State v. Naranjo

538 P.3d 1278

STATE of Utah, Appellee,

v.James Andrew NARANJO, Appellant.

No. 20210865-CA

Court of Appeals of Utah.

Filed November 2, 2023

Benjamin Miller, Attorney for Appellant

Sean D. Reyes and Marian Decker, Salt Lake City, Attorneys for Appellee

Judge David N. Mortensen authored this Opinion, in which Judges Ryan D. Tenney and John D. Luthy concurred.

Opinion

MORTENSEN, Judge:

¶1 Perhaps to pass the time while waiting in a state park's parking lot at the crack of dawn, James Andrew Naranjo used various sticky implements to steal fee envelopes his fellow citizens had placed into a self-pay box. His actions were observed by an angler, who called the police. An officer arrived to find Naranjo joined by two others in an apparent drug transaction. A circus of sorts ensued, involving an extremely low-speed pursuit attended by evidence of the recent envelope thefts and drugs being tossed from a vehicle. Charges and a trial followed, and Naranjo was convicted of several offenses, including failure to respond to an officer's signal to stop and possession of a controlled substance. Naranjo appeals on various grounds, including ineffective assistance of counsel. We affirm.

BACKGROUND

¶2 Around 5:00 a.m. on a July 2020 morning, an angler, who was fishing at Willard Bay State Park, noticed Naranjo sitting inside a maroon-colored car in the marina parking lot. The angler reported that he saw a pile of manila-colored envelopes, apparently those used to pay the day-use fee for the marina, inside the car. He believed that Naranjo had torn open the envelopes and was removing the cash from them. The angler called the police, and the dispatcher asked the angler to get the car's license plate number. On his way back to get the number, the angler saw a black car pull into the lot. A man and a woman got out and started talking to Naranjo, who was still seated in the maroon car. The angler reported the maroon car's plate number to the dispatcher.

¶3 A uniformed police officer (Officer) arrived around 6:00 a.m., driving a patrol truck with police logos and a lightbar, which was not turned on at the time. Officer saw three people inside the maroon car on his arrival: Naranjo in the driver seat, a man in the passenger seat, and a woman in the back passenger seat. As Officer pulled near the maroon car, the woman got out and went to a nearby restroom. Officer parked his truck facing the maroon car. Officer got out of the patrol truck and began to walk toward the car, at which point Naranjo started to drive away.

¶4 Officer put up his hands, "palms out in halting fashion," and verbally ordered Naranjo to "[s]top." Officer acknowledged that Naranjo's windows were rolled up when he gave the direction to stop. As Naranjo drove past, Officer returned to his patrol truck and activated the lightbar. Naranjo did not stop but drove "erratically" around the parking lot, making a U-turn and several "quick braking movements" and twice trying to pull into marked parking spots. Officer said that he "made eye contact" with Naranjo and "tried to signal [him to] slow down or stop." Naranjo stopped in a third marked parking spot, and Officer opened the driver-side door of his patrol truck, apparently to approach Naranjo's car. But when Naranjo saw this, he put his car "back into drive and continued to drive around the parking lot."

¶5 Believing that Naranjo "was not going to stop," Officer drove toward the exit, using his truck to block the lone point of egress.

¶6 Meanwhile, the woman got behind the wheel of the black car. The man had gotten out of Naranjo's car and into the black car at some point after Officer had left to block the gate. Officer then saw the black car driving toward him at the exit. The woman and the man "gestured" to Officer that they wanted him "to move out of the way and threw their arms up in the air." Officer apparently did not respond as they wanted, so they attempted to go around the patrol truck. Officer then hit the black car with his truck, pinning the fleeing car against a fence post. The couple then got out and began to flee on foot. The pair was apprehended by another officer.

¶7 Naranjo, who had by this point backed into a berm and wooden fence surrounding the parking lot, continued his efforts "to drive away," according to Officer. Officer got out of his truck, drew his firearm, and commanded Naranjo to stop. Naranjo stopped, rolled down his window, and "started throwing items out," including "small plastic baggies and pieces" of the fee envelopes, insisting that "they weren't his." Officer told Naranjo to turn off the car "at least five" times, but Naranjo never complied.

¶8 Officer ordered Naranjo "not to move." Naranjo responded that he was "scared" and "did not want to go to jail." During this time, Officer reported that Naranjo "continued reaching around in the compartments in the vehicle, underneath the seat, [and] around the seat [to] whatever was within arm's reach of him."

