State v. Pierre

31 P.3d 1207, 108 Wash. App. 378
Court of Appeals of Washington·Decided September 10, 2001·No. No. 46369-1-I·Published·Cited by 10 cases

Opinion

Appelwick, J.

Miguel Pierre appeals his first degree assault conviction. A rational trier of fact could find that a [380] defendant’s repeated kicking of a defenseless victim in the head is “force or means likely to produce great bodily harm or death” in violation of the first degree assault statute. RCW 9A.36.011(l)(a). We affirm.

FACTS

On March 27, 1999, Said Abasheikh, a 16-year-old boy, rode his bicycle to a store in his Seattle neighborhood. Miguel Pierre and his three friends, Pulefano Ativalu, Michael Gallow, and Michael Anderson, confronted Abasheikh outside the store. Gallow struck Abasheikh with a stick and took Abasheikh’s bicycle from him. They pulled Abasheikh into their car and drove off with him. Two women witnessed the incident.

Later that day, Abasheikh and his uncle’s friend, Molid Mohamed, drove to the same store where the earlier dispute had occurred. Abasheikh remained in the passenger seat while Mohamed walked to the store to buy a telephone calling card. Pierre and his friends were also in the area of the store. They ran toward Mohamed. The group pointed to Abasheikh and shouted, “[T]his is the guy.” Ativalu grabbed Mohamed’s jacket. He then pushed Mohamed in the chest, asking him, “Do you have a problem?” Another guy came up and pushed Mohamed, preventing him from entering the store. Mohamed saw a car parked next to his. There were other men sitting in the car repeatedly yelling “get” Abasheikh. Mohamed eventually found his way into the store and called 9-1-1.

Meanwhile Abasheikh remained in the car and attempted to lock himself in. Before he could do so, Pierre and his friends began opening the car doors. Abasheikh crawled out of the car on the driver’s side. Someone punched him, and he fell back into the car. Abasheikh was then pulled out by his feet. His head hit the concrete. As Abasheikh lay defenseless on the ground, Ativalu’s friends kicked and stomped Abasheikh’s head repeatedly. Pierre later told the [381] police that “[e]ach one of them kicked the kid in the head about 15 times.”

The State charged Pierre, Ativalu, Gallow, and Anderson with first degree assault. Gallow and Anderson pleaded guilty. Pierre and Ativalu proceeded to trial. At trial, Mohamed testified that there were about 10 guys at the scene. There was a crowd surrounding Abasheikh, who was lying on the ground. Although Mohamed could not clearly see Abasheikh through the crowd, he saw the men repeatedly kick at Abasheikh. By the time the kicking stopped, Abasheikh was lying facedown. He was bleeding, convulsing, and unresponsive.1 Mohamed knelt down and sobbed. He lifted Abasheikh’s bloody head and laid it in his lap. Ativalu angrily returned to the scene, waving his arm in the air, and thumping at his chest. He said to Mohamed, “[W]hat are you going to do . . . mother-fucker?” Mohamed continued to sob and replied that he did not want any trouble. Mohamed was able to identify Pierre as one of the individuals in the crowd, and stated that Pierre and Ativalu were the last to leave Abasheikh’s body.

The store clerk testified that “five men were trodding [Abasheikh] on his head and his neck and his body. . . . They kept kicking him.” The clerk demonstrated that there were two types of kicking action. One action was like kicking a ball while standing in a horizontal position. The other action was a “stepping down or tromping action.” The clerk was able to view blood around Abasheikh’s mouth and clothing. According to the clerk, the entire incident lasted for about 7 minutes, and the kicking of Abasheikh lasted for about 30 seconds.

Dr. Richard Harruff testified that as a result of the assault Abasheikh suffered from diffused axonal injury, and not localized injury. Localized injuries can be pinned to a certain area of the brain, whereas diffused axonal injury is throughout the brain. Diffused axonal injury “occurs through a mechanism that involves rapid rotation of the [382] head from side to side or like in a shaking no-type of direction or just swinging back and forth, but a rotational effect.” The type of injury suffered by Abasheikh is not common where the individual is simply beaten. According to Dr. Harruff, an unconscious victim was more likely to sustain brain damage from kicks to the head than would a person who was conscious and had muscular tone to naturally resist the blows.

Dr. Harruff concluded that Abasheikh’s injury was probably caused by the repeated kickings to the head, rather than his head hitting the concrete when someone dragged him out of the car by his feet. Dr. Harruff further stated that either a single blow or multiple blows could have caused the brain injury, but that there were “too many variables” to allow him to make the distinction between the two possibilities. Nevertheless, he opined that the number of kicks significantly increases the likelihood that serous brain injury will result. Dr. Harruff stated that “a lot of force” was applied to Abasheikh’s scalp and agreed with the prosecutor’s characterization that the force must have been “fairly violent.”

Dr. Irene Young testified that in addition to the injury to his brain, Abasheikh’s lungs had been punctured. He required a ventilator in order to breathe for three months. Dr. Young explained Abasheikh’s recovery and his extensive rehabilitative therapy. According to Dr. Young, the assault reduced Abasheikh’s vocabulary and comprehension level to that of a seven-year-old. Abasheikh is now permanently mentally retarded.

At the close of all the evidence, the trial court instructed the jury on alternative means of guilt for first degree assault. The instructions provided that Pierre could be found guilty if the assault resulted in “great bodily harm,” RCW 9A.36.011(l)(c); or if Pierre, with the “intent to inflict great bodily harm: (a) [did] [a]ssault[] another with. . . force or means likely to produce great bodily harm or death,” RCW 9A.36.011(l)(a). The jury was also given an accomplice liability instruction, thereby allowing the jury to [383] find Pierre culpable for the acts of his accomplices.

The jury found Pierre guilty by general verdict. By special interrogatory, the jury unanimously agreed that Pierre had used force or means likely to inflict great bodily harm, but did not unanimously agree that great bodily harm was inflicted upon Abasheikh. The trial court sentenced Pierre within the standard range to 160 months of incarceration.

Pierre appeals, claiming that there is insufficient evidence of first degree assault, and that the State’s submission of the assault to the jury violated his federal and state constitutional rights.

ANALYSIS

I. Sufficiency of the Evidence

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State v. Pierre, 31 P.3d 1207, 108 Wash. App. 378 (Wash. Ct. App. 2001).

31 P.3d 1207 (State v. Pierre) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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