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Landt v. State3/19/2004
At the beginning of Alya S. Landt's trial, Superior Court Judge Fred Torrisi informed the jury that each member could propose questions for the witnesses. During the trial, Judge Torrisi put several of the jurors' proposed questions to various witnesses after he and the parties had reviewed those questions. Landt now appeals, arguing that the superior court erred by allowing the members of the jury to propose questions. We conclude that Judge Torrisi did not abuse his discretion. In the context of the case, we also conclude that even if Judge Torrisi erred, the error was harmless. Therefore, we affirm Landt's convictions.
Background Facts and Proceedings
In the early morning of September 3, 2000, Unalaska Police Officer Aaron Renken contacted Landt, Ty Dushkin, and Robert Shapsnikoff because he saw the trio arguing outside a bar. Landt told Officer Renken that they were arguing because Shapsnikoff had taken her keys and he would not return them. Shapsnikoff said he took the keys because he believed that Landt was too intoxicated to drive.
Officer Renken also thought Landt was too intoxicated to drive, but since Landt said she needed her keys because her house key was on the key ring, Officer Renken told Shapsnikoff to return her keys. Officer Renken warned Landt that if he saw her driving, he would arrest her for driving while intoxicated. Dushkin pulled Landt away and said that he would not let Landt drive and would see that she got home.
About one and a half hours later, Landt telephoned Kent Steele, a physician's assistant whom she worked with, and asked him to come to the new HUD housing to care for a man [Shapsnikoff] whom she had found in the road. Landt told Steele that the man, who she thought had been hit by a car, was unconscious and not breathing. Steele immediately called 911. Despite emergency treatment, Shapsnikoff was pronounced dead at the scene.
Officer Renken and Officer Lowell Creeze spoke with Landt and Dushkin at the scene when the officers responded to the 911 call. Dushkin told officers that he and Landt had found Shapsnikoff lying in an intersection nearby, and that Dushkin had helped Shapsnikoff almost to his house, where Shapsnikoff collapsed in the street. Landt said that she and Dushkin had been driving home when they found Shapsnikoff lying in the street, and that they had placed him in the truck and driven him home. Landt also explained that she and Dushkin had phoned for help when they realized that Shapsnikoff was not breathing. At trial, Officer Creeze testified that he understood Landt to have said that she, rather than Dushkin, had been driving the truck when they found Shapsnikoff.
Shapsnikoff died as a result of multiple blunt force injuries, consistent with being run over by an automobile. The police discovered rub marks and cloth fibers consistent with Shapsnikoff's clothing on the undercarriage of Landt's truck.
At this point, police interviewed Dushkin again. Consistent with this interview, Dushkin testified at trial that Landt was driving when she suddenly saw someone lying in the roadway and accidentally ran over the person. Landt stopped the car, and Dushkin ran back to the person [Shapsnikoff]. They put Shapsnikoff in the truck, and Landt drove to Shapsnikoff's house. When Landt and Dushkin realized that Shapsnikoff was probably dead, they phoned for help.
The grand jury indicted Landt on manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, and tampering with evidence. The State also charged Landt with driving while intoxicated.
Before opening statements, Judge Torrisi told the attorneys that he would let the jurors propose questions for the witnesse
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