State v. Hobbs

416 P.3d 322, 290 Or. App. 773
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedMarch 14, 2018
DocketA161886
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 416 P.3d 322 (State v. Hobbs) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Hobbs, 416 P.3d 322, 290 Or. App. 773 (Or. Ct. App. 2018).

Opinion

SHORR, J.

*323*775Defendant appeals a judgment of conviction for unlawful possession of methamphetamine (Count 1), ORS 475.894 (2015), amended by Or. Laws 2017, ch. 706, § 15, and endangering the welfare of a minor (Count 2), ORS 163.575.1 Defendant assigns error to the trial court's ruling denying his motion for a judgment of acquittal on Count 2. As explained below, we conclude that the court erred when it denied defendant's motion. Accordingly, we reverse defendant's conviction on Count 2 and remand for resentencing but otherwise affirm.2

Because we are reviewing the denial of a motion for a judgment of acquittal, we state the relevant facts in the light most favorable to the state. State v. Reynolds , 250 Or. App. 516, 518, 280 P.3d 1046, rev. den. , 352 Or. 666, 293 P.3d 1045 (2012). Douglas County police officers were responding to a report of a disturbance involving shouting and gunshots on a street outside a mobile home park when they encountered defendant outside his mobile home. The officers were concerned that defendant had been involved in the disturbance. The officers requested to search defendant's home for possible victims, suspects, or weapons related to the reported disturbance.3 Defendant consented to the search. Defendant told the officers that his daughter, an 11-year-old child who resided in the home, was asleep inside. The officers entered and searched the home. Defendant's daughter was asleep on a couch in the living room. Inside defendant's bedroom, the officers spotted what they believed to be a pipe containing methamphetamine residue and three empty "bindles," small plastic bags frequently used to store narcotics. The officers asked defendant if he would unlock a large gun safe in the *776bedroom, and defendant consented. Inside the gun safe, the officers saw a larger plastic bag containing a white crystalline substance that the officers believed to be methamphetamine, a pair of analog scales used for weighing marijuana, and other pipes.4 When questioned by the officers, defendant admitted to having methamphetamine in the safe in his bedroom and that the empty "bindles" in his bedroom had, at one point, contained methamphetamine as well. Defendant admitted to smoking some of the methamphetamine from the safe but claimed that it was "bad dope" that "didn't get him high." He also told the officers that he used methamphetamine "almost every day if he can get it," and that he had been "smoking methamphetamine for two to three years." The officers then arrested defendant. The state obtained an indictment against defendant for one count of unlawful possession of methamphetamine, ORS 475.894, and one count of endangering the welfare of a minor, ORS 163.575, based on the allegation that defendant's daughter was in the home concurrently with defendant's possession and apparent use of methamphetamine. *324At trial, the state presented evidence of the foregoing facts. Defendant then moved for a judgment of acquittal on the child-endangerment charge. Oregon's child-endangerment statute prohibits, among other things, allowing a person under the age of 18 to "enter or remain in a place where unlawful activity involving controlled substances * * * is maintained or conducted." ORS 163.575(1)(b). When making his motion, defendant argued that the state failed to present evidence that his home was a place where unlawful activity involving a controlled substance was maintained or conducted. The trial court concluded that, based on the evidence presented, a jury could reasonably infer that defendant violated the statute because there was evidence that defendant's minor child resided in the house and that defendant routinely used methamphetamine in the house. The court then denied defendant's motion. Subsequently, the jury found defendant guilty of both the unlawful possession and child-endangerment counts. As noted, defendant only *777assigns error with respect to the trial court's legal decisions on the latter count.

When we review a trial court's ruling on a motion for a judgment of acquittal, we determine whether a rational trier of fact "could have found the essential elements of the crime proved beyond a reasonable doubt." State v. Hall , 327 Or. 568, 570, 966 P.2d 208 (1998) ; State v. Cunningham , 320 Or. 47, 63, 880 P.2d 431 (1994), cert. den. , 514 US 1005, 115 S.Ct. 1317, 131 L.Ed.2d 198 (1995) (we review "questions of sufficiency of the evidence in a criminal case following a conviction by examining the evidence in the light most favorable to the state to determine whether a rational trier of fact, accepting reasonable inferences and reasonable credibility choices, could have found the essential element of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt"). On appeal, defendant reiterates his argument that the state failed to prove that his home was a place where he maintained or conducted activity involving unlawful use of a controlled substance. Accordingly, defendant asserts that a reasonable jury could not have convicted him of endangering the welfare of a minor as defined by the statute, and, as a result, the trial court erred when it denied his motion for judgment of acquittal.

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Bluebook (online)
416 P.3d 322, 290 Or. App. 773, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-hobbs-orctapp-2018.