State v. Germonto

2003 UT App 217, 73 P.3d 978, 476 Utah Adv. Rep. 4, 2003 Utah App. LEXIS 61, 2003 WL 21467653
CourtCourt of Appeals of Utah
DecidedJune 26, 2003
Docket20020304-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 2003 UT App 217 (State v. Germonto) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Utah primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Germonto, 2003 UT App 217, 73 P.3d 978, 476 Utah Adv. Rep. 4, 2003 Utah App. LEXIS 61, 2003 WL 21467653 (Utah Ct. App. 2003).

Opinions

OPINION

JACKSON, Presiding Judge:

T1 Frederick Germonto appeals from a conviction for escape from official custody, a second degree felony, in violation of Utah Code Annotated Section 76-8-809 (1999) (escape statute). We reverse.

BACKGROUND

12 On February 5, 2000, Germonto, an inmate at the Utah State Prison, attended chapel with a group of other inmates. While walking from the prison chapel back to his housing unit, Germonto broke rank and sealed a ten-foot chain link fence that separated the inmate housing yard from the outer perimeter area of the prison. He then proceeded to scale the perimeter fence, which had razor wire at the top. Prison guards arrived and ordered Germonto off the fence. Germonto dropped from the fence back onto the prison grounds, ran parallel to the perimeter fence, then stopped and was taken back into custody.

T8 On March 9, 2000, the State filed an Information charging Germonto with violating the escape statute. A preliminary hearing was held before the Third District Court on August 17, 2000, at which Germonto argued that he could not be bound over on the crime of escape because he had not left the confines of the prison and therefore had not actually completed an escape.

T4 The district court judge, acting as a magistrate, rejected Germonto's arguments and bound Germonto over for trial on the charge of escape. Germonto filed a pro se motion to quash the bindover, which was denied. His case was then transferred to a judge in West Valley City, and Germonto renewed his motion to dismiss. Germonto also challenged the State's ability to request a lesser included offense instruction of attempted escape when it was proceeding on the escape charge based on an incomplete escape.

T5 On March 19, 2002, Germonto entered a conditional plea of no contest, expressly reserving his right to appeal the adverse rulings regarding the propriety of the bind-over. This appeal followed.

ISSUE AND STANDARD OF REVIEW

16 Germonto challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to support a bindover on the charge of eseape. To support a bind-over, the State must introduce "sufficient evidence to support a reasonable belief that an offense has been committed and that the defendant committed it." State v. Clark, 2001 UT 9,1 16, 20 P.3d 300. This requires the State to present believable evidence as to each of elements of the crime. See id. at $13. To determine the elements of the crime, the court must interpret the statute under which the defendant is charged. Statutory interpretation is a matter of law, which we review for correctness. See State v. Maestas, 2000 UT App 22,1 11, 997 P.2d 314.

ANALYSIS

T7 In interpreting statutes, we first look to the plain language of the statute. See Travelers/Aetna Ins. Co. v. Wilson, 2002 UT App 221," 12, 51 P.3d 1288. In considering the plain language of a statute, courts " 'presume that the legislature used each word advisedly and give effect to each term according to its ordinary and accepted meaning." " Arredondo v. Avis Rent A Car Sys., Inc., 2001 UT 29,§ 12, 24 P.3d 928 (citations omitted). We consider other methods of statutory construction only when a statute is ambiguous.1

[980]*980T8 The plain language of Utah's escape statute requires that an inmate leave the confines of the prison to be guilty of escape. The escape statute plainly states that "[al prisoner is guilty of escape if he leaves official custody without authorization." Utah Code Ann. § 76-8-809(1). Subsection (7)(b) defines "official custody" as "confinement in the state prison" for purposes of this case.2 Subsection (7)(a) further defines "confinement" as "housed in a state prison." Id. § 76-8-309(7)(a)). Thus, to be guilty of escape, an inmate must leave his confinement or housing in the prison.

T9 The term "housing" is not defined in Utah's escape statute. The State argues, and the trial court agreed, that we should construe the term to include only the authorized areas of the prison. According to this definition, Germonto completed an escape because he stepped out of the queue of inmates without authorization. Germonto argues that we should construe the term to include the "confines of the prison," or the perimeter fence and all areas of the prison within the fence. We are persuaded that Germonto's construction of the term "housing" better accords with the legislative intent of the statute.

110 Although decisions from other jurisdictions interpreting statutes with distinct language provide little guidance in interpreting the language of Utah's escape statute, the decision in State v. Gaines, 872 So.2d 552 (La.1979) is worth noting because the statute at issue in that case is similar to Utah's escape statute. The statute at issue in Gaines defined escape as "the intentional departure ... of a person imprisoned, committed, detained, or otherwise in the lawful custody of any law enforcement officer ... from any place where such person is lawfulty confined." Id. at 554 (quoting La. RS. 14;110(A)) (emphasis added). The court concluded that "any place where [a person is] legally confined" must necessarily be a place with physical barriers where the person is actually confined. Id. at 555. In reaching that determination, the court recognized that "[alny less definitive or more ambiguous definition of place of confinement would render the statute unconstitutionally vague." Id. In addition, the court recognized that even if the language were ambiguous, any ambiguity must be resolved in favor of the defendant. See id. at 554. Because Gaines departed from an okra patch on prison grounds where he was on work detail but did not otherwise leave the confinement or boundaries of the prison, the court held that he did not commit an escape when he ran from the line where he was working and continued running even after a guard told him to stop and fired warning shots. See id. at 558-54.

T11 Like the statute in Gaines, if Utah's escape statute were interpreted to allow a conviction for escape when an inmate has not left the confines of the prison, the statute would be void for vagueness. A stat[981]*981ute is unconstitutionally vague if it: (1) fails to provide a "person of ordinary intelligence a reasonable opportunity to know what is prohibited."; (2) "impermissibly delegates basic policy matters to policemen, judges, and juries for resolution on an ad hoe and subjective basis, with the attendant dangers of arbitrary and discriminatory application"; or (3) inhibits the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. Grayned v. City of Rockford, 408 U.S. 104, 108-09, 92 S.Ct. 2294, 2298-99, 33 L.Ed.2d 222 (1972). If we interpreted the statute so that an escape occurs even though the inmate has not left the official custody or confinement of the prison, the statute would violate the first two of these prohibitions.

1 12 First, a person of ordinary intelligence would not have notice as to what conduct is prohibited. The statute itself defines "official custody" as confinement in the state prison, and defines "confinement" as "housed in the state prison." While the statute defines the term "confinement," that term also has an ordinary and commonly understood meaning that is consistent with the statutory definition. - "Confinement" means imprisonment or being confined, i.e., being held within a boundary or bounded region.

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State v. Germonto
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Bluebook (online)
2003 UT App 217, 73 P.3d 978, 476 Utah Adv. Rep. 4, 2003 Utah App. LEXIS 61, 2003 WL 21467653, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-germonto-utahctapp-2003.