Utah Court of Appeals Hears Appeal in State v. William Paul Mike Over Admissibility of Statements and Jury Instruction

At Southern Utah University on Friday, the Utah Court of Appeals heard oral argument in the criminal appeal State v. William Paul Mike, where defense counsel said three separate evidentiary errors undermined his client’s conviction and the state urged the court to find any errors harmless.

Benjamin Miller, representing William Paul Mike, told the three-judge panel that the conviction should be reversed because (1) a police officer was allowed to give a lay opinion drawing conclusions about the cause of the victim’s injuries, (2) the officer’s testimony and the prosecutor’s closing argument admitted testimony that functioned as evidence of other bad acts in violation of Rule 404(b), and (3) a neighbor was permitted to repeat the victim’s narrative as an “excited utterance” when the circumstances showed reflective thought had begun.

Those issues were the focus of extended questioning from the court, which pressed both sides on where the line falls for an excited utterance and whether jurors could have been confused about which act supported an intoxication-based charge.

Why it matters: The appeal centers on whether the trial court improperly admitted evidence that was used to suggest propensity for violence and whether jurors were left without clear, unanimous grounds for a statutory intoxication count. If the appellate court finds prejudicial error, the conviction or portions of the verdict could be vacated and remanded for a new trial or further proceedings.

Defense argument and evidence noted by counsel

Miller told the court that the…