State v. Hoyt

628 P.2d 515, 29 Wash. App. 372, 1981 Wash. App. LEXIS 2354
CourtCourt of Appeals of Washington
DecidedMay 18, 1981
Docket8545-0-I
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 628 P.2d 515 (State v. Hoyt) 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. Hoyt, 628 P.2d 515, 29 Wash. App. 372, 1981 Wash. App. LEXIS 2354 (Wash. Ct. App. 1981).

Opinion

Callow, J.

Gary J. Hoyt was convicted of first degree burglary and two counts of rape. He possessed a deadly weapon when he committed each crime. The appeal raises the following issues:

1. Whether the defendant unlawfully was convicted of first degree burglary when he also was convicted of first degree rape.

2. Whether his mental disorder rendered involuntary his confession and written consent to the search of his apartment.

3. Whether the victim's out-of-court identification of the defendant should have been suppressed because she identified him from a photograph of a lineup the day after she had viewed the lineup and had identified another person as the possible rapist.

Hoyt was convicted of raping a 22-year-old Kirkland woman on the morning of January 15, 1979. When the victim answered a knock at the door, a man pushed her aside and briefly searched her residence. She either fell or was pushed to the living room floor where he raped her and scratched her body with a knife. She did not report the incident to the police at that time.

The same man returned to the victim's home on February 11, 1979 about 5:30 p.m. As she was carrying out the garbage, he grabbed her and pushed her down the stairway. He cut the front of her body with his knife, inserted the knife and his fingers into her vagina, and then left abruptly.

The victim reported the incidents to the Kirkland police on February 15. A detective was assigned to investigate the *375 case, and the victim assisted in composing an Identi-Kit picture.

On April 6, 1979, Hoyt entered the Kirkland Police Department and asked to speak with a detective. According to one of the detectives, Hoyt said that he had become a Christian and wished to confess his sins, including assaults on several young men and women that had occurred during the previous year and a half. When the detective assigned to investigate the rapes noticed a close resemblance between Hoyt and the composite drawing, the detective read Hoyt his rights, which Hoyt acknowledged. Hoyt also acknowledged that he wished to waive those rights and to continue speaking with the detectives.

In the lengthy conversation that followed, the defendant described the various assaults, including the two occasions when he raped the Kirkland woman. At the end of the session, he gave his written consent to search his apartment. The detective again read the defendant his rights, had him read them to himself, and received his written waiver of rights. No written statement was taken, however, because the defendant appeared tired and disoriented.

After the detectives conducted the search, they drove the defendant, with his consent, to the area of the victim's home to determine whether he could identify it. The defendant recognized the house and the accompanying stairway. He was placed under arrest when they returned to the police station. The next day, April 7, 1979, the detectives took the defendant's written statement after they had read him his rights and had received a signed waiver of rights.

On April 10, the victim returned from a 3-day business trip to Alaska and learned at midnight that she was to view a lineup the following morning. At the lineup, she became very upset when she learned that a younger girl was present, who possibly had been attacked by the same man. The victim identified the tallest person in the lineup as the possible assailant. She did not complete the form properly. The victim told her roommate on the way home that she *376 knew she had made a mistake and by the time they reached home, she had decided to return to the police station to explain. Before she could do so, the detective assigned to her case came to her door, and she explained the problem. The following day, the victim identified Hoyt as her assailant when she viewed pictures of the previous day's lineup.

The defendant was charged with first degree rape, first degree burglary, and possession of a deadly weapon for the January 15 attack. He was charged with first degree rape and possession of a deadly weapon for the February 11 attack.

I

Burglary and Rape Convictions

First, Hoyt argues that the first degree burglary 1 conviction "merged" into the first degree rape 2 conviction under the rationale of State v. Johnson, 92 Wn.2d 671, 600 P.2d 1249 (1979). We disagree. Johnson held that a defendant cannot be separately convicted of any crime used to elevate a rape to the first degree "unless [the other crime] involves some injury to . . . the victim . . ., which is separate and distinct from and not merely incidental to the crime of which it forms an element." State v. Johnson, supra at 680. The court affirmed Johnson's first degree rape convictions but vacated the assault and kidnapping convictions because *377 those crimes are elements of first degree rape and because the victims had suffered no injury separate and distinct from the rape.

RCW 9A.44 provides for different degrees of rape. The chapter has been construed as exhibiting a legislative intent not to punish separately those crimes incident to first degree rape when those crimes did not have an independent purpose or effect. State v. Johnson, supra at 676.

In Johnson, the opinion noted that the existence of the burglary antimerger statute is evidence that the legislature had considered whether additional punishment should be imposed for a crime incidental to another offense. RCW 9A.52.050 provides:

Every person who, in the commission of a burglary shall commit any other crime, may be punished therefor as well as for the burglary, and may be prosecuted for each crime separately.

The court said:

If [RCW 9A.52.050] is read with RCW 9A.52.020 and .030, defining burglary in the first and second degrees, it will be seen that, while subsection (1) of .020 includes assault as an element, subsection (1) of .030 involves no other offense. Both, however, have as an element the intent to commit another crime. It would appear, therefore, that RCW 9A.52.050 has reference to such other crimes, rather than to the assault which is an element of first-degree burglary. From the fact that the legislature found this provision necessary, it can be inferred that the legislative assumption was that without it, a question would arise whether such crimes could be punished.

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Bluebook (online)
628 P.2d 515, 29 Wash. App. 372, 1981 Wash. App. LEXIS 2354, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-hoyt-washctapp-1981.