, would reverse for the reasons and purposes that are indicated in his dissent — namely, that there was no court finding of the existence of independent proof of a conspiracy to commit the crime with which Jasch was charged so that the hearsay exception could be properly invoked.
I would have reversed for the further reason that I find prejudicial error in not granting Jasch a trial separate from Jevne where — if the questioned statement was to be regarded as hearsay — it would be kept from the jurors where it must have indelibly traumatized their thought processes so that a fair and impartial judgment would have been humanly impossible to render.

. Rule 13, Wyoming Rules of Criminal Procedure, entitled “Relief from Prejudicial Joinder,” provides:
“If it appears that a defendant or the State is prejudiced by a joinder of offenses or of defendants in an indictment or information, or by such joinder for trial together, the court may order an election or separate trials of counts, grant a severance of defendants or provide whatever other relief justice requires. In ruling on a motion by a defendant for severance, the court may order the prosecuting attorney to deliver to the court for inspection in camera any statements or confessions made by the defendant which the State intends to introduce in evidence at the trial.”

. Justice McClintock says in his dissent:
“Such a broad conclusion troubles me and my concern is compounded by the fact that at no place in the complaint, testimony, colloquies concerning the receipt or exclusion of testimony, requests for instructions, instructions, comments on those given, and the arguments upon motions in the trial court as well as in the briefs and arguments submitted to this court, is the word ‘conspiracy’ ever mentioned. It appears to me that a majority of this court adopt an entirely new concept of the case, never presented or argued in the court below or here, set themselves up as original triers of the fact and from those findings reach a conclusion never approached in the trial court.”

.See the cases at 46 A.L.R.3d 1148, commencing with § 3, p. 1157, where the text says:
“. . [I]t seems well settled that in order for the extrajudicial statements of one alleged conspirator to be admitted in evidence against another, as an exception to the hearsay rule, the existence of the conspiracy must be shown by independent evidence. . [Emphasis supplied].

. When there is evidence to sustain the trial court’s finding, which I believe must be inferred here, this court will not interfere with that finding unless it is clearly erroneous or so totally against the evidence or great weight thereof as to be manifestly wrong. Bruch v. Benedict, 62 Wyo. 213, 165 P.2d 561.