Dominguez v. State

2015 NMSC 014, 7 N.M. 692
CourtNew Mexico Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 16, 2015
DocketDocket No. 34,295
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 2015 NMSC 014 (Dominguez v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dominguez v. State, 2015 NMSC 014, 7 N.M. 692 (N.M. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

OPINION

CHÁVEZ, Justice.

In State v. Montoya, 2013-NMSC-020, ¶¶ 2, 22-27, 54, 306 P.3d 426,1 this Court held that the Double Jeopardy Clause of the United States Constitution, U.S. Const, amend. V, precludes a defendant from being cumulatively punished for both voluntary manslaughter and shooting at or from a motor vehicle resulting in great bodily harm in a situation where both convictions are based on the same shooting of the same victim. The double jeopardy analysis in Montoya has been applied in other cases by the Court of Appeals to preclude a defendant from being punished cumulatively for both aggravated battery and shooting at or from a motor vehicle resulting in great bodily harm. See State v. Munoz, 2014 WL 4292963, No. 30,837, mem. op. ¶¶ 2-3, 5 (N.M. Ct. App. June 23, 2014) (nonprecedential), cert. denied, 2014-NMCERT-008; State v. Rudy B., 2014 WL 3039618, No. 27,589, mem. op. ¶¶ 2, 4 (N.M. Ct. App. May 8, 2014) (non-precedential), cert. denied, 2014-NMCERT-007.

These are the exact arguments that Petitioner Rodrigo Dominguez made in 2005 on certiorari review to this Court ■ of his convictions for voluntary manslaughter and shooting at or from a motor vehicle resulting in the death of one person, and aggravated battery and shooting at or from a motor vehicle resulting in great bodily injury to a second person. See State v. Dominguez (Dominguez I), 2005-NMSC-001, ¶¶ 5, 17, 22, 137 N.M. 1, 106 P.3d 563, overruled by Montoya, 2013-NMSC-020, ¶¶ 2, 54. A majority of this Court ultimately rejected Dominguez’s double jeopardy arguments, concluding that State v. Gonzales, 1992-NMSC-003, ¶¶ 4-12, 113 N.M. 221, 824 P.2d 1 023, overruled by Montoya, 2013-NMSC-020, ¶¶ 2, 54, controlled. Dominguez I, 2005-NMSC-001, ¶ 8. Dominguez has now filed a habeas petition pursuant to Rule 5-802 NMRA seeking to retroactively apply Montoya to support the same double jeopardy claims he earlier raised on certiorari review. We again decline to accept Dominguez’s double jeopardy claims because Montoya announced anew procedural rule that cannot be applied retroactively under Kersey v. Hatch, 2010-NMSC-020, ¶ 25, 148 N.M. 381, 237 P.3d 683.

BACKGROUND

The following facts from this Court’s opinion in Dominguez I are not in dispute and are relevant only to understand the double jeopardy issues raised by Dominguez. Dominguez and several of his friends went to a convenience store to fight another group of individuals. Dominguez I, 2005-NMSC-001, ¶ 4. Dominguez supplied each member of his group with guns. Id. Both groups arrived in cars, and Dominguez was the driver for his group. Id. Dominguez’s group opened fire after one of their adversaries exited the other group’s vehicle carrying a baseball bat. Id. One member of Dominguez’s group fired multiple times into the opposing group’s car and killed Ricky Solisz, the driver. Id. Another one of Dominguez’s associates shot at and wounded Vince Martinez, an individual who had exited the other group’s car. Id.

In 2002, Dominguez was convicted of one count of voluntary manslaughter, contrary to NMSA 1978, Section 30-2-3(A) (1994); one count of aggravated battery, contrary to NMSA 1978, Section 30-3-5 (1969); two counts of shooting at or from a motor vehicle, contrary to NMSA 1978, Section 30-3-8(B) (1993); and one count of conspiracy to commit tampering with evidence, contrary to NMSA 1978, Section 30-22-5 (1963, amended2003) and NMSA 1978, Section 30-28-2 (1979).

