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State v. Beagles3/5/2001
Ronald Beagles was charged with second degree assault after he shot Vernon Mitchell during an altercation on the West Seattle Bridge. After unequivocally asserting his intent to proceed pro se at his trial, Beagles realized he made a 'severe mistake' and, near the end of trial, requested a continuance so that his new counsel could prepare his case. The trial judge denied the motion, and the jury found Beagles guilty as charged. In a post-trial motion, Beagles claimed that the trial court committed several instructional errors and abused its discretion in denying his motion to sever his trial from his co-defendant's, excluding testimony from his treating psychiatrist, denying his motion to continue, and applying a firearm enhancement to his sentence. Even assuming the post-trial motion preserved these issues for review, there is no basis for an abuse of discretion finding. We affirm.
FACTS
On November 10, 1997, at about noon, Beagles was driving slowly in the right lane of the West Seattle Bridge with his left blinker on when the driver behind him, Mitchell, pulled into the left lane to pass him. Beagles sped up to prevent this, and as Mitchell pulled up alongside him, they exchanged insults and obscene hand gestures. Mitchell then tried to move back into the right lane, but Beagles blocked him by alternatively speeding up and slowing down. This continued until Mitchell pulled behind Beagles and signaled his intent to exit the bridge. Without signaling, Beagles pulled into the exit lane and stopped his car on the off ramp, blocking traffic and preventing Mitchell from exiting. Mitchell pulled in behind Beagles' car, got out, and approached Beagles' car with a baseball bat. When Mitchell saw Beagles appear to reach for a gun, Mitchell either swung or threw the bat at the back window of Beagles' car, breaking the glass, and began running away. Beagles then fired several shots at Mitchell, one of which destroyed his hip joint.
The State charged both men in a single information with second degree assault, and sought to enhance Beagles' sentence under the firearm statute and Mitchell's under the deadly weapon statute. The case against both defendants proceeded to trial. Beagles initially told the court he wanted to represent himself. After the court granted his request, Beagles wavered, was appointed counsel, then fired his counsel and indicated again his desire to represent himself.
When Mitchell's attorney filed her trial brief, which included diagnoses of Beagles as a paranoid schizophrenic with delusions of persecution, Beagles sought to call his treating psychiatrist, Dr. John Hamm, to rebut that evidence. Mitchell's attorney said she would not introduce the psychiatric evidence unless Beagles opened the door to the issue by presenting evidence of his mental state, to which Beagles replied, 'I would like to make sure that that door doesn't open.' The court denied Beagles' motion to call Dr. Hamm but assured him that it would revisit the issue if his mental state were put in issue. Beagles then asked the court to empanel two juries, one to hear the case against him and the other to hear the case against Mitchell. The court treated this request as a motion for severance and denied it.
Trial began on Monday, August 17, 1998. In his opening statement, Beagles told the jury he would be 'bringing in an expert witness that can testify about mental states.' The court sustained the prosecutor's objection to this remark, and Beagles completed his opening statement and questioned the State's witnesses. The next morning, before he cross-examined the first witness, Beagles told the court he was unable to continue because his medications impaired his thinking
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