State v. Fisher

131 Wash. App. 125
CourtCourt of Appeals of Washington
DecidedJanuary 9, 2006
DocketNos. 54986-3-I; 54987-1-I
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 131 Wash. App. 125 (State v. Fisher) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Fisher, 131 Wash. App. 125 (Wash. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinion

¶1

Cox, C.J.

— The primary issue that we decide here is what act or course of conduct the legislature has defined as punishable for identify theft — the “unit of prosecution.”1 We [128]*128also decide whether the trial court properly exercised its discretion when it concluded that convictions for two separate counts of bail jumping constituted the same criminal conduct. Finally, we address another sentencing issue regarding the community placement status of Jeffrey L. Fisher.

¶2 Here, the “unit of prosecution” is Fisher’s possession, with the requisite intent, of a means of identification or financial information of each victim. Furthermore, Fisher’s two separate acts of bail jumping, separated by four months, do not constitute the same criminal conduct for purposes of sentencing. Finally, the determination whether Fisher was on community placement at the relevant time must be determined beyond a reasonable doubt by a jury, provided Fisher did not waive that issue below.2 We reverse the sentence and remand for resentencing.

f 3 In March 2003, Fisher was arrested and charged with possession of methamphetamine. Fisher posted bail and was later charged with two additional counts of bail jumping when he failed to appear on two different occasions. A jury convicted Fisher of all three charges.

¶4 In May 2003, Fisher was arrested for driving with a suspended license. A search incident to arrest revealed multiple pieces of identification, checks, and account numbers, belonging to several different people, in his possession. The State charged Fisher with one count of second degree identity theft of Josiah Erickson and one count of second degree identity theft of Ryan Dubois for possession of each victim’s means of identification or financial information.3

[129]*129¶5 Additional charges against Fisher included numerous counts of possessing stolen property in the first and second degree and forgery. Fisher pleaded guilty to the two counts of second degree identity theft in exchange for the State dropping the remaining six counts.

¶6 The plea agreement reflected the State’s calculation that Fisher’s offender score was seven. At Fisher’s sentencing hearing, he successfully argued that the “unit of prosecution” for identity theft is “use,” not “possession.” The trial court counted the two identity theft convictions as one for purposes of scoring.4 The trial court also ruled that Fisher’s two bail jumping convictions constituted the same criminal conduct. Finally, the court added one point to Fisher’s offender score based on Fisher’s stipulation that he was on community placement at the time of his crimes.

f 7 The State appeals the judgment and sentence scoring the two identity thefts as one point and the two bail jumping convictions as one point. Fisher cross-appeals the one point added for community placement.

UNIT OF PROSECUTION — IDENTITY THEFT

f8 The State argues that the “unit of prosecution” for identity theft in this case is Fisher’s possession, with the requisite intent, of a victim’s means of identification or financial information. We agree.

¶9 ‘When a defendant is convicted of multiple violations of the same statute, the double jeopardy analysis focuses on what the legislature intends as the ‘unit of [130]*130prosecution’. . . .”5 In order to determine the “unit of prosecution,” the first step is to look at the statute.6 The plain meaning of the words of the statute determines its construction.7 Only if the statute is ambiguous do we resort to aids of construction, such as legislative history.8 If the legislature has failed to indicate the “unit of prosecution” in a criminal statute, the statute is ambiguous and the rule of lenity applies.9 Statutory construction is reviewed de novo.10

¶10 Former RCW 9.35.020, the identity theft statute, stated in relevant part:

(1) No person may knowingly obtain, possess, use, or transfer a means of identification or financial information of another person, living or dead, with the intent to commit, or to aid or abet, any crime.

(2)(a) Violation of this section when the accused or an accomplice uses the victim’s means of identification or financial information and obtains an aggregate total of credit, money, goods, services, or anything else of value in excess of one thousand five hundred dollars in value shall constitute identity theft in the first degree. Identity theft in the first degree is a class B felony.

(b) Violation of this section when the accused or an accomplice uses the victim’s means of identification or financial information and obtains an aggregate total of credit, money, goods, services, or anything else of value that is less than one thousand five hundred dollars in value, or when no credit, money, goods, services, or anything of value is obtained shall [131]*131constitute identity theft in the second degree. Identity theft in the second degree is a class C felony.[11]

¶11 Subsection (1) of the above statute defines the punishable acts that the legislature has prohibited. The plain words of that subsection include possession of either a means of identification or financial information of another person, with the requisite intent, as one of several punishable acts. The other prohibited acts include obtaining, using, or transferring, with the requisite intent, either a means of identification or financial information of another.

¶12 Subsections (2)(a) and (b) define the degrees of identity theft, respectively, as either in the first or second degree. But neither of these two subsections modifies the plain meaning of subsection (1), which defines the prohibited acts. Thus, under the facts of this case, the “unit of prosecution” is Fisher’s possession, with the requisite intent, of a means of identification or financial information of each victim.12

¶13 Fisher argues that under State v. Leyda,13 and the identity theft statute, the “unit of prosecution” is “use,” not “possession.” He misreads Leyda.

¶14 There, the defendant was charged with and convicted of four counts of second degree identity theft for using the victim’s stolen credit card four times on four different occasions.14 He argued that under the statute, the “unit of prosecution” is based on the number of pieces of financial information or means of identification “obtained” or “possessed,” not on the “use” of such information or identification. This court rejected the defendant’s reading, stating that under such a reading of the statute,

[132]*132[o]ne who possessed a sack of stolen credit cards, intending to use them but never doing so, would commit as many crimes as the sack held cards, while the thief who possessed only one card, but used it over and over, would commit only one crime.

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Related

State v. Fisher
126 P.3d 62 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 2006)

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Bluebook (online)
131 Wash. App. 125, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-fisher-washctapp-2006.