State v. Smiley

CourtNew Mexico Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 14, 2017
Docket34,760
StatusUnpublished

This text of State v. Smiley (State v. Smiley) 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. Smiley, (N.M. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

This memorandum opinion was not selected for publication in the New Mexico Appellate Reports. Please see Rule 12-405 NMRA for restrictions on the citation of unpublished memorandum opinions. Please also note that this electronic memorandum opinion may contain computer-generated errors or other deviations from the official paper version filed by the Court of Appeals and does not include the filing date.

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

2 STATE OF NEW MEXICO,

3 Plaintiff-Appellee,

4 v. NO. 34,760

5 DANIELLE A. SMILEY,

6 Defendant-Appellant.

7 APPEAL FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF SAN JUAN COUNTY 8 John A. Dean Jr., District Judge

9 Hector H. Balderas, Attorney General 10 Santa Fe, NM 11 Jacqueline R. Medina, Assistant Attorney General 12 Albuquerque, NM

13 for Appellee

14 Bennett J. Baur, Chief Public Defender 15 Will O’Connell, Assistant Appellate Defender 16 Becca Salwin, Assistant Appellate Defender 17 Santa Fe, NM

18 for Appellant

19 MEMORANDUM OPINION

20 VANZI, Chief Judge. 1 {1} Defendant Danielle Smiley appeals from her convictions for kidnapping in the

2 first degree, contrary to NMSA 1978, Section 30-4-1 (2003), and aggravated battery

3 with great bodily harm, contrary to NMSA 1978, Section 30-3-5(C) (1969). Defendant

4 argues that her kidnapping conviction must be reversed because the brief moving of

5 Danielle Dixon (Victim) from one room to another was incidental to the commission

6 of the aggravated battery. We agree with Defendant and vacate the kidnapping

7 conviction. Defendant also alleges that the district court erred in: (1) denying

8 Defendant’s requested jury instructions on self-defense, (2) excluding certain

9 statements as hearsay, and (3) that Defendant’s trial counsel was ineffective for not

10 requesting a necessity instruction. On these points, we disagree with Defendant and

11 affirm her conviction for aggravated battery.

12 BACKGROUND

13 {2} Two witnesses testified about the events that took place on the evening of April

14 3, 2013: Defendant’s cousin, Sylvia Bowman, and Defendant. Bowman testified that

15 Victim lived with Samantha Slowman-Subia (Slowman) in Slowman’s trailer. When

16 Bowman first arrived at Slowman’s trailer that evening, Bowman was outside talking

17 with Slowman, Defendant, and another person. At some point, Defendant went into

18 the trailer to confront Victim because she was upset about something that was said to

19 her about Victim.

2 1 {3} Consistent with Bowman’s testimony, Defendant testified that she had a

2 conversation with Slowman that disturbed her regarding Victim and Defendant’s

3 father. According to Defendant, Victim was “abusing [Defendant’s] dad and taking

4 his money and doing drugs inside the house with the kids inside the house and

5 drinking.” Defendant got upset and went into the trailer because she wanted to protect

6 her father and the children from Victim. Defendant’s father was sleeping at the time

7 Defendant entered the trailer.

8 {4} Upon entering the trailer, Defendant went to the back room where Victim was

9 laying down. Defendant woke Victim up, and “pulled her to the living room . . . by the

10 leg.” While being pulled into the living room, Victim—who was “a lot smaller” and

11 skinnier than Defendant—was kicking and resisting. Although Bowman testified that

12 Victim kicked Defendant in the crotch when they were in the living room, she also

13 said that Defendant attacked Victim and was the main aggressor. Defendant hit and

14 kicked Victim multiple times while Victim was on the floor. Bowman testified that

15 blood was coming from Victim’s nose as a result of Defendant’s punches. Bowman

16 saw Defendant kick Victim in Victim’s side two times. Eventually, Bowman

17 intervened and stopped Defendant from continuing her attack on Victim.

