ROTH, Judge:
¶ 1 Michelle Ann Cox appeals from her convictions for forgery and theft by deception on the basis that Jury Instruction 33 unconstitutionally shifted the burden of proof for an element of each of the crimes to the defense. She also asserts that the theft by deception conviction should have been sentenced as a class B misdemeanor rather than as a class A misdemeanor. We affirm the convictions but remand for resentencing on the theft by deception offense.
¶ 2 Cox did not preserve the jury instruction issue in the trial court, and therefore she challenges it under the doctrines of manifest injustice and ineffective assistance of counsel. When a claim of error regarding a jury instruction is made for the first time on appeal, appellate courts review the instruction for "manifest injustice." See Utah R. Crim P. 19(e) ("Unless a party objects to an instruction or the failure to give an instruction, the instruction may not be assigned as error except to avoid a manifest injustice."). "Manifest injustice is synonymous with the plain error standard." State v. Jimenez, 2012 UT 41, ¶ 20, 284 P.3d 640. Thus, to establish manifest injustice, Cox must show that "(i) an error exists; (ii) the error should have been obvious to the trial court; and (iii) the error is harmful, i.e., absent the error, there is a reasonable likelihood of a more favorable outcome."
¶ 3 Jury Instruction 33 informed the jury of the affirmative defense the parties have referred to as "honest belief":
(Emphases added.) The language in this instruction tracks the statutory language in Utah Code section 76-6-402, which sets out the presumptions and defenses available for theft charges generally. See generally Utah Code Ann. § 76-6-402(3) (2008) (outlining the honest belief defense for charges under the "Theft" part of the criminal code); id. §§ 76-2-304, -308 (classifying mistake of fact as an affirmative defense).
¶ 4 In the case of theft by deception, however, the lack of an honest belief that the defendant was entitled to the property she obtained — which the defendant typically raises as an affirmative defense, thereby shifting the burden to the State to disprove — is actually an element of the crime that the prosecution must prove in the first instance.
¶ 5 We need not decide whether the error was obvious or invited,
¶ 6 When a person is charged with a criminal offense, the State bears the entire burden of proof with respect to each element of the charged offense, and the State fulfilled that burden with respect to the theft by deception charge here, including the element that Cox did not have an honest belief that she was entitled to the check and the funds it represented, as to which the State presented substantial evidence. The State produced the testimonies of Officer Brendon Kirkwood and the check fraud investigator at Mountain America to establish this element. Officer Kirkwood's testimony consisted largely of his account of Cox's inconsistent explanations to him of how she came into possession of the check. The officer testified that Cox first claimed that she received it from her neighbor as payment for salon services Cox provided for a party of twelve, but after her supervisor failed to verify that story, Cox claimed that her neighbor asked her to cash the check, which the neighbor had received in exchange for pumping gas for an unknown woman. Finally, when the neighbor's bank records did not support the gas payment story, Cox stated that her neighbor asked her to cash the check, which the neighbor told her was written by her mother, because the neighbor had account issues that prevented her from drawing the funds herself. Officer Kirkwood also testified that Cox informed him that when she received the check, she "filled out her name on the-to pay to the order of, and then the [written] amount." The check fraud investigator testified that the endorsement "signature [on the back of the check] of Michelle Cox more closely resembles the written out Michelle Cox on the payee line [on the front of the check]." Thus, even though Jury Instruction 33 incorrectly informed the jury that it was the defendant's burden to produce evidence of honest belief, the State, in fact, had produced
¶ 7 Further, despite its erroneous description of the burden of production, Jury Instruction 33 is clear about who bears the burden of persuasion. It provides, "[I]f [honest belief evidence is presented,] the State retains its burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt on all elements of the offense charged."
