State v. Alvarado

875 P.2d 198, 178 Ariz. 539, 160 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 13, 1994 Ariz. App. LEXIS 41
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arizona
DecidedMarch 8, 1994
Docket1 CA-CR 91-0537, 1 CA-CR 92-1168 PR
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 875 P.2d 198 (State v. Alvarado) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Alvarado, 875 P.2d 198, 178 Ariz. 539, 160 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 13, 1994 Ariz. App. LEXIS 41 (Ark. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinions

OPINION

NOYES, Judge.

Appellant was found guilty of offering to sell marijuana, a class three felony in violation of A.R.S. section 13-3405, with one prior felony conviction. After being sentenced to a presumptive term of 7.5 years in prison, Appellant filed a direct appeal. He later filed a [541]*541petition for post conviction relief, which was denied by the trial court. Appellant then filed a petition for review of that denial. We consolidated the appeal with the petition for review. We have jurisdiction pursuant to AR.S. sections 12-120.21(A)(1) (1992), 13-4031 (1989), and -4033(A) (Supp.1992).

In the appeal, Appellant argues that his motion for judgment of acquittal should have been granted because there was no substantial evidence to support the conviction. See Ariz.R.Crim.P. 20. We conclude otherwise, but we also conclude that the case must be reversed and remanded for a new trial because the main legal theory argued by the State to support the conviction was an incorrect proposition of law regarding the mens rea element of the crime. Because the relief granted on the appeal moots the issues raised in the petition for review, we deny review.

I.

The trial was to the court, Appellant having waived his right to a jury trial. The State’s case was based on conversations Appellant had with undercover officer Flores. Both Flores and Appellant testified at trial. Viewed in a light most favorable to sustaining the conviction, the evidence is fairly summarized in this passage from the State’s final argument:

Mr. Alvarado said to Officer Flores if you give me $5,000 I will do the following. I will go to Douglas. I will free up a load of marijuana from Roberts. I will have that marijuana brought back to Phoenix on the Memorial Day weekend. I will sell the marijuana [to unnamed third parties], give you a hundred percent return on your investment and then I will give you an option on another 500 pounds of marijuana.

In his testimony, Flores explained the “option” part of the proposal as follows:

Once he returned my money after a ten-day period—$5,000.00 plus an additional $5,000.00—he would go back to Douglas and pick up another load between two and four hundred pounds of mariguana. Once he brought it to Phoenix he said I would have the option. We already negotiated purchasing for $575.00 a pound and I would have the option of buying the marijuana for that price.

The State later became concerned that Appellant might disappear if given $5,000, so Flores gave no money to Appellant, and Appellant was arrested based on the evidence summarized above.

The State originally charged Appellant with conspiracy to sell marijuana, but later dismissed that complaint and filed a new one charging Appellant with offering to sell marijuana. The State changed theories because it thought the evidence insufficient to prove an agreement between Appellant and Flores, but sufficient to prove an offer to sell marijuana even if, as anticipated, Appellant’s defense was that he never intended to sell marijuana. The State reasoned that offering to sell marijuana is a strict liability crime and that the speaker’s intentions are irrelevant.

As anticipated by the State, Appellant’s defense at trial was that he had no intention of selling marguana to Flores, his intention was to defraud Flores of $5,000 by taking his money and disappearing. This defense was weakened by circumstantial evidence, including Appellant’s testimony that he had sold large quantities of marijuana in the past.

II.

A motion for a judgment of acquittal should be granted if the State has failed to produce “substantial evidence to warrant a conviction.” See Ariz.R.Crim.P. 20. Substantial evidence is evidence that “reasonable persons could accept as adequate and sufficient to support a conclusion of defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.” State v. Jones, 125 Ariz. 417, 419, 610 P.2d 51, 53 (1980). In considering the sufficiency of the evidence, we evaluate the entire record, including Appellant’s testimony. See State v. Nunez, 167 Ariz. 272, 279, 806 P.2d 861, 868 (1991). To set aside a verdict for insufficient evidence, “it must clearly appear that upon no hypothesis whatever is there sufficient evidence to support the conclusion reached by the [trier-of-faet].” State v. Arredondo, 155 Ariz. 314, 316, 746 P.2d 484, 486 (1987).

[542]*542Although the State relied at trial and on appeal mainly on its strict liability theory, it has also argued the backup theory that Appellant did, in fact, make a “real” offer to sell marijuana to Flores and was therefore guilty on that basis as well. Because the court provided no explanation for the verdict, we consider all theories argued by the State in support of that verdict.

A.

A.R.S. section 13-3405(A)(4) provides: “A person shall not knowingly ... offer to sell or transfer marijuana.”

The State’s main theory is that, if the speaker knows what he says, and if what he says sounds to a reasonable person like an offer to sell marijuana, the speaker is guilty of offering to sell marijuana no matter what his intentions. This theory lacks a necessary mens rea because it would criminalize mere words, even those spoken without criminal intent. See, e.g., State v. Williams, 144 Ariz. 487, 488, 698 P.2d 732, 733 (1985) (holding that the general rule is that state must demonstrate some degree of wrongful intent in criminal cases); Spitz v. City of Phoenix, 127 Ariz. 405, 407, 621 P.2d 911, 913 (1980) (stating that requirement of mens rea in criminal cases is rule rather than exception).

“Knowingly” is defined in A.R.S. section 13—105(7)(b) (Supp.1993), which provides:

“Knowingly” means, with respect to conduct or to a circumstance described by a statute defining an offense, that a person is aware or believes that his or her conduct is of that nature or that the circumstance exists. It does not require any knowledge of the unlawfulness of the act or omission.

The word “conduct” in the definition of “knowingly” refers to something more than the mere utterance of words. See State v. Padilla, 169 Ariz. 70, 72, 817 P.2d 15, 17 (App.1991). To commit the crime of offering to sell marijuana, a person must be aware or believe that he has made an offer to sell the substance, not that he has told a lie or made a joke. Division Two of this Court recently reached this same conclusion in State v. Strong, 178 Ariz. 507, 508, 875 P.2d 166, 167 (App.1993):

The conduct proscribed by the statute in question here is an offer to sell narcotic drugs. To be convicted, a defendant must be aware or believe that he or she is making such an offer. This clearly would not include the sort of [“fraudulent, insincere, or made in jest”] conduct described by appellant.

See also State v.

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State v. Alvarado
875 P.2d 198 (Court of Appeals of Arizona, 1994)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
875 P.2d 198, 178 Ariz. 539, 160 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 13, 1994 Ariz. App. LEXIS 41, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-alvarado-arizctapp-1994.