State v. Brusseau

532 P.2d 563, 96 Idaho 558, 1975 Ida. LEXIS 449
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 7, 1975
Docket11252
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 532 P.2d 563 (State v. Brusseau) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Brusseau, 532 P.2d 563, 96 Idaho 558, 1975 Ida. LEXIS 449 (Idaho 1975).

Opinions

SHEPARD, Justice.

This is an appeal from a judgment of conviction of voluntary manslaughter. The principal issue is the claim of former jeopardy presented by the classic hornbook facts. Appellant Brusseau, upon a plea of guilty, was convicted of assault with intent to murder; approximately one month later the victim died and appellant was then charged with murder in the first degree.

On October 4, 1971 during an altercation in Lewiston, Idaho, defendant-appellant Brusseau shot one Mike Arriola. On October 13, 1971 Brusseau waived his right to a preliminary hearing and an information was lodged charging him with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to murder. Brusseau was arraigned and informed of the charges against him. At the time the district court advised him that Arriola was not expected to survive and if the victim died the prosecution might seek a first degree murder conviction. Brusseau pleaded guilty to the assault information and requested immediate sentencing. On October 22, 1971 he was sentenced to an indeterminate term of imprisonment not to exceed 14 years.

Arriola died on November 24, 1971 and Brusseau was immediately charged with murder in the first degree. Following a preliminary hearing, probable cause was found and Brusseau was bound over for trial. Brusseau moved to dismiss the murder charge on grounds of former jeopardy and that motion was denied. Brusseau petitioned this court for a writ of prohibition which was likewise denied. Following a jury trial Brusseau was found guilty of voluntary mansiaugnter anu semenced to an indeterminate term not to exceed ten years on that charge, the maximum term authorized by I.C. § 18-4007. That sentence was designated to run concurrently with the sentence imposed on the assault charge. Appeal is taken from the order of the district court denying defendant’s motion to dismiss the murder charge and the judgment of conviction and sentence for manslaughter.

The general rule appears to be that if following a prosecution a new fact develops for which the defendant is responsible and the new fact, plus those previously existing constitute a new crime not susceptible of adjudication in the first prosecution the determination of the first proceeding is not a bar to a prosecution for the newly developed crime. 21 Am.Jur.2d, Criminal Law, § 186; Diaz v. United States, 223 U.S. 442, 32 S.Ct. 250, 56 L.Ed. 500 (1912); State v. Thomas, 114 N.J.Super. 360, 276 A.2d 391 (1971); cf. Annot. 11 A.L.R.3d 834 (1967).

Although no federal or state constitutional issue is raised herein we note that the language of the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution “ * * * nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb * * * ” differs from the language of article 1, sec. 13 of the Idaho constitution which states “No person shall be twice put in jeopardy for the same offense ‡ s|c ‡

I.C. § 18-301 provides:

“Acts punishable in different ways — ■ Double jeopardy. — An act or omission which is made punishable in different ways by different provisions of this code may be punished under either of such provisions, but in no case can it be punished under more than one; an acquittal or conviction and sentence under either one bars a prosecution for the same act or omission under any other.”

By legislative pronouncement, Idaho has thus adopted what approximates the “same act” test for double jeopardy and both par[560]*560ties to some extent rely upon Idaho case law interpretative of that statute.

The state asserts that State v. Randolph, 61 Idaho 456, 102 P.2d 913 (1940) is controlling herein on the interpretation of I.C. § 18-301, supra, and we agree. In Randolph the interpretation of the same statute was at issue and the facts were substantially similar to the case at bar. There the defendant was charged with criminal assault and battery and immediately pleaded guilty. Prior to sentencing, the victim died and defendant was then charged with murder in the second degree. The defendant was sentenced to four months imprisonment upon the assault and battery charge and, after having later pleaded former jeopardy unsuccessfully, was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced therefor. The court in Randolph held that the second action was not barred by § 17-301, I.C.A. [precursor of I.C. § 18-301], stating, “The courts under statutes similar to [I.C. § 18-301] have held that ensuing death is a sufficient additional act * * * to prevent a plea of previous jeopardy on a prosecution of a lesser offense prior to death, from barring a subsequent prosecution for a homicide charge.”

Appellant seeks to distinguish Randolph and cites the earlier case of State v. Gutke, 25 Idaho 737, 139 P. 346 (1914). We deem Gutke clearly distinguishable from the case at bar in that there the defendant was tried and acquitted upon a charge of selling beer to a minor and thereafter charged and convicted of selling intoxicating beverages within a prohibition district. The second charge arose out of the same sale as did the first and judgment of conviction therein was reversed. No additional fact or circumstance had developed following the trial for the first charge.

Since the penal code of California is virtually identical to the Idaho statute, both parties herein cite case law of California as support for their respective positions. See Neal v. State, 55 Cal.2d 11, 9 Cal.Rptr. 607, 357 P.2d 839 (Cal.1960), cert. denied 365 U.S. 823, 81 S.Ct. 708, 5 L.Ed.2d 700 (1961); Kellett v. Superior Court of Sacramento County, 63 Cal.2d 822, 48 Cal.Rptr. 366, 409 P.2d 206 (Cal. 1966). We deem both those cases clearly distinguishable from the case at bar on the same basis as State v. Gutke, supra. See also Ashe v. Swenson, 397 U.S. 436, 90 S.Ct. 1189, 25 L.Ed.2d 469 (1970); Ciucci v. State of Illinois, 356 U.S. 571, 78 S.Ct. 839, 2 L.Ed.2d 983 (1958); Diaz v. United States, 223 U. S. 442, 32 S.Ct. 250, 56 L.Ed. 500 (1912).

It is argued that somehow there has been a merger of the first conviction into the second and therefore the conviction and sentence for assault should be set aside and vacated. That argument ignores the fact that no appeal was timely filed from that first conviction and the appeal before us is only from the conviction and sentence for voluntary manslaughter “made and entered in the above entitled action in the above entitled court on the 30th day of November, 1972.” See also Carmody v. Seventh Judicial District Court, 81 Nev. 64, 398 P.2d 706 (1965) (citing State v. Hall, 86 Idaho 63, 383 P.2d 602 [1963]).

We turn now to the more vexing question raised by the pertinent portion of I.C. § 18-301 providing:

“An act or omission which is made punishable

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State v. Brusseau
532 P.2d 563 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1975)

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Bluebook (online)
532 P.2d 563, 96 Idaho 558, 1975 Ida. LEXIS 449, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-brusseau-idaho-1975.