Idaho Supreme Court upholds conviction

SANDPOINT — The Idaho Supreme Court is affirming a conviction of a Washington state woman who provided hallucinogenic mushrooms to an undercover narcotics detective in Oldtown.

A Bonner County jury convicted Laura Lee Smith of aiding and abetting the delivery of a controlled substance outside Club Rio in Oldtown in 2012.

Smith, a 40-year-old from Newport, appealed the conviction. Smith argued that 1st District Judge Barbara Buchanan erred in overruling an objection to an out-of-court statement made by the person from whom the psilocybin mushrooms about his supplier on grounds that it was hearsay and violated Smith’s right to cross-examine and declarant.

Smith also challenged the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the conviction.

Supreme court justices, however, ruled that challenged statement was not hearsay under Idaho’s rules of evidence. They also held that the confrontation clause was not violated because the out-of-court statements were not testimonial. Therefore, testimony by the detectives regarding those statements did not violate the confrontation clause, the high court rule.

Smith contended on appeal that there was no evidence tying her directly to the mushroom transaction, but supreme court justices disagreed.

“As shown above in the recounting of evidence, there was clearly sufficient direct and circumstantial evidence, including reasonable inferences drawn from the evidence, to convict Ms. Smith.

“Therefore, her conviction will be affirmed,” Justice Daniel Eismann said in a 12-page opinion published on Thursday.

Chief Justice Roger Burdick and justices Warren Jones, Joel Horton and Robyn Brody concurred.

Smith was given probation and a suspended prison term when she was sentenced, court records indicate.