State v. Mitchell

237 P.3d 282
Washington Supreme Court·Decided August 12, 2010·No. 83169-6·Published·Cited by 5 cases

Opinion

237 P.3d 282 (2010)

STATE of Washington, Respondent,
v.
Marilea R. MITCHELL, Petitioner.

No. 83169-6.

Supreme Court of Washington, En Banc.

Argued June 29, 2010.
Decided August 12, 2010.

*283 Sarah McNeel Hrobsky, Washington Appellate Project, Seattle, WA, for Petitioner.

Seth Aaron Fine, Mary Kathleen Webber, Snohomish County Prosecutor's Office, Everett, WA, for Respondent.

SANDERS, J.

¶ 1 The State charged Marilea R. Mitchell with first degree criminal mistreatment after deputies discovered a severely malnourished four-year-old boy in her care. The State's amended information alleged that Mitchell, "a person who has assumed the responsibility to provide to a dependent person the basic necessities of life," recklessly caused great bodily harm to a "child or dependent person" by withholding those basic necessities of life. Clerk's Papers (CP) at 26. Mitchell now claims insufficient evidence supports her conviction because the terms "child" and "dependent person" are mutually exclusive in the criminal mistreatment statute, RCW 9A.42.020(1). She contends insufficient evidence exists to show she harmed a dependent person. We disagree. Mitchell's conviction is proper.

FACTS

¶ 2 The child in this case, S.A., was born in October 2002. For several years S.A. lived intermittently with his biological mother or with a foster family. When S.A. turned three, he returned to his biological father, Danny Abegg, who was Mitchell's boyfriend. While S.A. was not Mitchell's biological child, she shared responsibility for the boy's care, most notably when Abegg left for work. S.A. weighed about 38 pounds when Abegg took custody of him in late 2005.

¶ 3 About a year later, near Christmastime 2006, Mitchell's sister, Marie, visited the couple's house. Upon seeing S.A.'s thinness, she told Abegg and Mitchell she was worried about the boy's health and tried to convince them to schedule a doctor's appointment. The couple responded that they were trying to get some type of state medical coupon for a subsidized doctor's visit. Marie revisited the house on March 6, 2007. The day after that second visit, Marie called Child Protective Services because S.A. seemed sick and starved.

¶ 4 On March 7, 2007, Snohomish County sheriff's deputies rang the couple's doorbell to perform a welfare check. Abegg answered the door. After listening to the deputies, Abegg headed for S.A.'s bedroom, where he attempted to shut the door so the deputies would not see him put a T-shirt on S.A. Once in the bedroom, the deputies found S.A. lying in a bed soaked with urine. S.A. could not sit up in bed without his father's assistance. When Abegg picked S.A. up from the bed and tried to stand S.A. on his feet, the boy could not stand. He was shaking violently. Asked what he ate that day, S.A. responded that he had eaten popcorn and water. He said he did not eat vegetables, fruit, or meat.

¶ 5 Emergency medical technicians (EMT) were summoned to the scene. Like the deputies, they noted S.A. could not stand under his own power. Initial health checks clocked S.A.'s heart rate at between 30 and 60 beats per minute. The emergency crew rushed S.A. to the hospital. Joe Hughes, captain of the EMT crew, testified later that S.A. was "the most malnourished and emaciated child I have ever seen." Report of Proceedings (RP) (12/17/07) at 68.

¶ 6 At Providence Everett Medical Center, a pediatric and internal medicine specialist determined S.A. was "strikingly malnourished." Id. at 71. Doctors determined S.A.'s *284 core temperature was only 87.1 degrees, a likely side effect of chronic malnutrition. He weighed about 26 pounds, severely underweight for his age. S.A.'s scalp was flaking, and his hair was thin and brittle. Doctors believed his body was consuming muscle to produce energy. His body was metabolizing its own tissue. His blood chemistry was highly irregular. When nurses fed S.A. in the hospital, he threw up undigested food because his stomach could not process the calories. Both the pediatric and internal medicine specialist, as well as a pediatrician at Children's Hospital, determined S.A.'s condition was life threatening.

¶ 7 During his recovery, S.A. told doctors that if he was discovered eating food, he would have to sleep in the bathtub. After doctors transferred S.A. to Children's Hospital, he expressed concern about eating during daylight hours. S.A. told doctors he could eat only when it was dark out. He hoarded food and tried to hide it from hospital staff.

¶ 8 The State charged Abegg and Mitchell with first degree criminal mistreatment. After a bench trial in December 2007, in which Abegg and Mitchell appeared as codefendants, the court entered a guilty verdict and applied an exceptional sentence of 96 months' incarceration. The court found Mitchell guilty "as charged in the information." Clerk's Papers (CP) at 24. Mitchell appealed to the Court of Appeals, which affirmed the guilty verdict. State v. Mitchell, 149 Wash.App. 716, 724, 205 P.3d 920 (2009). Mitchell filed for discretionary review here, arguing (1) her conviction violated due process because insufficient evidence existed to convict her of criminal mistreatment because a "child" cannot fit the statutory definition of a "dependent person" and (2) her exceptional sentence was improper. We granted review in part, 167 Wash.2d 1001, 220 P.3d 783 (2009), to decide only whether the terms "child" and "dependent person" are mutually exclusive within the meaning of RCW 9A.42.020(1).

ANALYSIS

¶ 9 The meaning of a statute is a question of law we review de novo. Lake v. Woodcreek Homeowners Ass'n, 168 Wash.2d 694, 229 P.3d 791, 795 (2010) (citing Rozner v. City of Bellevue, 116 Wash.2d 342, 347, 804 P.2d 24 (1991)). The State must prove beyond a reasonable doubt every essential element of a charged crime. In re Winship, 397 U.S. 358, 364, 90 S.Ct. 1068, 25 L.Ed.2d 368 (1970). To determine whether the evidence is sufficient to sustain a conviction, we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution and determine whether any rational fact finder could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Engel, 166 Wash.2d 572, 576, 210 P.3d 1007 (2009) (citing State v. Wentz, 149 Wash.2d 342, 347, 68 P.3d 282 (2003)). "It is mandatory that a conviction be made only under the offense charged." State v. Thompson, 68 Wash.2d 536, 541, 413 P.2d 951 (1966).

¶ 10 This case hinges on statutory construction. Our "fundamental objective in construing a statute is to ascertain and carry out the legislature's intent." Arborwood Idaho, LLC v. City of Kennewick, 151 Wash.2d 359, 367, 89 P.3d 217 (2004). We first look to the plain language of a statute. State v. Armendariz,

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