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State v. Nieves4/15/2004
th to SIDS, and only revised his opinion as to the cause of death after he learned of Nieves's confession. Furthermore, as in Pineda, the evidence, independent of the defendant's statements, established only that an infant who was found to **856 *443 be healthy only a day earlier had inexplicably died in her sleep.
23 The State argues that an inexplicable death alone is sufficient to give rise to an inference that the death was the result of criminal conduct. It asserts that two cases, State v. Thompson, 146 Ariz. 552, 557, 707 P.2d 956, 961 (App.1985), and State v. Turrubiates, 25 Ariz.App. 234, 238, 542 P.2d 427, 431 (1975), support this proposition. We disagree.
24 In Thompson, one of the child victims displayed numerous bruises and welts and told officers that the defendant had inflicted the injuries with a belt. 146 Ariz. at 554, 707 P.2d at 958. The defendant admitted hitting the child with the belt after losing his temper, but claimed to have "caught himself" and stopped. Id. at 555, 707 P.2d at 959. On appeal, we found that the victim's statements to police officers were inadmissible hearsay, but found the error harmless because the defendant's own statements were not barred by the corpus delicti rule as the "multiple bruises on [the victim's] back and thigh in a pattern consistent with the belt's impact are sufficient to establish the corroboration needed to consider [the defendant's] own statement." Id. at 557, 707 P.2d at 961. This evidence was established before the defendant's inculpatory statements were admitted. Id.
25 Likewise in Turrubiates, the child victim died from a subdural hematoma that was the result of a skull fracture. 25 Ariz.App. at 237, 542 P.2d at 430. An autopsy also revealed arm and rib fractures. Id. The State presented expert testimony that substantial or severe force had to have been applied to the body in order to cause the skull fracture and that the force could not have resulted from the body falling or bumping an object. Id. at 237-38, 542 P.2d at 430-31. This testimony was introduced before any of the defendant's statements. Id.
26 In both these cases, the State presented more than adequate evidence of criminal causation prior to admitting the statements of the defendants. In fact, criminal causation was evident from the nature and severity of the injuries. That is simply not the case here, where there is no evidence independent of Nieves's confession that gives rise to an inference that the death was the result of criminal conduct. Thus, we find the reasoning of Pineda and Iiams persuasive. We find no facts in the instant case sufficient to justify a contrary conclusion.
27 A recent Arizona case, State v. Morgan, 204 Ariz. at 170-73, 14-24, 61 P.3d at 464-67, includes a detailed discussion of the corpus delicti rule, outlines some of the alternatives used in other jurisdictions, and eventually concludes that in Arizona, a corroborated confession may be used to establish proof of a crime. While Morgan was factually very different from this case, in that it discusses the applicability of the corpus delicti rule in a prosecution for several sexual assault and abuse crimes, the holding in Morgan is consistent with our result here. In that case, the defendant was charged with multiple, closely-related crimes after confessing to police officers. Id. at 169, 6, 61 P.3d at 463. While independent evidence corroborated the defendant's confession to several of the crimes, the defendant argued on appeal that the corpus delicti rule was violated because two of the charged crimes lacked such corroboration. Id. at 170, 14, 61 P.3d at 464. The court found that even absent corroborating evidence of these two crimes, the defendant's confession itself was sufficiently corroborated by the
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