State v. Payne

447 P.3d 515, 298 Or. App. 411
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedJuly 3, 2019
DocketA163092
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 447 P.3d 515 (State v. Payne) 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. Payne, 447 P.3d 515, 298 Or. App. 411 (Or. Ct. App. 2019).

Opinion

JAMES, J.

*517*413In Oregon criminal trials, jury concurrence is necessitated in two situations. "One situation occurs when a statute defines one crime but specifies alternative ways in which that crime can be committed." State v. Pipkin , 354 Or. 513, 516, 316 P.3d 255 (2013). The other situation occurs "when the indictment charges a single violation of a crime but the evidence permits the jury to find multiple, separate occurrences of that crime." Id. at 517, 316 P.3d 255. In that second scenario, decisions by this court, as well as the Oregon Supreme Court, have indicated that a party can address the issue either by requesting a jury concurrence instruction, or alternatively, "can ask the state to elect the occurrence on which it wishes to proceed and, in that way, limit the jury's consideration to a single occurrence." Id. (emphasis added). Unfortunately, the term "elect" and "motion to elect" have been used in caselaw to refer to different motions, made for different purposes, at different stages of litigation, potentially resulting in confusion. Also, cases describing precisely how a concurrence election is to be made, or what a trial court is obligated to do when faced with a motion to elect that is not concomitantly accompanied by a requested jury concurrence instruction, have been few. This case presents an opportunity to offer some clarity in the area.

In this case, defendant appeals a judgment of conviction on one count of menacing, ORS 163.190, raising two assignments of error. First, defendant raises a challenge to the trial court's failure to grant defendant's motion to require the state to elect a single factual occurrence that constituted the count of menacing. Defendant raises that issue asserting that it was preserved in the trial court, and the state does not contest preservation. Second, defendant raises a plain-error challenge to the trial court's failure to instruct the jury that it must concur on which factual occurrence constituted the count of menacing, acknowledging that he did not request a concurrence instruction. As we discuss below, we ultimately reject both assignments of error. Because we held in State v. White , 115 Or. App. 104, 838 P.2d 605 (1992), that the crime of menacing does not require an election of a single factual occurrence, and defendant does not challenge that decision in this appeal, both defendant's preserved and unpreserved claims must fail. Accordingly, we affirm.

*414The relevant facts are procedural in nature. The charging instrument alleged that defendant "did unlawfully and intentionally attempt to place [the victim] in fear of imminent serious physical injury" on a particular date in a particular county, but it did not specifically identify which occurrence constituted the crime.1 Immediately before trial, defendant moved to have the prosecution elect a theory of what action formed the basis for the menacing charge. The state declined to make an election at that time, stating that it would make an election if, after the evidence was presented, there was reason to do so. During the state's opening statement, the state told the jury that defendant was "charged with Menacing [constituting] domestic violence because of his threats to kill [the victim] and bury her if she talked to police." During its case in chief, the state presented evidence that defendant, the victim, and their son were traveling in the victim's car together. Defendant was driving. At some point during their car trip, defendant and the victim stopped at a store to buy beer, wine, and snacks. They began traveling again, and defendant began to drink the beer that had just been purchased. Defendant became agitated. As a result of his agitation, he and the victim began to argue about the language defendant was using in front of their child. Defendant needed to use the bathroom and pulled off to a rest stop. After defendant used the bathroom, the victim suggested that she drive because she had not been drinking. Defendant refused to allow the victim to drive, saying that he would leave without her if she did not get back into the car. The victim returned to the vehicle.

*518After she did so, defendant threatened to put the car into reverse and crash into something to kill everybody in the vehicle. Defendant then put the vehicle into reverse and accelerated backwards at a high rate of speed. The victim grabbed defendant's face to try to get him to stop accelerating backwards. He did stop accelerating backwards, but then grabbed the victim and violently attacked her.

*415After the attack was over, the victim exited the vehicle. Defendant informed the victim that he would take the child and leave without her if she did not return to the car. The victim returned to the car. Defendant proceeded to drive the three of them home. On the drive home, defendant told the victim he had a knife and a gun. The victim never saw the gun but did see the knife. Defendant told the victim that she should not contact the police or he would kill her, dispose of her body, and burn down her house. Over the course of the drive home, defendant threatened the victim. Defendant drove to his house, he exited the car, and the victim departed for her house with their son. At some point after, defendant's mother arrived at the victim's house, and together they called the police.

The victim and child both testified. The child testified only that defendant drove quickly backwards in the vehicle, and violently attacked the victim after she grabbed him. At the close of evidence, while working out jury instructions, defendant again requested that the state make an election as to the occurrence that constituted menacing. The state argued that it would be hard to "encapsulate" the conduct that constituted menacing, but specified that "having the gun and making threats[,] * * * [d]riving and making threats[,] * * * [t]he manner in which [defendant] was driving[,] * * * [and] [h]is statements to [the victim]" constituted the count of menacing.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Richards v. Brown
345 Or. App. 321 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2025)
State v. Bravo-Chavez
343 Or. App. 326 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2025)
State v. Bissett
342 Or. App. 742 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2025)
State v. Leyva
330 Or. App. 107 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2024)
State v. Wicks
323 Or. App. 465 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2022)
Tenorio v. Bowser
513 P.3d 1 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2022)
Antoine v. Taylor
499 P.3d 48 (Oregon Supreme Court, 2021)
State v. Acosta
489 P.3d 608 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2021)
State v. Chitwood
483 P.3d 1157 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2021)
State v. Arellano-Sanchez
481 P.3d 349 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2021)
Antoine v. Taylor
465 P.3d 238 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2020)
State v. Burris
456 P.3d 684 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2019)
State v. Theriault
452 P.3d 1051 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2019)
State v. Gocan
450 P.3d 591 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2019)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
447 P.3d 515, 298 Or. App. 411, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-payne-orctapp-2019.