Jacobs v. State

2021 WY 104

CHASITY LARAE JACOBS, Appellant (Defendant), v. THE STATE OF WYOMING, Appellee (Plaintiff).

No. S-20-0237

Supreme Court of Wyoming

September 22, 2021

Appeal from the District Court of Laramie County The Honorable Steven K. Sharpe, Judge.

Representing Appellant:

Office of the State Public Defender: Diane Lozano, State Public Defender; Kirk A. Morgan, Chief Appellate Counsel; Robin S Cooper, Senior Assistant Appellate Counsel. Argument by Ms Cooper.

Representing Appellee:

Bridget Hill, Wyoming Attorney General; Jenny L. Craig, Deputy Attorney General; Joshua C. Eames, Senior Assistant Attorney General; Catherine M. Mercer, Assistant Attorney General. Argument by Ms. Mercer.

Before FOX, C.J., and DAVIS ^[*] , KAUTZ, BOOMGAARDEN, and GRAY, JJ.

DAVIS Justice.

[¶1] Chasity Jacobs was a passenger in her co-defendant's vehicle when he led law enforcement on a high-speed chase through Cheyenne, Wyoming. For her part in the crimes committed, she was convicted of one count of aiding and abetting attempted second-degree murder, one count of reckless endangering, and one count of misdemeanor possession of methamphetamine. She challenges the district court's refusal to give her proposed jury instruction on the lesser-included offense of accessory to attempted voluntary manslaughter. She also challenges the court's sentence on the reckless endangering and misdemeanor possession counts. We affirm but remand for correction of the district court's written sentencing order.

ISSUES

[¶2] Ms. Jacobs presents two issues, which we state as follows:

1. Did the district court err when it declined to give Ms Jacobs' proposed jury instruction on the lesser-included offense of accessory to attempted voluntary manslaughter?

2. Did the district court's written sentencing order on the reckless endangering and misdemeanor possession counts deviate from its oral pronouncement and exceed the maximum statutory sentences for those counts?

FACTS

[¶3] On May 3, 2019, Ms. Jacobs was a passenger in a vehicle driven by her co-defendant, Dominique Childers. In affirming Mr. Childers' convictions, we described the events that led to the charges against Ms. Jacobs and him.

On May 3, 2019, Trooper Adam Powell with the Wyoming Highway Patrol was on patrol on Interstate 25 north of Cheyenne. At approximately mile post 24, he observed two vehicles traveling southbound towards Cheyenne, both exceeding the posted 80-mile-per-hour speed limit. The first vehicle was going 96 miles per hour, and the rear vehicle was going 98 miles per hour. Trooper Powell turned around in the median and began to follow the two vehicles.

Trooper Powell caught up to the first car, which had already slowed down. He activated his overhead lights, pulled it over, and instructed the driver to follow him so he could pull over the second vehicle. At approximately mile post 18 he caught up to the second vehicle, which was a black Toyota sedan traveling at approximately 113 miles per hour. Trooper Powell activated his lights and sirens and attempted to pull the vehicle over, but the driver of the Toyota failed to comply, and a highspeed chase ensued.

The driver of the Toyota, later identified as Dominique Childers, continued to drive approximately 115 miles per hour and then exited the interstate at exit 13, Vandehei Avenue. Mr. Childers was still driving at a high speed when he hit the roundabout off exit 13, and then he returned to the interstate and continued southbound. He exited the interstate again at exit 12, Central Avenue, and then drove through a stop sign and oncoming traffic onto the Interstate 25 on-ramp. Instead of continuing down the on-ramp, he swerved to the right side of the ramp and traveled through the median into the parking lot of the Wyoming Department of Transportation and the Wyoming Highway Patrol.

After the Toyota drove through the parking lot, the driver's door opened, and it came side-by-side with Trooper Powell's pursuing vehicle. Trooper Powell was able to observe a male driver, later identified as Mr. Childers, and a female passenger, later identified as Chasity Jacobs.

Instead of stopping, Mr. Childers continued to elude Trooper Powell. Trooper Powell continued pursuing the vehicle, which was then traveling eastbound on Central Avenue. At this point, Childers' vehicle was missing a tire, and he was driving recklessly, even in the center lane of traffic at times.

In an attempt to stop the vehicle before it entered the city limits and endangered more citizens, Trooper Powell attempted a tactical vehicle intervention. However, when he got his patrol car into position to perform the maneuver, he saw a silver pistol come out of the passenger window, and multiple rounds were fired in his direction. Consequently, he hit his brakes and distanced his vehicle from the Toyota. Mr. Childers continued on Central Avenue towards downtown Cheyenne with the trooper still in pursuit.

