State v. Ramirez

2016 NMCA 072, 10 N.M. 341
CourtNew Mexico Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 25, 2016
DocketS-1-SC-35949; Docket 34,303
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 2016 NMCA 072 (State v. Ramirez) 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. Ramirez, 2016 NMCA 072, 10 N.M. 341 (N.M. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

OPINION

YANZI, Judge.

{1} A jury found Defendant James Joseph Ramirez guilty of several crimes arising from a home invasion where a child victim was home alone. Defendant asserts on appeal that (1) multiple punishments violate his right to be free from double jeopardy, (2) there was insufficient evidence to support his conviction for child endangerment, and (3) the restraint used to convict him of kidnapping was incidental to the commission of another crime. We affirm in all respects.

BACKGROUND

{2} The facts are not in dispute. Victim was a child — fifteen at the time of the incident — who was home alone one night while his older brothers worked and his parents attended a Christmas party. He heard a knock at the door and answered to find a man wearing a hooded sweatshirt with the hood pulled low over his eyes. The identity of the hooded man would later be the only real concern at trial, but for our purposes on appeal, it is uncontested that he was Defendant.

{3} Defendant asked if Victim’s parents were home. Victim, who was naturally suspicious, lied and responded that they were. Defendant then attempted to force his way inside, and the Victim attempted to block the doorway until Defendant pulled a revolver from his waist, prompting Victim to retreat into the house.

{4} Victim ran to the living room, realized his mother had blocked the back door with laundry, so he stopped and got on his knees. Defendant, who had followed Victim inside, picked him up by his shirt and pointed the gun up and down his body. He ordered Victim to lock the door and then asked if “Alyssa” was home. Victim responded that he did not know anyone by thatname. Defendant then followed Victim from room to room, forcing him at gunpoint to open each door so Defendant could look inside. Having apparently concluded that there was, in fact, no “Alyssa” at the residence, Defendant remarked, “shit, wrong house,” and left.

DISCUSSION

Sufficiency of the Evidence

{5} This is a double jeopardy case at its core, but we will begin by disposing of two cursory arguments that (1) there is insufficient evidence of child endangerment because the State did not prove Defendant knew Victim was a child, and (2) the restraint used to kidnap Victim was incidental to Defendant’s conviction for child endangerment. When the sufficiency of the evidence is challenged, “we must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the conviction.” State v. Wade, 1983-NMCA-084, ¶ 11, 100 N.M. 152, 667 P.2d 459.

{6} To be convicted of child endangerment under NMSA 1978, Section 30-6-l(D)(l) (2009), a defendant must act “with reckless disregard in relation to the safety or health of [a child] specifically.” State v. Gonzales, 2011-NMCA-081, ¶ 25, 150 N.M. 494, 263 P.3d 271. The standard is not entirely clear; but even assuming — for the purposes of this argument — that the State was required to prove that Defendant was subjectively aware that Victim was a child, the evidence is still sufficient to support the conviction.

{7} Victim was fifteen years old when Defendant knocked at his door and seventeen when he testified before the jury. He testified that Defendant’s immediate question when the two met face-to-face was “are your parents home?” That alone is sufficient evidence for the jury to infer Defendant’s awareness that the person he would later hold at gunpoint was a child. See State v. Graham, 2005-NMSC-004, ¶ 13, 137 N.M. 197, 109 P.3d 285 (stating that the appellate courts “view the evidence as a whole and indulge all reasonable inferences in favor of the jury’s verdict”); State v. Montoya, 1966-NMSC-224, ¶ 10, 77 N.M. 129, 419 P.2d 970 (“Knowledge, like intent, is personal in its nature and may not be susceptible of proof by direct evidence. It may, however, be inferred from occurrences and circumstances.”).

{8} Defendant next admits — somewhat paradoxically — that he committed child endangerment but asserts that we must vacate his conviction for kidnapping because the Legislature did not intend kidnapping to be predicated on restraint incidental to the offense he committed. Defendant characterizes this as an issue of statutory interpretation, for which our review is de novo. See State v. Trujillo, 2012-NMCA-112, ¶ 7, 289 P.3d 238 (“Whether the Legislature intended restraint during an aggravated battery to be charged as kidnapping is a question of statutory interpretation.”), cert. quashed, 2015-NMCERT-003, 346 P.3d 1163. But even

assuming that Defendant’s interpretation of the statutes at issue is correct and that the limitations on kidnapping in Trujillo (which was an aggravated battery case) similarly apply in a child abuse case, the testimony, as a matter of fact, does not support the notion that Victim’s restraint was incidental to child endangerment. See id. ¶ 6 (viewing the facts “in the light most favorable to the conviction”); see also State v. Sotelo, 2013-NMCA-028, ¶¶ 29-30, 296 P.3d 1232 (applying a sufficiency of the evidence standard to the question of whether restraint is incidental to a separate crime).

{9} In Trujillo, we held that the restraint needed to effect a minutes-long battery — “a momentary grab in the middle of a fight” — was not conduct that was contemplated by the kidnapping statute because it was “merely incidental” to the battery. 2012-NMCA-l 12, ¶¶ 6, 8. In Trujillo, we identified three tests employed in other jurisdictions to determine whether restraint is incidental to another offense but ultimately concluded that “the overarching question . . . is whether the restraint or movement increases the culpability of the defendant over and above his culpability for the other crime.” Id. ¶ 6-

{10} Victim testified that he ran to the living room and stopped and got on his knees before Defendant entered, and that Defendant picked him up by his shirt and pointed the gun up and down his body. The State argued to the jury that this particular conduct was the basis for the child endangerment charge. Defendant then, according to Victim’s testimony, ordered Victim to lock the door and forced him at gunpoint to assist in a futile room-to-room search for an individual not present in the home. This search, “with [the] gun pressed to the back of [Victim’s] head,” was the factual basis in the State’s closing argument for the kidnapping charge.

{11} We conclude that the prolonged search for “Alyssa,” in which Victim was held to service to open each door in the home, turn on each light, and allow Defendant to explore each empty room, increased Defendant’s culpability over and above his culpability in endangering Victim by pointing the gun at him in the first instance. Thus, the restraint in this case is not incidental to child endangerment under the standards enunciated in Trujillo. We affirm Defendant’s conviction for kidnapping.

Double Jeopardy

{12} Defendant argues that his convictions for aggravated burglary and aggravated assault (both with a deadly weapon) are subsumed into his conviction for child endangerment.

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Bluebook (online)
2016 NMCA 072, 10 N.M. 341, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-ramirez-nmctapp-2016.