State v. Ochoa

505 P.3d 689

STATE of Idaho, Plaintiff-Appellant,

v.Alejandra Maria OCHOA, Defendant-Respondent.

Docket No. 48723

Supreme Court of Idaho, Boise, August 2021 Term.

Opinion filed: March 2, 2022

Lawrence G. Wasden, Idaho Attorney General, Boise, for Appellant. Kenneth Jorgensen argued.

Canyon County Public Defender, Caldwell, for Respondent. Jill Musser argued.

MOELLER, Justice.

Alejandra Maria Ochoa was convicted of misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter by a Canyon County jury. She appealed her conviction to the district court, which vacated the judgment of conviction and remanded the case for a new trial. The district court held that the magistrate court erred in excluding certain toxicological evidence, refusing to grant defendant's request to continue the trial, and allowing the State's pathologist to testify. The State now appeals from the district court's decision. For the reasons set forth below, we reverse the decision of the district court.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

A. The Accident

On April 26, 2018, Alejandra Maria Ochoa ("Ochoa") drove her vehicle from a Jacksons convenience store parking lot onto Midway Road in Nampa. Surveillance footage from the convenience store showed that Ochoa failed to stop at the curb before entering the street. As she crossed over the northbound lane, Ochoa began turning left onto the southbound lane. In so doing, Ochoa cut across the path of a motorcycle traveling in the northbound lane, which skidded and went down on its left side as it attempted to avoid Ochoa's vehicle before she completed her turn. The motorcycle struck Ochoa's vehicle. The operator of the motorcycle, the victim, was conscious and alert at the scene immediately following the accident. However, after paramedics transported the victim to St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise, he continued losing blood and later died.

B. Pretrial Proceedings

The State charged Ochoa with misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter. Ochoa pleaded not guilty, and her trial was initially set for March 20, 2019. The State filed a motion to continue the trial, and the magistrate court reset the trial for April 3, 2019.

A toxicology report showed the victim had methamphetamine, amphetamines, and methadone in his system. The victim also had a small bag of heroin on his person. Before trial, the State moved to exclude the toxicology evidence related to the illegal substances found in the victim's blood and the heroin found on his person. The State argued that the toxicology report was not relevant to Ochoa's vehicular manslaughter charge because there was no evidence that the substances in the victim's blood contributed to the collision. Alternatively, the State asserted that even if the evidence were admissible, it should not be admitted because the probative value of the evidence was substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice. The State also contended that the heroin found on the victim's person after the accident would be highly prejudicial with little to no probative value. The magistrate court granted the motion regarding the bag of heroin and reserved ruling on the toxicology report until an evidentiary hearing took place.

On March 26, 2019, eight days before trial, Ochoa moved to exclude the testimony of Dr. Glen Groben, the forensic pathologist who determined the victim's cause of death, because she claimed Dr. Groben had not been disclosed as an expert witness prior to the discovery deadline. Dr. Groben's medical evaluation was largely based on his analysis of the medical records created by the treating physicians at the hospital where the victim had died, and Ochoa objected to the State's failure to disclose the records on which Dr. Groben relied. At a status conference held on March 28, 2019, the State argued that it had clarified prior to the deadline that Dr. Groben would be an expert witness, and that his coroner's report, which included the basis of its conclusions, had been disclosed months before. However, the parties disputed whether Ochoa's discovery request required the State to provide the medical records themselves under Idaho Rules of Evidence 702, 703, or 705. The magistrate court concluded the State did not need to provide all the data Dr. Groben had reviewed, but only the facts and data he had relied on—which were then contained in Dr. Groben's report. The magistrate court denied Ochoa's request to exclude Dr. Groben as a witness. Ochoa requested the trial be continued to give her additional time to prepare. This request was granted. Ochoa had not yet waived her speedy trial rights.

On March 28, 2019, Ochoa made a specific request for all medical records Dr. Groben had reviewed or relied upon, including the toxicology report. The magistrate court issued a subpoena duces tecum for all medical records from St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center pertaining to the victim.

