State v. Elliott

New Mexico Court of Appeals·Decided November 19, 2024·Unpublished

Opinion

The slip opinion is the first version of an opinion released by the Clerk of the Court of Appeals. Once an opinion is selected for publication by the Court, it is assigned a vendor-neutral citation by the Clerk of the Court for compliance with Rule 23-112 NMRA, authenticated and formally published. The slip opinion may contain deviations from the formal authenticated opinion.

1 IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO 2 Opinion Number:__________ 3 Filing Date: November 19, 2024 4 No. A-1-CA-40436 5 STATE OF NEW MEXICO, 6 Plaintiff-Appellee, 7 v.

8 MAURY MONTEL ELLIOTT a/k/a 9 MAURY MONTEL ELLIOT,

10 Defendant-Appellant.

11 APPEAL FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF SANTA FE COUNTY 12 T. Glenn Ellington, District Court Judge

13 Raúl Torrez, Attorney General 14 Lee Green, Assistant Solicitor General 15 Santa Fe, NM

16 for Appellee

17 Bennett J. Baur, Chief Public Defender 18 Mary Barket, Assistant Appellate Defender 19 Santa Fe, NM

20 for Appellant 1 OPINION 2 YOHALEM, Judge. 3 {1} Defendant Maury Montel Elliott appeals his convictions for contributing to 4 the delinquency of a minor (CDM), contrary to NMSA 1978, Section 30-6-3 (1990); 5 and criminal sexual penetration in the commission of a felony (CSP II-felony), 6 contrary to NMSA 1978, Section 30-9-11(E)(5) (2009). Defendant’s primary claim 7 is that his right to be free from double jeopardy was violated by his convictions for 8 both CDM and CSP II-felony, where CDM was also the predicate felony relied on 9 to increase what was otherwise criminal sexual penetration of a minor (CSPM), a 10 fourth degree felony, to CSP II-felony, a second degree felony. Defendant also 11 challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to support his CDM and CSP II-felony 12 convictions. Finally, Defendant contends that CDM is not an appropriate predicate 13 felony to support a CSP II-felony conviction because it is too generic and 14 nonspecific, or alternatively that, when CDM is the predicate felony, the use of force 15 or coercion should be included in the jury instructions as an essential element of CSP 16 II-felony. We conclude that Defendant’s convictions for both CDM and CSP II- 17 felony violate Defendant’s right to be free from double jeopardy. We, therefore, 18 vacate Defendant’s conviction for CDM. We otherwise affirm.

1 BACKGROUND 2 {2} The State presented the following evidence at Defendant’s trial. Defendant, 3 who was twenty-three years old at the time, and his adult friend, met fifteen-year- 4 old Victim, and Victim’s fifteen-year-old friend, one evening at the plaza in Santa 5 Fe, New Mexico. The two men approached the girls and offered them a drink of 6 alcohol from a bottle concealed in a brown paper bag. The two men and the two girls 7 chatted for about twenty minutes. When they left, Victim got both men’s Instagram 8 accounts. They planned to meet again at the plaza the following week. 9 {3} When that meeting did not work out, Defendant and his friend contacted 10 Victim through the friend’s Instagram account. During the conversation, Victim 11 mentioned that her mother would be out of town that night. Defendant, his friend, 12 and Victim made plans to meet that evening. 13 {4} Victim testified that, approximately ten minutes after her mother’s departure 14 for the night, she contacted one of the men and instructed him to pick her up at a 15 school near her house. Victim snuck out and walked to the school. When Victim 16 arrived at the school, the two men came up to her and handed her a glass container 17 of alcohol. The three got into Defendant’s friend’s car. 18 {5} Defendant’s friend drove around the downtown area, and eventually stopped 19 at a park where the three were alone. Victim and the two men got out of the car, sat 20 on a curb, and began passing the bottle of alcohol around, each taking a drink.

1 Defendant’s friend was smoking marijuana, and drank less frequently than 2 Defendant and Victim, so Defendant and Victim passed the bottle back-and-forth, 3 each drinking from it. When Victim mentioned not knowing how to smoke 4 marijuana, Defendant inhaled smoke, created a tunnel with his hands (or with his 5 hand and Victim’s hand), connected one end of the tunnel to the end of his lips and 6 the other to Victim’s mouth, and blew the marijuana smoke directly into her mouth. 7 {6} Victim testified that, after a while, she could not hold her head up and had to 8 put her hands behind her on the curb in order to support herself. After another few 9 rounds of drinking, Victim testified she “couldn’t even walk straight” and was 10 “really out of it.” When asked how much she drank, Victim answered that she drank 11 “a lot for [her]” because she was “in and out [of consciousness] the whole night.” 12 {7} Victim fell down and vomited and one or both men (Victim could not 13 remember) helped Victim get up and get back into Defendant’s friend’s car. They 14 drove to Defendant’s apartment. When Victim tried to get out of the car, she 15 struggled, lacked balance, and could not walk on her own. Defendant’s friend helped 16 Victim out of the car and helped her walk up the stairs to Defendant’s apartment. 17 {8} Once in the apartment, Victim testified that she began to feel sick again. 18 Defendant helped Victim to the restroom and then to his bed. Defendant then lay 19 down on the opposite side of the bed, next to Victim. Defendant’s friend fell asleep 20 on the floor next to the bed.

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