Court Opinion

ID: 9785332
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 21:18:24.502036+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:36:16.528754
License: Public Domain

HOWARD, Judge,
specially concurring in part and dissenting in part.
¶ 15 I concur with the majority that the state waited too long to present this court with a complete factual record. See State v. Esquer, 26 Ariz.App. 572, 573-74, 550 P.2d 240, 241-42 (1976), rejected on other grounds by State v. Lopez, 27 Ariz.App. 626, 557 P.2d 558 (1976). But we now have conclusive proof that the legal principle on which the original opinion in this matter is based is erroneous and should be reconsidered. See In re Dean, 212 Ariz. 221, ¶ 1, 129 P.3d 943, 943 (2006) (court must sometimes “confront the consequences of our fallibility”).
¶ 16 “ ‘An inference is a fact which may be presumed from the proof of the existence or non-existence of other facts. It is a conclu-*219fin, 89 Ariz. 42, 48, 358 P.2d 155, 159 (1960). The failure to poll one of the jurors, or an error in the transcription of the polling, may be some evidence of how many jurors deliberated. But that evidence — with or without the transcript — will not support an inference that an insufficient number of jurors deliberated in the face of other evidence in the record that the correct number of jurors did deliberate. And, without that inference, Diaz has failed to satisfy his burden to show that fundamental error occurred at his trial. See State v. Henderson, 210 Ariz. 561, ¶ 19, 115 P.3d 601, 607 (2005). Therefore, the original opinion should be vacated, and I respectfully dissent.