State v. Nieto

CourtNew Mexico Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 25, 2023
StatusUnpublished

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

Bluebook
State v. Nieto, (N.M. Ct. App. 2023).

Opinion

The slip opinion is the first version of an opinion released by the Chief Clerk of the Supreme Court. Once an opinion is selected for publication by the Court, it is assigned a vendor-neutral citation by the Chief Clerk for compliance with Rule 23-112 NMRA, authenticated and formally published. The slip opinion may contain deviations from the formal authenticated opinion.

1 IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO

2 Opinion Number: ________________

3 Filing Date: July 25, 2023

4 No. A-1-CA-39807

5 STATE OF NEW MEXICO,

6 Plaintiff-Appellee,

7 v.

8 MICHAEL NIETO,

9 Defendant-Appellant.

10 APPEAL FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF BERNALILLO COUNTY 11 Cindy Leos, District Court Judge

12 Raúl Torrez, Attorney General 13 Santa Fe, NM 14 Van Snow, Assistant Attorney General 15 Albuquerque, NM

16 for Appellee

17 Bennett J. Baur, Chief Public Defender 18 Mary Barket, Assistant Appellate Defender 19 Santa Fe, NM

20 for Appellant 1 OPINION

2 YOHALEM, Judge.

3 {1} A jury convicted Defendant Michael Nieto of battery upon a peace officer,

4 contrary to NMSA 1978, Section 30-22-24 (1971); aggravated assault upon a peace

5 officer (deadly weapon), contrary to NMSA 1978, Section 30-22-22 (1971);

6 aggravated fleeing a law enforcement officer, contrary to NMSA 1978, Section 30-

7 22-1.1 (2003, amended 2022); reckless driving, contrary to NMSA 1978, Section

8 66-8-113 (1987); resisting, evading or obstructing an officer (arrest), contrary to

9 NMSA 1978, Section 30-22-1 (1981); and leaving the scene of an accident (property

10 damage), contrary to NMSA 1978, Section 66-7-202 (1978), based on an encounter

11 with police officers on June 16, 2019, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The district

12 court dismissed Defendant’s reckless driving conviction on double jeopardy

13 grounds. Defendant claims on appeal that several of his six remaining convictions

14 are based on the same conduct and violate double jeopardy. Defendant also

15 challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to support his conviction for leaving the

16 scene of an accident. We agree that Defendant’s convictions for resisting, evading

17 or obstructing an officer and for aggravated fleeing a police officer violate double

18 jeopardy and must be vacated. Otherwise, we affirm. 1 BACKGROUND

2 {2} All of the charges in this case arose out of events that occurred on June 16,

3 2019. That morning, Albuquerque Police Officers Mares and Briones responded to

4 a call about a man who was asleep behind the wheel of a pickup truck. That man was

5 later identified as Defendant. Officer Mares arrived first and pulled up behind

6 Defendant’s truck. Officer Mares was in uniform, was driving a marked police

7 vehicle, and his emergency lights were on. Leaving his vehicle with its emergency

8 lights flashing, Officer Mares approached Defendant’s pickup truck. Through the

9 window, Officer Mares saw Defendant unconscious in the driver’s seat. According

10 to Officer Mares, Defendant “kind of pop[ped] up,” and Officer Mares identified

11 himself as a police officer. At that time, Officer Mares saw a handgun in the

12 passenger seat. Officer Mares opened the driver’s side door, grabbed and held one

13 of Defendant’s hands to his side, and told Defendant to step out of his truck.

14 Defendant refused. By this time Officer Briones had arrived and was assisting

15 Officer Mares. Officer Briones was able to take the gun from the passenger seat and

16 place it on the hood of the truck, out of Defendant’s reach.

17 {3} Officer Mares testified that, at that point, Defendant put the truck in drive,

18 grabbed him, and pulled him into the truck. Defendant then accelerated and

19 continued to drive for several miles with Officer Mares partially hanging out the

20 door, clinging to the headrest to keep himself from falling to the road, until

2 1 Defendant’s truck crashed head-on into another vehicle driven by Joaquin Sisneros

2 and came to a stop, injuring Sisneros and damaging his car.

