State v. Alvarez-Lopez

2003 NMCA 039, 62 P.3d 1286, 133 N.M. 404, 2002 WL 31994263
CourtNew Mexico Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 4, 2003
Docket22,189
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 2003 NMCA 039 (State v. Alvarez-Lopez) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Alvarez-Lopez, 2003 NMCA 039, 62 P.3d 1286, 133 N.M. 404, 2002 WL 31994263 (N.M. Ct. App. 2003).

Opinion

OPINION

SUTIN, Judge.

{1} Defendant Mario Alvarez-Lopez appeals his convictions for aggravated residential burglary, conspiracy to commit residential burglary, larceny over $250, and larceny of a firearm. As error, he asserts (1) erroneous admission of hearsay statements of a co-defendant, (2) double jeopardy, and (3) insufficiency of evidence. We affirm Defendant’s convictions for aggravated burglary, conspiracy to commit burglary, and larceny of a firearm. We reverse Defendant’s conviction of larceny over $250 on the ground of double jeopardy.

BACKGROUND

{2} While at work, the victim was informed that someone was looking in the window of his mobile home. He drove home ■with an employee and saw an unfamiliar car with a Texas license plate parked in front of his home. Defendant appeared from behind the home, and the victim asked Defendant what he was doing there. Defendant responded that he was looking for somebody who was dealing in race horses. Victim said there was no such person on the property and Defendant drove away in the Texas car.

{3} The victim noticed that a bedroom window had been broken. He then observed another man, later identified as Benjamin Valle Perches (co-defendant) come out of the home, carrying a tape measure and a utility knife belonging to the victim. While the employee kept watch over co-defendant, the victim went inside the home where he saw items piled up in the hallway, including several rifles and shotguns, a VCR, a pair of boots, and shoes, all belonging to the victim.

{4} The police arrived, arrested co-defendant, and read co-defendant his Miranda rights. At a police station, an officer interrogated co-defendant, who described the events and Defendant’s participation in the burglary. Co-defendant identified Defendant from a photo array. Thereafter, co-defendant was deported to Mexico. He was not available for Defendant’s trial.

{5} Defendant was convicted of aggravated residential burglary, NMSA 1978, § 30-16-4 (1963); conspiracy to commit residential burglary, NMSA 1978, § 30-28-2 (1979); larceny over $250 and larceny of a firearm, NMSA 1978, § 30-16-1 (1987). This appeal followed.

DISCUSSION

A. Admissibility of Co-Defendant’s Statements

{6} On the grounds of hearsay and violation of the state and federal Confrontation Clauses, Defendant objected to the admission of co-defendant’s out-of-court statements which were admitted in evidence as statements against penal interest. See U.S. Const, amends. VI, XIV; N.M. Const, art. II, § 14; Rule 11-804(B)(3) NMRA 2002. Defendant asserted the statements were not against co-defendant’s penal interest because co-defendant had been caught red-handed at the scene of the crime and was only attempting to minimize his own role, shift primary responsibility to Defendant, and receive lenient treatment.

{7} The district court initially ruled a written statement admissible, but became troubled by one of co-defendant’s remarks, namely, that “[Defendant] wanted to burglarize a house, he’s always done that.” Rather than admit the written statement, the court permitted the interrogating officer to summarize co-defendant’s statement without mention of the troubling remark. The officer began his testimony with facts told to him by co-defendant but not in the written statement: that both men had been drinking beer at the home of a relative of Defendant, and then, as they drove away from the home, the two discussed committing the burglary. Then, summarizing the written statement, the officer testified that Defendant was driving the car; co-defendant did not know where he was or what town he was in; they stopped in front of the mobile home, and Defendant got out of the car with a tire iron and proceeded to break a window of the home with the tire iron; both men entered through the window; once inside, co-defendant took a VCR, along with a pair of shoes; Defendant broke into the gun cabinet by breaking the glass of the cabinet and then removed several rifles and shotguns; both men piled up the stolen items in the hallway; Defendant suddenly yelled to co-defendant to hurry up and to grab the rifles; Defendant fled, leaving co-defendant behind; co-defendant was caught by the victim coming out of the home.

{8} Defendant contends co-defendant’s statements were made to curry favor and to shift blame to Defendant. As such, Defendant argues, co-defendant’s statements were exculpatory, not inculpatory. Defendant therefore attacks the propriety of the admission of co-defendant’s statements under Rule 804(B)(3) as statements against penal interest.

{9} Rule 11-804(B)(3) excepts from hearsay preclusion statements made against penal interest. We review under an abuse of discretion standard whether the statements were erroneously admitted by the district court under this exception. See State v. Reyes, 2002-NMSC-024, ¶¶ 34-35, 132 N.M. 576, 52 P.3d 948; State v. Torres, 1998-NMSC-052, ¶ 15, 126 N.M. 477, 971 P.2d 1267 (recognizing that there is “nothing sufficiently unique about Rule 11-804(B)(3) [as would] convince [the Court] to depart from the deferential standard of review applicable to other exceptions to the hearsay rule”); State v. Attaway, 117 N.M. 141, 144, 870 P.2d 103, 106 (1994) (providing that “[i]f the concerns of judicial administration — efficiency, accuracy, and precedential weight—make it more appropriate for a district judge to determine whether the established facts fall within the relevant legal definition, we should subject his determination to deferential, clearly erroneous review”); see also State v. Benavidez, 1999-NMSC-041, ¶ 2, 128 N.M. 261, 992 P.2d 274 (reversing and vacating portion of Court of Appeals opinion that discussed statement against interest exception to hearsay rule on the grounds that Court of Appeals applied the de novo, rather than the abuse of discretion, standard of review).

{10} The New Mexico Supreme Court has supplied a framework within which to analyze a district court’s admission of a statement under Rule 11-804(B)(3). In evaluating whether the court abused its discretion in its admission of co-defendant’s statements under Rule 11-804(B)(3), we examine the statements considering the surrounding circumstances, “including to whom the statement was made, whether the declarant attempted to curry favor with authorities, and whether the statement is collateral to the declarant’s criminal liability or exculpatory of the declarant.” Torres, 1998-NMSC-052, ¶ 29, 126 N.M. 477, 971 P.2d 1267 (citations omitted). However, rather than require the district court to dissect inculpating narratives or confessions in such a fashion as would call for the redaction of large parts of a confession, our Supreme Court has concluded that “facially-neutral but contextually-incriminating details may be admitted if a reasonable person in the declarant’s position would not have revealed them unless believing them to be true due to their strong tendency to subject the declarant to criminal liability.” Id. ¶ 14; see State v. Gonzales, 1999-NMSC-033, ¶¶ 7-9, 128 N.M. 44, 989 P.2d 419 (declining to read declarant’s statement in such a way as would cause it to lose any contextual meaning).

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Related

State v. Kenneth
New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2015
State v. Alvarez-Lopez
2004 NMSC 030 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 2004)
State v. Guzman
2004 NMCA 97 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2004)

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Bluebook (online)
2003 NMCA 039, 62 P.3d 1286, 133 N.M. 404, 2002 WL 31994263, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-alvarez-lopez-nmctapp-2003.