State of Arizona, Appellee v. Brian Jeffrey Dann, Appellant

Summary

The Arizona Supreme Court affirmed Dann's felony murder convictions for all three victims, his premeditated murder conviction for Andrew Parks, and his burglary conviction and sentence, but reversed the premeditated murder convictions for Shelly Parks and Eddie Payan because a premeditation instruction and prosecutorial argument signaling that the mere passage of time could establish premeditation were error and not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt as to those victims. The court upheld the first degree murder statute against vagueness and burden-shifting challenges, found substantial evidence of intent to commit aggravated assault supporting the burglary predicate and rejecting merger, and found no abuse of discretion in precluding third-party culpability evidence or denying a mistrial despite a curative instruction that technically commented on the evidence. Dann's right-to-be-present claims were waived or lacked fundamental error, and the Portillo reasonable doubt instruction was reaffirmed. Sentencing issues affected by Ring were deferred to a separate supplemental opinion.