State v. Segura

2002 NMCA 044, 45 P.3d 54, 132 N.M. 114
CourtNew Mexico Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 27, 2002
Docket22,198
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 2002 NMCA 044 (State v. Segura) 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. Segura, 2002 NMCA 044, 45 P.3d 54, 132 N.M. 114 (N.M. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

OPINION

SUTIN, Judge.

{1} Convicted of two counts of attempted third degree criminal sexual contact of a minor, Defendant, the Child’s uncle, appeals on grounds of double jeopardy and insufficient evidence. We hold there was insufficient evidence of the attempted third degree offense for which Defendant was convicted and that double jeopardy precludes a conviction for more than one count, but that Defendant should have been adjudicated guilty of attempted fourth degree criminal sexual contact of a minor. Therefore, we reverse and remand.

BACKGROUND

{2} Child lived with her mother, her stepfather, and two siblings in Texas since the age of nine. When she was twelve, due to a strained relationship with her stepfather, her mother arranged for Child to move to her grandmother’s home, in New Mexico, where Child’s father also lived, for at least six months to give Child an opportunity to reacquaint herself with her father and his family. Child became unhappy at her father’s home for various reasons, including not relating well to her father, and she frequently requested permission from her mother to return to Texas.

{3} The events at issue began when Child, her father, and her father’s brother, Defendant Rudy Segura, went to a birthday party for the child of a friend of father’s. During this Saturday evening event, father and Defendant consumed a twenty-four pack of beer. After leaving the party around midnight, the men bought another twenty-four pack of beer and went to father’s ex-girlfriend’s home with Child, where father and Defendant continued drinking. Child fell asleep and woke up around 6 a.m. and saw father and Defendant still drinking.

{4} The three then went to Defendant’s home to drop him off. Father and Child were to then drive to father’s home, rest, and prepare for a belated thirteenth birthday party for Child later that day. However, father passed out on Defendant’s sofa. Child sat on a chair in the kitchen. Defendant, beer in hand, sat in a chair beside Child, made verbal sexual overtures, and grabbed her left hand and pulled it toward his groin. Child pulled her hand away. Defendant then made more sexually explicit comments, grabbed Child’s chair, turned it to face him, and grabbed and pulled Child’s hands toward his groin. Child successfully resisted and went to awaken father. Eventually, father and Child left Defendant’s house.

{5} Defendant was convicted of two counts of Attempt to Commit a Felony: Criminal Sexual Contact of a Minor (Position of Authority), under NMSA 1978, § 30-9-13(A)(2)(a) (1991) and NMSA 1978, § 30-28-1 (1963).

DISCUSSION

{6} Defendant claims he was twice convicted for a single offense in violation of Amendments V and XIV of the United States Constitution and N.M. Const, art. II, § 15. He further claims the evidence was insufficient to support his convictions because he cannot be considered a person in a “position of authority” under Section 30-9-13(A)(2)(a).

Double Jeopardy

{7} Defendant contends the two acts of pulling Child’s hands toward his groin constituted a single criminal offense for which double conviction is unconstitutional. See Swafford v. State, 112 N.M. 3, 7-8, 810 P.2d 1223, 1227-28 (1991); Herron v. State, 111 N.M. 357, 358-59, 805 P.2d 624, 625-26 (1991). We review this issue de novo. State v. Reyes-Arreola, 1999-NMCA-086, ¶5, 127 N.M. 528, 984 P.2d 775.

{8} The Herron factors in determining whether one act is sufficiently distinct from another to permit multiple punishments are: temporal proximity, location (movement or repositioning of the victim), intervening event, sequence, and intent (as evidenced by his conduct and utterances). Herron, 111 N.M. at 361, 805 P.2d at 628. The State contends Defendant was properly convicted of two separate and distinct counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor (CSCM) under the Herron factors.

{9} Repeated touching of a minor’s groin area over a short period of time with no intervening event aside from the minor’s pushing the perpetrator’s hand away is “a single ongoing attempt to reach [the minor’s] private parts.” State v. Laguna, 1999-NMCA-152, ¶ 38, 128 N.M. 345, 992 P.2d 896. In the present case, Defendant moved Child’s hands to Defendant’s groin area. This case is virtually indistinguishable from Laguna. One of Defendant’s CSCM convictions cannot stand. Otherwise, Defendant is convicted twice for a single offense, in violation of the federal and state constitutional prohibitions against double jeopardy.

Sufficiency of Evidence

{10} Defendant contends there was insufficient evidence to prove he was in a position of authority. We must determine whether a rational jury could have found this element to be established beyond a reasonable doubt, while viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the jury’s verdict and indulging all inferences in favor of upholding that verdict. State v. Carrasco, 1997-NMSC-047, ¶¶ 10-11, 124 N.M. 64, 946 P.2d 1075.

{11} The crime of attempt to commit a felony involves “an overt act in furtherance of and with intent to commit a felony and tending but failing to effect its commission.” § 30-28-1. The felony of CSCM, the commission of which Defendant was charged with attempting, consists of “unlawful and intentional causing of a minor to touch one’s intimate parts.” § 30-9-13. The conduct constitutes CSCM in the third degree and is a third degree felony when the “perpetrator is in a position of authority over the child and uses this authority to coerce the child to submit.” § 30-9-13(A)(2)(a). “[P]osition of authority” is defined as “that position occupied by a parent, relative, household member, teacher, employer or other person who, by reason of that position, is able to exercise undue influence over a child.” NMSA 1978, § 30-9-10(E) (2001).

{12} The jury was instructed that it could return one of four possible verdicts of guilt as to the charges in two counts of attempted CSCM: (1) attempted CSCM (position of authority); (2) attempted CSCM; (3) enticement of a child; (4) and battery. The jury found Defendant guilty on the two counts of attempted CSCM (position of authority) only. As to the charge of attempted CSCM (position of authority), the district court instructed the jury as follows:

For you to find the defendant guilty of Attempted Criminal Sexual Contact of a Minor by use of force or coercion by a person in a position of authority as charged in Count I [and Count II], the State must prove to your satisfaction beyond a reasonable doubt, each of the following elements of the crime:
1. The defendant attempted to cause [Child] to touch the penis of the defendant;
2. The defendant intended to commit the crime of Criminal Sexual Contact of a Minor by use of force or coercion by a person in a position of authority;
3. The defendant began to do an act which constituted a substantial part of the crime of Criminal Sexual Contact of a Minor by use of force or coercion by a person in a position of authority;

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2002 NMCA 044, 45 P.3d 54, 132 N.M. 114, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-segura-nmctapp-2002.