¶ 8 Because the State bore its burden of proof with regard to production despite the error in the instruction and because the jury was properly informed that the State had the burden of persuasion beyond a reasonable doubt, Jury Instruction 33's error in allocating the burden of production was harmless. See generally State v. Lee, 2006 UT 5, ¶ 26, 128 P.3d 1179 (stating that an error is harmful for purposes of establishing plain error only if "absent the error, there is a reasonable likelihood of a more favorable outcome" (internal quotation marks omitted)); State v. Dunn, 850 P.2d 1201, 1225 (Utah 1993) ("Th[e] prejudice test [for ineffective assistance of counsel] is equivalent to the harmfulness test we apply in determining plain error."). We therefore affirm the theft by deception conviction. We also affirm the forgery conviction because Cox has presented no adequate basis for challenging it on appeal, see supra ¶ 4 note 3.
¶ 9 With regard to the sentencing issue, the State concedes that because Cox was sentenced on November 8, 2010, eight days after the effective date of a legislative reclassification of the severity of theft offenses that changed the penalty applicable to a theft by deception charge involving $360, such as the one at issue here, from a class A misdemeanor to a class B misdemeanor, she is entitled to the lesser sentence. See Utah Code Ann. § 76-6-412(1)(d) & amend. notes (Supp. 2012) (classifying a theft involving property worth less than $500 as a class B misdemeanor as of November 1, 2010); State v. Yates, 918 P.2d 136, 138 (Utah Ct.App. 1996) (noting that Utah law clearly entitles a defendant "to a lesser sentence when the legislature reduces the penalty for the crime charged in the interim between commission of the offense and sentencing"). As a result, we remand for resentencing of the theft by deception conviction in accordance with the applicable law.
¶ 10 I CONCUR IN THE RESULT: CAROLYN B. McHUGH, Presiding Judge.
VOROS, Associate Presiding Judge (concurring in part and concurring in the result in part):
¶ 11 I concur in the lead opinion with respect to the sentencing issue. With respect to the issue concerning burden of proof, I concur in the result only. On that issue, I would affirm on the ground that the appeal is inadequately briefed.
¶ 12 An adequately briefed argument must "contain the contentions and reasons of the appellant with respect to the issues presented, including the grounds for reviewing any issue not preserved in the trial court, with citations to the authorities, statutes, and parts of the record relied on." Utah R.App. P. 24(a)(9). "`Implicitly, rule 24(a)(9) requires
¶ 13 Cox here challenges a jury instruction. Jury instructions must be read and evaluated as a whole. State v. Johnson, 774 P.2d 1141, 1146 (Utah 1989). And, "if taken as a whole they fairly instruct the jury on the law applicable to the case, the fact that one of the instructions, standing alone, is not as accurate as it might have been is not reversible error." State v. Lucero, 866 P.2d 1, 3 (Utah Ct.App.1993) (citing State v. Brooks, 638 P.2d 537, 542 (Utah 1981)).
¶ 14 Cox contends that Jury Instruction 33 required her to present evidence that she had an honest belief that the check was legitimate and thus "unconstitutionally shifted the burden of proof to the defendant." The particular sentence to which Cox objects reads as follows: "Evidence of this defense must be presented by the defense, and if presented, the State retains its burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt on all elements of the offense charged." (Emphasis added.) In eighteen pages of argument in her opening brief, Cox never acknowledges the existence of the italicized portion of this sentence. She thus argues that a jury instruction stating that "the State retains its burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt on all elements of the offense charged" unconstitutionally shifted the burden of proof from the State to the defendant.
¶ 15 Given the well-established rules for analyzing jury instructions cited above, I do not think we ask too much by requiring an appellant to analyze not just the portion of the sentence she claims violates her constitutional rights, but the whole sentence. By not doing so here, Cox has shifted the burden of argument and analysis to this court.
In any event, as the lead opinion points out in footnote 6, by the time the jury here was instructed that "[e]vidence of this defense must be presented by the defense," Cox had in fact presented evidence of the defense. See supra ¶ 6 n. 6. Accordingly, it appears to me that any error, constitutional or otherwise, was not only harmless, and harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, but harmless beyond all possible doubt.