3 {4} Defendant threw Officer Mares out of his truck and began to run with Officer

4 Mares chasing him. Defendant was tackled 25 to 50 feet away from the impact with

5 Sisneros’s vehicle in a Burger King parking lot, after having crossed over a couple

6 of lanes of traffic, a sidewalk, and some landscaping.

7 DISCUSSION

8 I. Double Jeopardy

9 {5} The double jeopardy clause “protects defendants from receiving multiple

10 punishments for the same offense.” State v. Ramirez, 2018-NMSC-003, ¶ 38, 409

11 P.3d 902 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted); see U.S. Const. amend. V;

12 N.M. Const. art. II, § 15. Defendant raises what is known as a double description

13 double jeopardy claim, “in which a single act results in multiple charges under

14 different criminal statutes.” State v. Bernal, 2006-NMSC-050, ¶ 7, 140 N.M. 644,

15 146 P.3d 289.

16 {6} In analyzing double description claims, we apply the two-part test set forth in

17 Swafford v. State, 1991-NMSC-043, ¶ 25, 112 N.M. 3, 810 P.2d 1223, determining

18 first: (1) whether the conduct underlying the offenses is unitary; and (2) if so,

19 whether the Legislature intended to punish the offenses separately. See State v.

20 Begaye, ___-NMSC-___, ¶ 13, ___ P.3d ___ (S-1-SC-38797, Jan. 12, 2023). “‘Only

3 1 if the first part of the test is answered in the affirmative, and the second in the

2 negative, will the double jeopardy clause prohibit multiple punishment in the same

3 trial.’” Id. (quoting Swafford, 1991-NMSC-043, ¶ 25.)

4 {7} A defendant’s conduct is unitary “if the acts are not separated by sufficient

5 indicia of distinctness.” State v. Porter, 2020-NMSC-020, ¶ 12, 476 P.3d 1201

6 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). Our Supreme Court in State v.

7 Barrera, 2001-NMSC-014, ¶ 36, 130 N.M. 227, 22 P.3d 1177 stated,

8 The “indicia of distinctness” include the separation between the illegal 9 acts by either time or physical distance, “the quality and nature” of the 10 individual acts, and the objectives and results of each act. Distinctness 11 may also be established by the existence of an intervening event, the 12 defendant’s intent as evinced by his or her conduct and utterances, the 13 number of victims, and the behavior of the defendant between acts.

14 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). In determining whether conduct is

15 unitary, we consider “the elements of the charged offenses, the facts presented at

16 trial, and the instructions given to the jury.” State v. Sena, 2020-NMSC-011, ¶ 46,

17 470 P.3d 227. If we determine that the conduct was not unitary, there is no double

18 jeopardy violation and our analysis need not proceed further. If we determine,

19 however, that the conduct was unitary, then we must proceed to the second inquiry:

20 “whether the [L]egislature intended multiple punishments for the unitary conduct.”

21 State v. Andazola, 2003-NMCA-146, ¶ 15, 134 N.M. 710, 82 P.3d 77.

22 {8} In answering this second question, we begin, as we always do when analyzing

23 legislative intent, by looking to the plain language of the statute. Begaye, ___-

4 1 NMSC-___, ¶ 21. If the statute does not explicitly authorize multiple punishments,

2 we next apply the Blockburger test. Id. ¶¶ 21-22. We use the strict-elements

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Related

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Swafford v. State
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State v. Cunningham
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State v. Boergadine
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State v. Andazola
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State v. Padilla
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Herron v. State
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State v. Barr
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State v. Barrera
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State v. Padilla
2008 NMSC 006 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 2008)
State v. Almanzar
2014 NMSC 001 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 2013)
State v. Garcia
2016 NMSC 034 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 2016)
State v. Ramirez
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State v. Silvas
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State v. Padilla
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State v. Nieto, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-nieto-nmctapp-2023.