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State v. Nieves4/15/2004
with the sleeping defendant. The child died less than twenty-four hours after a doctor had examined the infant and had found her healthy. Id. About thirty-six hours after the child's death, police interviewed the defendant. Id. At the end of the interview, the defendant said it was possible that she had suffocated the baby, although she could not remember. Id. at 529.
17 On the same day as the defendant's interview, a forensic pathologist performed an autopsy of the child. Id. He found no external or internal evidence to explain the cause of death, but did note internal hemorrhages that were commonly found in SIDS cases. Id. After the autopsy, the pathologist spoke with the police and learned about the defendant's statement. Id. Based on the statement, the pathologist concluded that the cause of death "was asphyxiation as a result of suffocation or smothering." Id. He acknowledged that but for the defendant's statement, his diagnosis would have been probable SIDS. Id. at 530.
18 The defendant was charged with manslaughter and moved to dismiss for lack of corpus delicti. Id. At a pretrial hearing, a defense expert testified that after reviewing the pertinent records, he thought that SIDS, not suffocation, was the likely cause of death. Id. An expert for the State opined that based on the evidence, he would have been hesitant to label the cause of death as either SIDS or suffocation, and would simply have concluded the cause was undetermined. Id. at 531.
19 The trial court granted the defendant's motion to dismiss and the State appealed. Id. The appellate court applied the same test we use in Arizona, determining whether the State presented evidence, independent of a defendant's statement, that supported a reasonable inference that the death resulted from criminal conduct. Id. at 532. The court held that "[a]n expert opinion based wholly on the defendant's statements is not 'independent of' those statements. Because [the pathologist's] opinion was based wholly on [the defendant's] statements, it cannot be used to satisfy the corpus delicti rule, and the trial court acted properly by not considering it." Id. at 533.
20 The appellate court also found that the following evidence did not, without more, support a reasonable inference that the baby died as a result of a criminal act: that the baby was only nine days old when she died; that she "seemed healthy just before her death"; that the pathologist "found nothing in his autopsy"; that the defendant "was present and fully dressed" when the baby died; and that the defendant showed no emotion after the child's death. Id. at 533-34. The court concluded that the State failed to establish the corpus delicti and that the trial court properly dismissed the case. Id. at 534.
21 In the California case, Iiams v. Superior Court, 236 Cal.App.2d 80, 45 Cal.Rptr. 627, 629 (1965), the defendant was charged with child beating after bringing a badly injured five-week-old child to a hospital for treatment. At issue was whether the State established the corpus delicti through the hospital doctor, who was the only witness at the preliminary hearing. Id. at 629. But for the defendant's admissions to the doctor that he was the child's father and had played roughly with the child, the doctor could not determine whether the child's injuries were caused by criminal or non-criminal conduct. Id. at 630. The court concluded that absent the defendant's statements, the evidence failed to establish "some rational ground for assuming the possibility that the offenses charged ... had occurred." Id. at 630-31.
22 Dr. Hu's testimony in this case that suffocation could not be ruled out virtually paralleled that of the doctors in Pineda and Iiams. Dr. Hu originally attributed the cause of Michelle's dea
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