In Re Delgado

251 P.3d 899
CourtCourt of Appeals of Washington
DecidedApril 4, 2011
Docket62682-5-I
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 251 P.3d 899 (In Re Delgado) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Delgado, 251 P.3d 899 (Wash. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

251 P.3d 899 (2011)

In the Matter of the Personal Restraint of Reynaldo DELGADO, Petitioner.

No. 62682-5-I.

Court of Appeals of Washington, Division 1.

April 4, 2011.

*902 David Bruce Koch, Attorney at Law, Nielsen Broman & Koch PLLC, Seattle, WA, for Petitioner.

Ann Marie Summers, King County Prosecutor's Office, Seattle, WA, for Respondent.

DWYER, C.J.

¶ 1 In this petition for relief from personal restraint, Reynaldo Delgado claims that the *903 trial court's instructions to the jury in his trial on charges of child rape and child molestation suffered from the same deficiencies as those in State v. Borsheim, 140 Wash.App. 357, 165 P.3d 417 (2007), thus violating his right to be free from double jeopardy. While Delgado's analysis of the jury instructions in his case is correct, it is also true that on direct appeal, in an opinion filed before Borsheim was decided, Delgado's convictions were affirmed in an opinion that rejected his double jeopardy claim. Because Delgado is not entitled to the direct appeal standard of review in this collateral proceeding, he must demonstrate actual and substantial prejudice in order to establish an entitlement to relief. He does not do so. Accordingly, his request for relief is denied.

I

¶ 2 A jury found Delgado guilty of two counts of rape of a child in the first degree and one count of child molestation in the first degree based on acts that involved Delgado's young daughter, whom he sexually abused over the course of two years.

¶ 3 Delgado appealed from the judgment entered on the jury's verdicts finding him guilty of all charges. On direct appeal, Delgado contended, among other things, that the trial court's instructions to the jury violated his right to a unanimous verdict and his right to be free from double jeopardy because the instructions did not explain the unanimity requirement or inform the jury that, to convict on multiple counts, each count must be based on proof of separate and distinct acts.

¶ 4 Delgado's double jeopardy challenge was rejected by a panel of our court in an unpublished opinion. State v. Delgado, noted at 139 Wash.App. 1068, 2007 WL 2085344 (2007), review denied, 163 Wash.2d 1027, 185 P.3d 1195 (2008). In the course of affirming Delgado's convictions, the court stated:

Here, Instructions 7 and 8 told the jury that it must "unanimously agree as to which act or acts have been proved beyond a reasonable doubt" and correctly told the jury that its "verdict on one count should not control [the] verdict on any other count." These instructions protected Delgado's right to jury unanimity and instructed the jury to decide each count separately. The court could properly instruct the jury to consider the criminal acts that took place between August 2002 and August 2004 for both rape counts, rather than identify a specific act that occurred during that period without violating Delgado's right to be free from double jeopardy because its Petrich[[1]] instruction told the jury it had to unanimously agree on specific acts to support each count. In addition, the State clearly elected two separate acts of rape, vaginal and oral penetration, as the criminal acts associated with the two counts during its closing arguments. The trial court did not violate Delgado's right to a fair trial or to be free from double jeopardy.

Delgado, 2007 WL 2085344, at *4. Delgado did not file a motion for reconsideration.[2]

¶ 5 Thirty-five days after our opinion resolving Delgado's direct appeal was filed, we issued our opinion in Borsheim, in which we held that jury instructions almost identical to the ones given to the jury in Delgado's case did not make it manifestly apparent to the jury that, to convict on multiple counts, each count had to be based on proof of separate and distinct acts. This error, we determined, required vacation of all but one of the convictions because of the possibility that the defendant's right to be free from double jeopardy had been violated.

¶ 6 Delgado now files a personal restraint petition (PRP), raising numerous issues including whether his right to be free from double jeopardy was violated by virtue of the jury instructions given. The double jeopardy issue was determined to be nonfrivolous, and counsel was appointed to represent him on that issue.[3]

*904 II

¶ 7 "In order to prevail on a personal restraint petition, a petitioner must establish that there was a constitutional error that resulted in actual and substantial prejudice to the petitioner or that there was a nonconstitutional error that resulted in a fundamental defect which inherently results in a complete miscarriage of justice." In re Pers. Restraint of Woods, 154 Wash.2d 400, 409, 114 P.3d 607 (2005).[4] "This threshold requirement is necessary to preserve the societal interest in finality, economy, and integrity of the trial process. It also recognizes that the petitioner has had an opportunity to obtain judicial review by appeal." Woods, 154 Wash.2d at 409, 114 P.3d 607.

III

¶ 8 Delgado contends that he has made the necessary showing of trial court error. In so contending, he points to the jury instructions given at his trial, which failed to instruct the jury that to convict him of multiple counts of rape of a child in the first degree, the verdict on each count must be based on proof of separate and distinct acts. We agree.

¶ 9 "[I]n sexual abuse cases where multiple identical counts are alleged to have occurred within the same charging period," the trial court must explicitly instruct the jury that they are to find "separate and distinct acts" for convictions on each count or must otherwise make "the need for a finding of `separate and distinct acts' manifestly apparent to the average juror." Borsheim, 140 Wash.App. at 367-68, 165 P.3d 417; accord State v. Berg, 147 Wash.App. 923, 932, 198 P.3d 529 (2008). In the absence of such instruction, it is possible for the jury, consistent with its instructions, to unanimously find that only one act had been proved beyond a reasonable doubt and yet base multiple convictions on proof of that single act. Berg, 147 Wash.App. at 931-35, 198 P.3d 529; Borsheim, 140 Wash.App. at 366-70, 165 P.3d 417. Where this trial error has been found to be present in cases on direct appeal, the proper remedy has been to vacate all but one of the defendant's convictions of the same offense. See, e.g., Berg, 147 Wash.App. at 937, 198 P.3d 529; Borsheim, 140 Wash.App. at 371, 165 P.3d 417.

¶ 10 The trial court's instructions to Delgado's jury were comparable to those given in Borsheim and Berg. The instructions to Delgado's jury did not explicitly require the jury to base each conviction upon a separate and distinct act. As a result of this instructional error, Delgado was "potentially exposed . . . to multiple punishments for a single offense," Berg, 147 Wash.App.

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Bluebook (online)
251 P.3d 899, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-delgado-washctapp-2011.