The Court of Appeals unanimously affirmed Dominguez’s convictions. See State v. Dominguez, No. 23,286, mem. op. ¶¶ 5, 14 (N.M. Ct. App. May 20, 2003) (non-precedential). Dominguez petitioned for certiorari review, State v. Dominguez, cert. granted, 134 N.M. 320, 76 P.3d 638 (2003), and raised two multiple-punishment double jeopardy issues under the United States Constitution that are relevant to this appeal. First, he claimed that his convictions of voluntary manslaughter and shooting at or from a motor vehicle resulting in Solisz’s death violated the protection against double jeopardy. Dominguez I, 2005-NMSC-001, ¶ 5. Second, he claimed that his convictions of aggravated battery and shooting at or from a motor vehicle resulting in Martinez’s injuries violated the protection against double jeopardy. Id. ¶ 17. On appeal, the parties did not dispute that these convictions were “based on the unitary conduct of [Dominguez] aiding and abetting” the shooting of Solisz and Martinez by another member of Dominguez’s group. Id. ¶ 6. Because shooting at or from a vehicle and voluntary manslaughter or aggravated battery involve unitary acts underlying separate charged offenses, id. ¶¶ 6, 7, the Court focused on ascertaining whether . the Legislature intended multiple punishments, id. ¶¶ 6, 18.

A divided Supreme Court rejected Dominguez’s claims and affirmed the Court of Appeals. Id. ¶ 26. Applying the Bloclcburger test and concluding that Gonzales was controlling precedent, Dominguez I refused to find a double jeopardy violation if a defendant was convicted of separately punishable offenses. 2005-NMSC-001, ¶¶ 8, 16, 21. Because the crimes of shooting at or from a motor vehicle and voluntary manslaughter each involved elements that were absent in the other crime, Dominguez I held that the offenses were separate, and therefore there was no double jeopardy violation if a defendant was convicted of both crimes. Id. ¶ 16. Similarly, Dominguez I held that the crimes of shooting at or from a motor vehicle and aggravated battery each involved elements that were absent in the other crime; consequently, convicting Dominguez of both crimes also did not violate double jeopardy. Id. ¶ 18.

This Court overruled Dominguez I in Montoya, 2013-NMSC-020, ¶¶ 2, 54. Montoya acknowledged that Gonzales, 1992-NMSC-003, and the cases that followed it, including Dominguez I, 2005-NMSC-001, had enabled cumulative punishment for the “theoretically separate offenses of causing great bodily harm to a person by shooting at [or from] a motor vehicle and the homicide resulting from the penetration of the same bullet into the same person.” Montoya, 2013-NMSC-020, ¶ 2. Montoya held that “currentNew Mexico jurisprudence precludes cumulative punishment for both .crimes.” Id. Montoya did not answer the question of whether the analysis for finding a double jeopardy violation for manslaughter and shooting at or from a motor vehicle also applied to convictions for aggravated battery and shooting at or from a motor vehicle, see id. ¶ 54, although the Court of Appeals has affirmatively answered the question in two unpublished memorandum opinions, see generally Munoz, 2014 WL 4292963, No. 30,837; Rudy B., 2014 WL 3039618, No. 27,589.

Dominguez filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus pursuant to Rule 5-802, seeking to retroactively apply Montoya to support the same double jeopardy claims he had raised in Dominguez I. The petition was summarily dismissed by the trial court for raising previously litigated issues. We then granted Dominguez’s petition for writ of certiorari, which was filed pursuant to Rule 12-501 NMRA. Dominguez v. State, 2013-NMCERT-010.

DISCUSSION

When reviewing the “propriety of a lower court’s grant or denial of a writ of habeas corpus,” the trial court’s findings of fact “concerning the habeas petition are reviewed to determine if substantial evidence supports the [trial] court’s findings.” Duncan v.

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Dominguez v. State
2015 NMSC 14 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 2015)

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2015 NMSC 014, 7 N.M. 692, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dominguez-v-state-nmctapp-2015.