¶9 Officer ordered Naranjo to open the driver-side door, but he did not, so Officer walked to the car, opened the door, and ordered Naranjo to get out. Naranjo was then taken into custody.

¶10 A search of Naranjo yielded some one-dollar bills. In the search of his car, police found "burglary tools," including gloves with sticky residue, sticky mouse traps, and wire strippers with sticky residue on them. Police also found fee envelopes with sticky residue on them and some small bills (fives and ones) in the car, along with drug paraphernalia (namely, small plastic baggies, lighters, a scale, needles, and a spoon) and yellow pills inside a black carrying case that had been on the driver-side back seat. Notably, Naranjo's identification card was also in the black carrying case.¹ A zippered bag in the black case contained more small plastic baggies, including one with a heart-stamp design. Additionally, officers found dirt and other debris lodged in the exhaust pipes of Naranjo's car, apparently acquired when he backed into the berm supporting the fence around the parking lot. Officers also found gouges in the berm caused by the exhaust pipes of Naranjo's car backing into it.

¶11 In the other car—the black one driven by the couple—police found narcotic-contaminated foil and drug paraphernalia, including spoons, needles, and baggies featuring heart stamps.

¶12 Officer advised other officers assisting in the search of the lot that "the suspects were seen throwing some things out the window of their vehicle" and "that items were being thrown out of the vehicles as they attempted to run."

¶13 One investigator found a metal rod with sticky residue, which police suspected Naranjo had used to retrieve the envelopes from the drop box. The rod was found near where Naranjo had backed into the fence and did not appear to have been there long because the residue was still tacky.

¶14 Police found other items near where Naranjo had stopped his car in the parking lot, including drug paraphernalia, baggies, foil, torn cash, and fee envelopes. One of those baggies had the heart-stamp design and contained "a crystal-like substance" that was later identified as methamphetamine.

¶15 Naranjo was charged with failure to respond to an officer's signal to stop and possession of a controlled substance.²

¶16 Naranjo was tried before a jury. At the close of the State's case, Naranjo moved for a directed verdict. With regard to the failure to stop, Naranjo argued that "[t]here was not evidence that would lead ... a reasonable trier of fact to determine ... that event happened." The State responded by arguing that Officer had provided a "detailed account of what happened," including that he had "not only given visual signals with his hands to stop" but also activated "the lights on his truck trying to get him to stop" and "finally drew his weapon" to get Naranjo "to stop."

¶17 For the possession count, Naranjo argued that the evidence did not show he possessed the methamphetamine because the "substances were found outside the vehicle." The State contended that "just as with all the other evidence that was tossed out the window, there's no reason to suggest that the methamphetamine wasn't also from" Naranjo.

¶18 The court denied the directed verdict motion, concluding that "some evidence exists from which a reasonable jury could find ... that the elements of the crime have been proven beyond a reasonable doubt."

¶19 Regarding the failure to stop, the court stated that "we have the testimony of Officer[,] ... who indicate[d] that he saw [Naranjo] operating the vehicle," "that he indicated to ... Naranjo by raising his hands that he was to stop," and that he "turned on his overhead" lightbar. And even after these efforts, Officer testified that Naranjo still "attempted to flee or [elude] him." The court noted that there was "some corroboration" of Officer's account through the testimony of the angler, "who testified that he saw the maroon vehicle attempting to leave and he saw the lights flashing." And concerning the possession charge, the court noted that Officer testified that he saw "Naranjo attempting to throw items out of the vehicle. And in that same vicinity, according to the testimony of several witnesses, a [baggie] of ... methamphetamine was found."

¶20 As relevant here, on the failure-to-stop count, the jury was instructed it must determine beyond a reasonable doubt that Naranjo "did knowingly receive a visual or audible signal from a law enforcement officer to bring a vehicle to a stop" and "did intentionally ... attempt to flee or elude a law enforcement officer by vehicle or other means."

¶21 The jury convicted Naranjo of all charges. Naranjo appeals.

ISSUES AND STANDARDS OF REVIEW

¶22 Naranjo raises two issues on appeal. First, he argues that the evidence was insufficient to support his "convictions for failure to respond to a police officer's signal to stop and for possession of a controlled substance."³ "In assessing a claim of insufficiency of the evidence, we review the...