Hidalgo v. Dist. Ct.

173 P.3d 1191, 2007 WL 4532538
CourtNevada Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 27, 2007
Docket48233
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 173 P.3d 1191 (Hidalgo v. Dist. Ct.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nevada Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hidalgo v. Dist. Ct., 173 P.3d 1191, 2007 WL 4532538 (Neb. 2007).

Opinion

173 P.3d 1191 (2007)

Luis HIDALGO III and Anabel Espindola, Petitioners,
v.
The EIGHTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT of the State of Nevada, In and for the COUNTY OF CLARK, and the Honorable Donald M. Mosley, District Judge, Respondents, and
The State of Nevada, Real Party in Interest.

No. 48233.

Supreme Court of Nevada.

December 27, 2007.

*1192 Gentile DePalma, Ltd., Dominic P. Gentile, Las Vegas, for Petitioner Hidalgo.

JoNell Thomas, Las Vegas, for Petitioner Espindola.

Catherine Cortez Masto, Attorney General, Carson City; David J. Roger, District Attorney, James Tufteland, Chief Deputy District Attorney, and Giancarlo Pesci and Marc P. DiGiacomo, Deputy District Attorneys, Clark County, for Real Party in Interest.

BEFORE THE COURT EN BANC.

OPINION

PER CURIAM:

In this opinion, we consider whether solicitation to commit murder is a felony involving the use or threat of violence to the person of another within the meaning of the death penalty aggravator defined in NRS 200.033(2)(b). We conclude it is not. We also consider whether the State's notices of intent to seek the death penalty against petitioners satisfy the requirements of SCR 250(4)(c). We conclude they do not. Accordingly, we grant the petition and direct the district court to strike the notices of intent to seek the death penalty.[1]

*1193 FACTS

Petitioners Luis Hidalgo III and Anabel Espindola are awaiting trial on one count of conspiracy to murder Timothy Hadland, one count of first-degree murder for Hadland's death (under alternative theories of principal, aiding or abetting, and co-conspirator liability), and two counts of solicitation to commit the murders of two alleged witnesses to Hadland's death. The State filed substantively identical notices of intent to seek the death penalty alleging three aggravating circumstances against each petitioner. The first and second aggravators are based on NRS 200.033(2)(b) and allege the two solicitation counts, assuming petitioners are found guilty of them, as prior felonies involving the use or threat of violence to another person.[2] The third aggravator alleges that Hadland's murder was committed by a person, for himself or another, to receive money or any other thing of monetary value pursuant to NRS 200.033(6).

On December 12, 2005, petitioners moved the district court to strike the State's notices of intent. The district court heard argument on the motion in March and September of 2006 and denied the motion from the bench on September 8, 2006. This original petition challenging the district court's ruling followed.

DISCUSSION

"This court may issue a writ of mandamus to compel the performance of an act which the law requires as a duty resulting from an office or where discretion has been manifestly abused or exercised arbitrarily or capriciously."[3] The writ will issue where the petitioner has no "plain, speedy and adequate remedy in the ordinary course of law."[4] The decision to entertain a mandamus petition lies within the discretion of this court, and this court considers whether "judicial economy and sound judicial administration militate for or against issuing the writ."[5] "Additionally, this court may exercise its discretion to grant mandamus relief where an important issue of law requires clarification."[6] The instant petition presents such issues. Further, considerations of judicial economy militate in favor of exercising our discretion to intervene by way of extraordinary writ at this time. Therefore, we have addressed the merits of the petition in this opinion.

Aggravators one and two: solicitation to commit murder as a prior felony involving the use or threat of violence under NRS 200.033(2)(b)

Petitioners argue that solicitation to commit murder cannot serve as a prior-violent-felony aggravating circumstance because it is not "[a] felony involving the use or threat of violence to the person of another" within the meaning of NRS 200.033(2)(b). We agree.

The crime of solicitation to commit murder is defined in NRS 199.500(2), which provides that "[a] person who counsels, hires, commands or otherwise solicits another to commit murder, if no criminal act is committed as a result of the solicitation, is guilty" of a felony. The elements of solicitation do not involve the use of violence to another, regardless of the crime solicited. The remaining question is whether solicitation of a violent crime can be considered an offense involving the threat of violence to the person of another. We conclude it cannot.

As this court observed in Sheriff v. Schwarz, "[u]nlike other criminal offenses, in the crime of solicitation, `the harm is the asking — nothing more need be proven.'"[7]*1194 Solicitation is criminalized, of course, because it carries the risk or possibility that it could lead to a consummated crime. But as this court stated in Redeker v. District Court, a risk or potential of harm to others "does not constitute a `threat' under NRS 200.033(2)(b)."[8]

Other jurisdictions have concluded that solicitation to commit murder cannot support an aggravator based on a prior felony involving the use or threat of violence to another person. For instance, in Elam v. State, the Supreme Court of Florida held that solicitation to commit murder could not support an aggravator based on a prior felony involving the use or threat of violence to the person, concluding that "[a]ccording to its statutory definition, violence is not an inherent element" of solicitation.[9] Citing Elam and other precedent, a Florida appellate court reached a similar conclusion in Lopez v. State that the crime of solicitation does not itself involve a threat of violence:

"The gist of criminal solicitation is enticement" of another to commit a crime. No agreement is needed, and criminal solicitation is committed even though the person solicited would never have acquiesced to the scheme set forth by the defendant. Thus, the general nature of the crime of solicitation lends support to the conclusion that solicitation, by itself, does not involve the threat of violence even if the crime solicited is a violent crime.[10]

The Supreme Court of Arizona addressed this issue in State v. Ysea.[11] The Ysea court considered whether solicitation to commit aggravated assault could support the aggravating factor of a prior felony involving "`the use or threat of violence on another person.'"[12] The court concluded that it could not because the statutory definition of solicitation did not require an act or a threat of violence as an element of the crime.[13]

The decisions in Elam, Lopez, and Ysea

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Related

Hidalgo v. Eighth Judicial District Court
184 P.3d 369 (Nevada Supreme Court, 2008)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
173 P.3d 1191, 2007 WL 4532538, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hidalgo-v-dist-ct-nev-2007.