Court Opinion

ID: 9785381
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 21:37:51.893661+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:36:21.522933
License: Public Domain

*196KITE, Justice,
specially concurring, with whom HILL, Chief Justice, joins.
[142] While I concur with the result reached by the majority opinion, and with most of the reasoning in support of that result, I must part company with the conclusion that Mr. Law's possession of a knife was irrelevant to the elements of stalking, and therefore, improperly admitted into evidence. A person is guilty of the crime of stalking if he or she (1) engages in a course of conduct, (2) which means a pattern of conduct composed of a series of acts over any period of time evidencing a continuity of purpose, (8) directed at a specific person, (4) which the defendant knew or should have known would cause a reasonable person to suffer substantial emotional distress, and (5) which does seriously harm the person toward whom it is directed. Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 6-2-506 (Lexis-Nexis 2004).
[148] The State presented voluminous evidence concerning Mr. Law's course of conduct which demonstrated a continuity of purpose, e.g. to harass his estranged ex-wife. The majority concludes the evidence that Mr. Law had a weapon in the car at the time he was in her neighborhood on the night of his arrest was irrelevant because she was unaware of that fact and there was no direct evidence he intended to threaten her with the weapon. However, relevant evidence is any evidence that has "any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence." W.R.E. 401.
The State had to prove Mr. Law's actions constituted a course of conduct demonstrating a continuity of purpose. Evidence of all of Mr. Law's actions that night were relevant to proving he was engaged in a course of conduct as defined by the statute. At the time he was prowling through his estranged wife's neighborhood, down her alley, and hiding behind vehicles to avoid detection, she was unaware of his presence. Yet, no one argued the evidence of those actions was irrelevant because she was unaware of them. I perceive no difference between evidence of his actions that night and evidence of items he possessed at the time. A direct threat to use the knife was not needed to make evidence of it relevant.
[145] I also find Vit v. State, 909 P.2d 953 (Wyo.1996) supports my conclusion. Everything Mr. Law did that evening was relevant to his criminal intent even if it did not directly threaten his estranged wife. The jury could draw whatever inference it deemed appropriate from Mr. Law's possession of the knife. I would have held the district court properly exercised its discretion in admitting the knife into evidence.