Shortly after the first shots were fired, Trooper Powell again had to swerve because an arm holding a pistol came out the driver's window and shots were once more fired in his direction. As the chase continued, more shots were fired out the back of the Toyota, causing its back window to burst and Trooper Powell's front windshield to spiderweb. As shots continued to be fired, Mr. Childers continued traveling towards the residential and commercial portions of Cheyenne, and more law enforcement officers joined the pursuit.

At some point, Mr. Childers turned northbound on Central Avenue, going the wrong way on that one-way street. Lyndsey Smith and her husband were pulled to the side of the road in the far-left lane of Central Avenue at 17th Street. Ms. Smith testified that Mr. Childers attempted to avoid hitting her vehicle head-on by swerving towards the sidewalk, which caused him to instead hit the driver's side of her vehicle and a planter and tree on the sidewalk. He continued to elude police after the collision, traveling through intersections and neighborhoods at a high rate of speed.

At this point, Officer Mark Ehlman with the Cheyenne Police Department was directly behind Childers' vehicle. Officer Geffery Eugene Mims of the Department was also pursuing the vehicle and calling out to his dispatcher each time shots were fired from Childers' vehicle.

At the roundabout connecting 19^th Street, Pershing Boulevard, and Converse Avenue, Officer Ehlman witnessed more shots being fired in the direction of law enforcement officers and decided to attempt a stop to prevent injury to other vehicles or citizens. He drove up to the driver's side of the Toyota, pointed his service weapon out his passenger window, and fired several times towards the driver. Mr. Childers swerved north and drove across a sidewalk and through a fence, and then crashed into an embankment at the Cheyenne Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Mr. Childers exited the vehicle with his hands in the air and got on the ground. Ms. Jacobs exited the passenger side, walked backward to the street, and also got on the ground.

Childers v. State, 2021 WY 93, ¶¶ 3-13, 493 P.3d 168, 169-70 (Wyo. 2021).

[¶4] When they were apprehended, Mr. Childers had more than three grams of methamphetamine, and Ms. Jacobs had 2.5 grams. The State charged Mr. Childers with two counts each of attempted first degree murder, felony property destruction, and misdemeanor property destruction, and one count each of felony possession of methamphetamine, reckless endangering, and eluding.

[¶5] Law enforcement recovered two handguns from the Toyota, a Smith & Wesson 45-caliber pistol and a Ruger 9mm pistol. Based on video footage from Trooper Powell's dash camera, a 45-caliber bullet recovered from a construction site along the route of pursuit, the presence of Ms. Jacobs' DNA on the 45-caliber pistol and 9mm magazines, and statements Ms. Jacobs made in phone calls from the jail, the State charged Ms. Jacobs with one count of attempted first degree murder, one count of accessory to attempted first degree murder, and one count of reckless endangering with a firearm. It also charged her with one count of misdemeanor possession of methamphetamine.

[¶6] Before trial, Ms. Jacobs pled guilty to the misdemeanor possession charge. The cases against Mr. Childers and Ms. Jacobs were joined for trial, and a jury trial was held on the remaining charges from December 3, 2019 to December 10, 2019. After the State rested, neither defendant testified or presented other evidence.

[¶7] At the jury instruction conference, the district court indicated that it would instruct the jury on the elements of attempted first degree murder and the lesser-included offense of attempted second-degree murder. Counsel for both Mr. Childers and Ms. Jacobs requested that the court also instruct the jury on the lesser-included offense of voluntary manslaughter. The court denied the request on the ground that there was no evidence that either Mr. Childers or Ms. Jacobs acted under a heat of passion.

In short, there is no rational evidence of a heat of passion under the same or similar circumstances.

Somebody trying to - a police officer trying to pull over a defendant for speeding certainly is not the type of act that would arouse the type of passion in the mind of an ordinary, reasonable person in those same circumstances that would create the type of passion that is necessary to negate malice in this case. That's the Court's determination on that.

[¶8] The jury found Ms. Jacobs not guilty of the attempted first- or second-degree murder of Trooper Powell, and not guilty of accessory to the attempted first-degree murder of Trooper Powell. It found her guilty of accessory to attempted second-degree murder and of reckless endangering with a firearm.^[1]

[¶9] The district court sentenced...