People v. Linares-Guzman

195 P.3d 1130, 2008 Colo. App. LEXIS 1072, 2008 WL 2522339
CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedJune 26, 2008
Docket05CA2445
StatusPublished
Cited by98 cases

This text of 195 P.3d 1130 (People v. Linares-Guzman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Colorado Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Linares-Guzman, 195 P.3d 1130, 2008 Colo. App. LEXIS 1072, 2008 WL 2522339 (Colo. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinion

Opinion by

Judge CASEBOLT.

Defendant, Uriel Antonio Linares-Guz-man, appeals the judgment of conviction entered on jury verdicts finding him guilty of first degree burglary, attempted aggravated robbery, and eriminal conspiracy to commit first degree burglary, aggravated robbery, and possession with intent to distribute a schedule II controlled substance. Defendant does not appeal his conviction for possession of a weapon by a previous offender. Defendant also appeals his sentences. We affirm the judgment of conviction, vacate the sentence on the conspiracy conviction, remand for resentencing on that conviction, and affirm the remaining sentences.

Defendant and several confederates agreed to steal money and drugs allegedly hidden inside the home occupied by the two victims and their parents. After the group went to the victims' home, one of defendant's confederates kidnapped one victim from the lawn in front of the home and transported him to the apartment of another confederate where he was tied, beaten, and kept overnight in a closet. He later escaped.

While the kidnapping was occurring, another confederate entered the home, brandished a gun, and demanded that the second victim give him money. The confederate eventually shot the second victim, who suffered serious bodily injury.

At trial, defendant's theory of the case was that he participated in the agreement and attempt to commit the robbery in which the group sought drugs and money, but that he did not intend or consider kidnapping the first vietim. After the jury returned verdicts finding defendant guilty of the above offenses, the trial court imposed aggravated range sentences based upon defendant's probationary status as follows: (1) twenty-four years in the custody of the Department of Corrections for the first degree burglary conviction; (2) ten years for the attempted aggravated robbery conviction to run concurrently; and (8) ten years for the conspiracy conviction, to run consecutively. This appeal followed.

I.

Defendant asserts that the jury instruction concerning first degree burglary and the instructions for the underlying crimes of aggravated robbery and theft violated his constitutional rights and require reversal. Specifically, he asserts that the burglary instruction failed to require the jury to unanimously agree on the offense he intended to commit upon entering the victims' residence. He also asserts that, because the elemental instruction for theft failed to list essential elements of the offense, the burglary convietion must be reversed. We disagree.

Where, as here, a defendant fails to object to a jury instruction in the trial court, we review the instruction for plain error. People v. Miller, 113 P.3d 743, 748 (Colo.2005) (plain error standard of review governs allegations of constitutional error, including both alleged instructional omission and mis-description of an element of an offense, in the absence of contemporaneous objection). Plain errors are those errors that "so undermined the fundamental fairness of the trial itself ... as to cast serious doubt on the reliability of the judgment of conviction." Id. at 750 (quoting People v. Sepulveda, 65 P.3d 1002, 1006 (Colo.2003)). In the context of an unpreserved claim of instructional error, the defendant bears the burden of demonstrating "not only that the instruction affected a substantial right, but also that the record reveals a reasonable possibility that the error contributed to his conviction." Id. (quoting People v. Garcia, 28 P.3d 340, 344 (Colo.2001)).

*1134 In reviewing a claim of instructional error under the plain error standard, we must consider the instructions as a whole to determine whether the jury was properly advised as to the law. People v. Rosales, 134 P.3d 429, 434 (Colo.App.2005).

In Colorado, defendants enjoy a right to unanimous jury verdicts. See § 16-10-108, C.R.8.2007; Crim. P. 31(a)(8). Unanimity means only that each juror agrees that each element of the crime charged has been proved to that juror's satisfaction beyond a reasonable doubt. People v. Guffie, 749 P.2d 976, 979-80 (Colo.App.1987).

The first degree burglary statute provides, in pertinent part, that "[a] person commits first degree burglary if the person knowingly enters unlawfully, or remains unlawfully after a lawful or unlawful entry, in a building or occupied structure with intent to commit therein a crime, other than trespass ... against another person or property, and if . while in the building ... the person or another participant in the crime assaults or menaces any person." § 18-4-202(1), C.R.S. 2007.

Defendant relies upon People v. Villarreal, 131 P.3d 1119, 1128 (Colo.App.2005), and People v. Palmer, 87 P.3d 137, 140 (Colo.App.2003), for the proposition that the elements of burglary as well as the elements of the underlying crime a defendant intended to commit must be correctly given to the jury, and that the jury must unanimously agree that the defendant intended to commit the underlying crime. The People assert that Villarreal and Palmer were wrongly decided, contending that while a jury must be unanimous about which charged offense occurred, it need not be in agreement about the alternative means by which that offense was committed. See Schad v. Arizona, 501 U.S. 624, 631-32, 111 S.Ct. 2491, 115 L.Ed.2d 555 (1991). We need not resolve this question because we conclude defendant's reliance on Villarreal and Palmer is misplaced.

As pertinent here, the first degree burglary instruction required the jury to find that defendant (or his confederate, if it determined that defendant acted as a complicitor) entered the home with the intent to commit either aggravated robbery or theft. Although neither the instruction nor the verdiet form required the jury to indicate which underlying offense it relied upon to support the first degree burglary charge, the jury unanimously found defendant guilty of attempted aggravated robbery and conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery as separate offenses. The instructions for those counts were proper, and defendant does not contend otherwise. Because the jury unanimously concluded that defendant was guilty of attempted aggravated robbery and conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery, it necessarily found that defendant intended to commit aggravated robbery upon the entry into the victims' home. See § 18-2-101(1), C.R.S. 2007 (to be guilty of attempt a person must have "actled] with the kind of culpability otherwise required for commission of an offense"); § 18-2-201(1), C.R.S.2007 (to be guilty of conspiracy, a person must have acted "with the intent to promote or facilitate" an offense); Villarreal, 131 P.B3d at 1128 (the failure to give a unanimity instruction may be harmless if the reviewing court is convinced that the verdict reflects unanimous agreement). This finding satisfies the intent requirement of first degree burglary as well as any requirement that the jury unanimously agree upon an underlying offense.

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Bluebook (online)
195 P.3d 1130, 2008 Colo. App. LEXIS 1072, 2008 WL 2522339, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-linares-guzman-coloctapp-2008.