The State moved again to continue the trial date because of witness unavailability. The motion was granted, and the trial was re-set for May 8, 2019. Ochoa received the medical records on April 10, 2019. Ochoa moved for another continuance based on the late receipt of the records, but the magistrate denied the request, concluding that Ochoa had known that the victim's cause of death would be an element of the vehicular manslaughter charge and that she could have foreseen that the medical records would be relevant.

On April 23, 2018, an evidentiary hearing was held on the State's motion to exclude the toxicology report. Ochoa called David Cavanaugh, a former police officer, "Drug Recognition Expert master instructor," "Collision Reconstruction Expert," and owner of Northwest Forensic Crash Reconstruction. Cavanaugh testified that the presence of methamphetamine "in the system" could impair the ability of someone to operate the vehicle safely. Some ways to test impairment would be through field sobriety tests or observation of how the operator is driving the vehicle. In this case, Cavanaugh would have considered the victim's speed, the victim steering his motorcycle into Ochoa instead of away, the use of only the rear brake to stop the motorcycle, and the bandages around his fingers—as evidence of possible methamphetamine use—to determine that the victim may have been impaired. He stated that to evaluate a driver for impairment levels it is important to observe physical indicators. This is because "there is no per se limit for drugs in Idaho;" in other words, unlike alcohol, there is not an established "legal limit" for drugs like methamphetamine. Cavanaugh conceded that if he received a toxicology report in a case in which he did not evaluate a person for impairment through the physical and physiological indicators, he would be unable to say that person was impaired solely based on the toxicology report. The substance of his testimony was as follows:

Q [PROSECUTOR]: And why is it important for you to do those evaluations when determining impairment level?

A [CAVANAUGH]: Because, there is no per se limit for drugs in Idaho. So -- and I'm not aware of any State that has a per se limit for the parts per million or whatever number they use. So what we're looking for is their ability to perform the divided attention tests and the physiological indicators such as pulse, blood pressure, pupil reaction to light and so on. So those are how we establish the criminal case.

Q: So if you were to receive a toxicology result, say, in any case where you hadn't evaluated the person for impairment, would you be able to say, just based on the toxicology result, that that person was impaired?

A: No.

Q: Why is that?

A: There would have to be other -- other evidence. I would need to have something about -- again, it would begin -- it would start to add up the more information I had. So driving pattern, what was the probable cause for the stop, or the contact, and however the contact came about. What are some of the evidentiary things that were collected? Those would all be things that could go toward making that final conclusion."

...Q: Okay. And you wouldn't be able to say with a reasonable degree of certainty that they were impaired and, therefore, that was the cause of the particular crash?

A: That's correct.

The State next called Dr. Groben, who testified that the results of the toxicology report did not impact the manner and cause of the victim's death. Even considering the substances in his system, the victim was going to die due to the extensive nature of his injuries. By the time the victim arrived at the hospital, he was already experiencing refractory hypotension—extremely low blood pressure due to severe loss of blood—and the attending physicians could not stop the bleeding.

Ultimately, the magistrate court excluded testimony regarding the substances in the victim's system. The magistrate court noted that no witness could say with a reasonable degree of certainty as to the victim's level of impairment or whether the victim's actions were affected by the substances to such a degree as to contribute to the accident. Therefore, the magistrate court found the probative value of the proffered evidence was substantially outweighed by its prejudicial effect. The magistrate court summarized its ruling as follows:

In fact, I heard Mr. Cavanaugh say he could not put any reasonable degree of certainty without more information, make that type of opinion. So one – or even if there is some relevance to it, I'm going to find that the probative value is substantially outweighed by its prejudicial value and, therefore, I am going to exclude, one, testimony or information regarding the methamphetamine, the amphetamines, or any methadone in the system of the deceased as being introduced into evidence.

After the magistrate court's ruling, Ochoa moved to continue the trial, reasoning that she had not had enough time to go through the recently received medical reports. The magistrate court denied the motion.

On April 25, 2019, Ochoa moved again to continue the trial, arguing...