State v. Lopez

2020 UT App 101, 468 P.3d 604
CourtCourt of Appeals of Utah
DecidedJune 25, 2020
Docket20190236-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 2020 UT App 101 (State v. Lopez) 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. Lopez, 2020 UT App 101, 468 P.3d 604 (Utah Ct. App. 2020).

Opinion

2020 UT App 101

THE UTAH COURT OF APPEALS

STATE OF UTAH, Appellee, v. ISMAEL ARENAS LOPEZ, Appellant.

Opinion No. 20190236-CA Filed June 25, 2020

Fifth District Court, Cedar City Department The Honorable Keith C. Barnes No. 161500523

Jose A. Loayza, Attorney for Appellant Sean D. Reyes and Jeffrey S. Gray, Attorneys for Appellee

JUDGE GREGORY K. ORME authored this Opinion, in which JUDGES DAVID N. MORTENSEN and RYAN M. HARRIS concurred.

ORME, Judge:

¶1 Ismael Arenas Lopez challenges his convictions for aggravated burglary and attempted aggravated murder. He argues that the district court erred in ruling that Utah Code section 76-5-202 prohibited the merging of his convictions. Lopez alternatively argues that the statute is unconstitutional. We affirm. State v. Lopez

BACKGROUND 1

¶2 In the wee hours of the morning on November 6, 2016, Lopez, using a hammer, broke into his ex-girlfriend’s home through a kitchen window. Once inside, he exchanged the hammer for a serrated knife he found in the kitchen, and he stripped down to his underpants and socks so that he could move about the house more quietly. Lopez then proceeded to the upstairs bedroom of his ex-girlfriend’s mother (Victim). He approached Victim, who was sleeping, and began choking her and “repeatedly” stabbed her “in the neck, back, face, and arm” with the knife. Victim started screaming and fought back, scratching Lopez’s bare chest.

¶3 Victim’s husband, who was sleeping on the downstairs couch, tackled Lopez as he fled the bedroom and attempted to exit the home. Victim’s husband held Lopez until police arrived.

1. We were not favored with a trial transcript and accordingly recite the facts from the initial probable cause statement and other facts gleaned from the record, to which Lopez has stipulated on appeal. Ordinarily, an appellant’s failure to include a trial transcript will result in a summary affirmance, given the difficulty for the appellant to demonstrate preservation, see Utah R. App. P. 24(a)(5)(B); the appellate court’s inability to assess prejudice if it concludes an error was made, see State v. Courtney, 2017 UT App 172, ¶ 22, 424 P.3d 198; and the appellate court’s inclination to “presume the regularity of the proceedings below,” see State v. Pritchett, 2003 UT 24, ¶ 13, 69 P.3d 1278, in the absence of a transcript. In this case, however, Lopez has stipulated to the relevant facts, and we are therefore able to address the legal issues he raises. We do remind appellants that failure to include a trial transcript, absent rare circumstances such as those presented in the current appeal, will almost always culminate in affirmance.

20190236-CA 2 2020 UT App 101 State v. Lopez

The injuries to Victim “were serious and life threatening,” but, fortunately, she survived the ordeal.

¶4 The State charged Lopez with aggravated burglary and attempted aggravated murder. Following a two-day trial, a jury convicted Lopez on both counts. Before sentencing, Lopez moved to have his aggravated burglary conviction merged with his attempted aggravated murder conviction. Relying on State v. Shaffer, 725 P.2d 1301 (Utah 1986), Lopez argued that “aggravated burglary is a predicate felony for attempted . . . aggravated murder and a lesser included offense and merges with the greater offense of attempted . . . aggravated murder.” Lopez further argued that Utah Code section 76-5-202, which provides that “any aggravating circumstance,” including “aggravated burglary,” “that constitutes a separate offense does not merge with the crime of aggravated murder,” see Utah Code Ann. § 76-5-202(1)(d), (5)(a) (LexisNexis Supp. 2019) (the anti-merger provision), 2 is “unconstitutional on its face or in its application to [Lopez].” Lopez asserted that the statute was “unconstitutionally vague, overbroad, and violates [his] due process rights . . . and is violative of the Equal Protection Clause.”

¶5 The district court denied Lopez’s motion, concluding that the plain language of the anti-merger provision “leave[s] no doubt that the legislature intended that [aggravated burglary] does not merge with [attempted aggravated murder].” It also rejected his challenge to the constitutionality of the anti-merger provision.

¶6 Lopez appeals.

2. Because the relevant provisions of the Utah Code in effect at the time Lopez committed his offenses do not materially differ from those currently in effect, we cite the current version of the code for convenience.

20190236-CA 3 2020 UT App 101 State v. Lopez

ISSUES AND STANDARDS OF REVIEW

¶7 Lopez argues that the district court erred by not merging his convictions. “Merger issues present questions of law, which we review for correctness.” State v. Diaz, 2002 UT App 288, ¶ 10, 55 P.3d 1131.

¶8 Alternatively, Lopez argues that Utah Code section 76-5-202 “is unconstitutionally vague and violates equal protection guarantees.” 3 Lopez’s constitutional challenge presents a question of law, which we review de novo, “recognizing that all statutes are presumed to be constitutional and the party challenging a statute bears the burden of proving its invalidity.” State v. Roberts, 2015 UT 24, ¶ 16, 345 P.3d 1226 (quotation simplified).

ANALYSIS

I. Merger

¶9 “The question of merger arises when two statutes or two portions of a single statute proscribe certain conduct, and the question is whether the defendant can be punished twice

3. It is not entirely clear whether Lopez is arguing that in addition to the statute being unconstitutional as applied to him, it is also unconstitutional on its face. But because we hold that the statute is not unconstitutional as applied to Lopez, we need not separately consider any potential claim of it being unconstitutional on its face. See State v. Herrera, 1999 UT 64, ¶ 50, 993 P.2d 854 (holding that because “[f]acial challenges succeed . . . only if the statutes at issue are incapable of any valid application,” the defendant’s “facial challenge fails a fortiori” where the court holds that the challenged statute was constitutional as applied to him).

20190236-CA 4 2020 UT App 101 State v. Lopez

because his conduct violates both proscriptions.” State v. Lopez, 2004 UT App 410, ¶ 4, 103 P.3d 153 (quotation simplified). Utah Code section 76-1-402 provides that “when the same act of a defendant under a single criminal episode shall establish offenses which may be punished in different ways under different provisions of this code, the act shall be punishable under only one such provision.” Utah Code Ann. § 76-1-402(1) (LexisNexis 2017). And when one offense is a lesser-included offense of another charged offense, a defendant cannot be charged and convicted of both. See id. § 76-1-402(3). But the Legislature may “exempt[] a statute from the requirements of the merger doctrine,” provided that “an explicit indication of legislative intent is present in the specific offense statute.” State v. Bond, 2015 UT 88, ¶ 70, 361 P.3d 104 (quotation simplified).

¶10 In the present case, the aggravated murder statute contains the anti-merger provision, which specifies that “any aggravating circumstance,” including “aggravated burglary,” “that constitutes a separate offense does not merge with the crime of aggravated murder.” Utah Code Ann. § 76-5-202(1)(d), (5)(a) (Supp. 2019). “The plain language of [the anti-merger provision] . . .

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2020 UT App 101, 468 P.3d 604, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-lopez-utahctapp-2020.