Lawson v. Commonwealth

425 S.W.3d 912, 2014 WL 891266, 2014 Ky. App. LEXIS 37
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedMarch 7, 2014
DocketNo. 2012-CA-000472-MR
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 425 S.W.3d 912 (Lawson v. Commonwealth) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lawson v. Commonwealth, 425 S.W.3d 912, 2014 WL 891266, 2014 Ky. App. LEXIS 37 (Ky. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

OPINION

VANMETER, Judge:

Homer Ray Lawson appeals from his conviction for failure to register as a sex offender. He claims the trial court erred by refusing to instruct the jury on mistake of law. For the following reasons, we affirm.

In 2002, Lawson was convicted of one count of first-degree burglary and five counts of first-degree unlawful imprisonment. Two of the counts of unlawful imprisonment involved minors. He received a sentence of ten years’ imprisonment.

On December 1, 2010, Lawson was released after completing his sentence. Under the Sexual Offender Registration Act (“SORA”), Lawson was required to be placed on the registration system for adults who have committed sex crimes or crimes against minors. Before his release, Lawson was provided with a Kentucky sex offender registration responsibility form which explained his affirmative duties under SORA, including his duty to inform his local probation and parole office before moving. The form contained the following statements:

If my residence changes within the same county, I must notify the local probation and parole office on or before the date of the change of address.... I must register any address at which I reside for at least 14 consecutive days or 30 aggregate days during any calendar year.

Lawson complied with SORA by reporting to the local probation office upon his release and registering his parents’ address in London, in Laurel County, as his residence. Later, after receiving a new form in the mail, he mailed in the form and again registered his parents’ address.

On March 23, 2011, Lawson notified a probation and parole officer he had deactivated an email address and asked for a correction to his listing on the registry which erroneously indicated he had a rape conviction. On the Kentucky sex offender registry form he signed on that date, he again listed his parents’ address as his residence. The form included the following language: “I also understand that pri- or to any change of address, I am required to notify the local probation and parole office.”

In June 2011, Lawson became employed at a job twenty miles from his parents’ residence. He began staying with his girlfriend at her home in Keavy, also in Laurel County, because he did not own a car and it was easier for him to arrange transportation to work. His girlfriend’s father, who was also his co-worker and lived close by, drove Lawson to and from work. On the weekends, Lawson often returned home to his parents’ residence.

[914]*914In late August 2011, London City Police Officer Joe Smith was performing address verification checks in Laurel County for registered offenders. Officer Smith went to Lawson’s listed residence, learned Lawson was not living there anymore and was informed of Lawson’s current Keavy address.

On August 30, 2011, Officer Smith arrested Lawson outside his Keavy residence after he returned from work. Lawson admitted to staying in Keavy most of the time for the past couple of months. When asked why he had not registered, he indicated he intended to do so when he received his modification form in the mail.

Lawson was indicted for failure to comply with the registration system for adults who have committed sex crimes or crimes against minors and for being a second-degree persistent felony offender (“PFO”). At the jury trial, the Commonwealth presented testimony from Probation and Parole Officer Cheryl Cooper and Officer Smith.

Cooper testified Lawson signed an updated Kentucky sex offender registry form at the probation and parole office on March 23, 2011, but stated she did not read the form to him or explain his duties to update his registry address before he moved. This form was admitted into evidence.

Officer Smith testified Lawson admitted he had to report, but indicated he had not received his modification form in the mail yet. Officer Smith stated Lawson indicated it was acceptable for him to wait on updating his address on the registry until he received the form.

Lawson testified he stayed with his girlfriend so he would have a ride to work, but often returned to his parents’ house. Although he was aware he had to register a new address if he moved and intended to register his new address, he was not aware he had to register a new address on or before the date of the move and did not believe he was beyond the time limit for registering his new address. He testified he believed the periodic modification forms he received in the mail were for the purpose of registering a new address and he was not obligated to register a new address until he received a new modification form. He admitted receiving registry forms from the Department of Corrections containing information on time limits for registering a new address, having the capacity to read them and having read them, but indicated he must not have read the forms carefully because he did not realize he was obligated to update his registered address prior to receiving a new form.

During cross-examination, Lawson acknowledged receiving the Kentucky sex offender registration responsibility form before his release and the form was admitted into evidence. He also acknowledged signing an updated Kentucky sex offender registry form on March 23, 2011. At the Commonwealth’s request, Lawson read portions of these forms that stated registrants were required to register a new address on or before the date they moved. Lawson was able to read these provisions and explain they obligated him to register his new address before he moved. However, Lawson’s testimony did not establish he understood this obligation before he was arrested.

Lawson tendered instructions on the affirmative defenses of mistake of fact and law. Both proposed instructions stated as follows:

you shall not find [Lawson] guilty ... if at the time he committed the offense (if he did so), he reasonable believed that the time period within which he was to register a new or secondary address had not yet expired and therefore did not [915]*915form the intention to commit failure to comply with sex offender registration requirements.

Lawson argued he was mistaken as to when he was obligated to register his new address and an instruction on mistake was appropriate because no one was able to testify this obligation was read or explained to him. Lawson argued this legal defense negated the “knowingly” element of the crime and would be helpful to the jury. The trial court rejected these instructions, determining that because Lawson was advised of his obligation through the forms he received, no basis supported an instruction on mistake.

The court instructed the jury to convict Lawson if it found he had a prior conviction for unlawful imprisonment, was over eighteen years of age, changed his address and “[w]hen he did so, if he did, he knowingly failed to notify the Probation and Parole Office on or before the date of his change of residence address.” The court also instructed the jury as to the relevant statutory definitions.

The jury convicted Lawson of failure to comply with the registration system. During the penalty phase of the trial, the jury acquitted Lawson on the PFO charge. The jury recommended a sentence of four years’ imprisonment and Lawson was sentenced in accordance with this recommendation. Lawson timely appealed.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
425 S.W.3d 912, 2014 WL 891266, 2014 Ky. App. LEXIS 37, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lawson-v-commonwealth-kyctapp-2014.