Filed Dated: 4/6/2022
Appeal from the District Court of the Fourth Judicial District of the State of Idaho, Ada County. Jonathan M. Medema, District Judge.
Lawrence G. Wasden, Idaho Attorney General, Boise, attorney for Appellant.
Eric D. Fredericksen, State Appellate Public Defender, Boise, attorney for Respondents.
In this permissive appeal, the State challenges the district court's order denying a motion to exclude expert testimony. Ruben Daniel Diaz was charged with aggravated battery, use of a deadly weapon in the commission of a crime, and resisting and obstructing a police officer after he stabbed a man in a random attack. Diaz produced a report from an expert to testify that Diaz lacked the mens rea to commit aggravated battery because of mental disease or defect, which caused him to believe his victim was an alien. Subsequently, the State moved in limine to exclude the expert testimony at trial and argued that Idaho Code section 18-207 barred evidence of a mental condition. The district court denied the State's motion. The district court also denied the State's subsequent reconsideration motion and denied the State's motion for a permissive appeal. The State timely filed a permissive appeal to this Court.