CALL/TXT VERNAL DISTRICT COURT CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY JAKE GUNTER (801) 373-6345THE RULE is, don’t bring drugs to the Vernal District Court because you will be convicted. This is what happened to a recent defendant in Vernal, Utah. A Vernal District Court jury found him guilty of possessing drugs at the security checkpoint while going to court at the Vernal District Court.
THE PRINCIPLE affirmed by the Utah Court of Appeals is that is was Plain Error for a trial court to instruct the jury on the classifications of the charges a defendant is facing.
Meaning, the court should not tell the jury that a defendant is facing a Class B, Class A or Felony 1 because sentencing and punishment is always up to the court, not the jury. When the Vernal District Court instructed the Vernal jury on the classifications of the charges the defendant was facing—it committed Plain Error.
FACTS: Defendant entered the Vernal District Court and while going through security pulled out a baggy of meth. He was charged with paraphernalia, a Class B misdemeanor and possession of a controlled substance, a Class A misdemeanor. He claimed he just likes to pick stuff up on the ground and put it in his pocket. A common habit he had. The jury didn’t believe him.
At the jury trial, the trial court judge instructed without objection to the jury that the paraphernalia was a Class B misdemeanor, and the meth possession was a Class A misdemeanor.
ON APPEAL the Utah Court of Appeals found that it was Plain Error for the Vernal trial court judge to instruct the jury on the charge classifications. Ultimately the appeals court did not find any harm or prejudice to the defendant requiring a new trial. The appellate court reasoned that the evidence of guilt was so strong (pulled meth out at the courthouse) that the Plain Error would not have made a difference.
