Idaho v. Flegel
Annotate this CaseDefendant Christopher Flegel was indicted by a grand jury for lewd conduct with a child under sixteen in violation of Idaho Code section 18-1508. Defendant pled not guilty and was tried by a jury. The district court instructed the jury regarding the crime of Lewd Conduct and, as an included offense, the crime of sexual abuse of a child under sixteen years of age. The jury found Defendant not guilty of Lewd Conduct, but could not reach a verdict on the Sexual Abuse charge. Without resubmitting the matter to a grand jury, the State filed an amended indictment charging Defendant with Sexual Abuse. Defendant was tried by a jury on that charge and found guilty, to which he appealed. The appeal was initially heard by the Idaho Court of Appeals. It held that the indictment was properly amended because evidence admitted during Defendant's first trial supported the included offense of Sexual Abuse; and that the district court erred in failing to tailor the jury instruction on Sexual Abuse to eliminate the risk that the jury in the second trial would find Defendant guilty of conduct for which he was acquitted in the first trial. Because it concluded that such error was not harmless, the Court of Appeals vacated the judgment and remanded the case for a new trial. Upon review, the Supreme Court held that because the Sexual Abuse crime had not been submitted to the grand jury and was not an included offense of the crime of lewd conduct charged in the original indictment, the district court did not have subject matter jurisdiction. The Court therefore vacated the judgment and remanded the case with instructions to dismiss without prejudice.
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