Court Opinion

ID: 9781923
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 17:38:38.00026+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:34:41.819344
License: Public Domain

VOIGT, Chief Justice,
dissenting.
[T18] I respectfully dissent. I would find an abuse of discretion in the district court's refusal to allow the appellant to call Sergeant Boisvert as a witness in his case-in-chief. Every criminal defendant has a constitutional right to present a defense. Dysthe v. State, 2003 WY 20, ¶5, 63 P.3d 875, 879 (Wyo.2003). The question for the jury in regard to the aggravated assault and battery charge was whether the appellant attempted to inflict bodily injury upon Sergeant Boisvert. The State proved this element of the crime through the opinion testimony of Sergeant Boisvert. The appellant should have been allowed to question Sergeant Boisvert about the prior similar incidents, to test whether his perception of the appellant's intent may have been colored by those incidents. The evidence was relevant and admissible. W.R.E. 401, 402. The district court's conclusion that the testimony would "direct the jury away from the facts of this case, and would tend to confuse them, confuse the jury" simply is not reasonable. Surely this jury could be trusted to handle this small slice of the truth.