18 {5} Victim was seen at a hospital on April 3, 2013, and diagnosed with closed nasal

19 bone fractures and closed fractures of multiple ribs, among other diagnoses. Due to

20 increased pain, Victim was seen at another hospital on April 9, 2013, and was

3 1 discharged with instructions to follow up in two days. Victim returned to the hospital

2 on April 18, 2013, and was diagnosed with pneumonia, deemed “critically ill,” and

3 transferred to a hospital with a higher level of care. Victim’s condition continued to

4 deteriorate, and she died on May 10, 2013. According to the autopsy report, the

5 immediate cause of death was “[b]lunt force chest trauma.”

6 {6} Defendant was charged with second degree murder, contrary to NMSA 1978,

7 Section 30-2-1(B) (1994), kidnapping in the first degree, contrary to Section 30-4-1,

8 and aggravated battery with great bodily harm, contrary to Section 30-3-5(C).

9 Defendant was convicted of kidnapping and aggravated battery, but the jury was

10 unable to reach a verdict on the second degree murder charge, and the district court

11 declared a mistrial as to that charge. Defendant was sentenced to a total of twenty-

12 three years of incarceration. This appeal followed.

13 DISCUSSION

14 The Brief Movement of Victim Is Insufficient to Support a Kidnapping 15 Conviction

16 {7} Defendant’s first argument on appeal is that the kidnapping charge lacked

17 sufficient evidence to support a conviction because the brief pulling of Victim out of

18 bed and into the living room was entirely incidental to the crime of aggravated battery.

19 We agree.

4 1 {8} Kidnapping in New Mexico is defined, in relevant part, as the “unlawful taking,

2 restraining, transporting or confining of a person, by force, intimidation or deception,

3 with intent . . . to inflict death[ or] physical injury . . . on the victim.” Section 30-4-

4 1(A)(4). We review Defendant’s kidnapping conviction “in the light most favorable

5 to the verdict,” considering whether the movement of Victim from the bed to the

6 living room was sufficient, as a matter of law, to support Defendant’s conviction for

7 kidnapping. See State v. Tapia, 2015-NMCA-048, ¶ 29, 347 P.3d 738, cert. denied,

8 2015-NMCERT-004, 348 P.3d 695.

9 {9} Defendant’s argument relies on this Court’s holding in State v. Trujillo, 2012-

10 NMCA-112, ¶ 39, 289 P.3d 238, in which we held that the restraint of a victim that

11 is merely incidental to an aggravated battery is not separately punishable as

12 kidnapping. In that case, we first engaged in an examination of New Mexico’s

13 kidnapping statute and relevant kidnapping statutes of other jurisdictions and

14 concluded that New Mexico adheres to the position adopted in a majority of states that

15 “kidnapping statutes do not apply to unlawful confinements or movements incidental

16 to the commission of other felonies.” Id. ¶¶ 28-32 (internal quotation marks and

17 citation omitted). The Trujillo Court noted that courts following the majority have

18 developed three tests for determining whether a restraint is “incidental” to other

19 crimes. See id. ¶¶ 32, 39. “Under the first test, the court must determine whether the

20 confinement, movement, or detention was merely incidental to the accompanying

5 1 felony or whether it was significant enough, in and of itself, to warrant independent

2 prosecution.” Id. ¶ 32 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). Whereas, “the

3 second test focuses on whether the detention or movement substantially increased the

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Related

State v. Guerra
2012 NMSC 14 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 2012)
State v. Fuentes
2010 NMCA 027 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2009)
State v. Trujillo
2012 NMCA 112 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2012)
State v. Cooper
1999 NMCA 159 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 1999)
State v. Coffin
1999 NMSC 038 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1999)
State v. Boyett
2008 NMSC 030 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 2008)
State v. Emmons
2007 NMCA 082 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2007)
State v. DENZEL B.
2008 NMCA 118 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2008)
State v. Sutphin
2007 NMSC 045 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 2007)
State v. Tapia
2015 NMCA 048 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2015)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
State v. Smiley, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-smiley-nmctapp-2017.