State v. S.T.

139 Wash. App. 915
CourtCourt of Appeals of Washington
DecidedAugust 6, 2007
DocketNo. 58251-8-I
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 139 Wash. App. 915 (State v. S.T.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. S.T., 139 Wash. App. 915 (Wash. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinion

¶1 — Two days after a car was stolen, police found it in a parking lot with appellant S.T., a juvenile, [917]*917sitting in the driver’s seat. The State charged S.T. with taking a motor vehicle without permission. She entered a guilty plea to an amended charge of attempted taking. In this appeal, she challenges a court order requiring her to pay restitution for personal property that disappeared from the car after it was stolen. We reject S.T.’s argument that the loss of the personal property can be attributed only to a person who is convicted of a completed taking. Her conduct, as documented in the certificátion for probable cause, is sufficient to prove either an attempt or a completed taking, and the court did not abuse its discretion in finding her conduct to be causally related to the loss of the property.

Per Curiam

[917]*917¶2 According to the certification for probable cause, a Honda Accord was stolen from a store parking lot in Renton on September 22, 2004. Two days later, someone familiar with the car saw it idling in an apartment parking lot with a female sitting in the driver’s seat. The police were notified. When police arrived, the female, appellant S.T., got out of the car and began to walk away. She was apprehended. Inspection of the car revealed a punched ignition and a towel draped over the steering column.

¶3 After being advised of her rights, S.T. spoke with Officer Sjolin. At first, she denied having been in the car but eventually said that an acquaintance had picked her up in the car and she had been sitting in the driver’s seat of the car waiting for him to come back.

¶4 The State initially charged S.T. with taking a motor vehicle without permission in the second degree. She entered an Alford1 plea to the amended charge of attempted taking of a motor vehicle without permission in the second degree. S.T. agreed that the court could review the probable cause certification to establish a factual basis for the plea.2 At a restitution hearing, S.T. agreed to pay $4,677.57 in restitution for damage to the car and the victim’s insurance deductible. She objected to the State’s request that she be [918]*918liable for the additional sum of $1,814.96, the value of personal property — CDs (compact discs), a DVD (digital video disk) player, and expensive stereo equipment — that had disappeared from the Honda after it was stolen. The trial court ordered restitution for the full amount of the damage, including the missing personal property. On appeal, S.T. contends the trial court lacked authority to require her to make restitution for the lost property and asks that the restitution award be reduced by $1,814.96.

¶5 An order of restitution is reviewed for abuse of discretion. State v. Dauenhauer, 103 Wn. App. 373, 377, 12 P.3d 661 (2000). Discretion is abused only when exercised in a manifestly unreasonable manner or on untenable grounds. Dauenhauer, 103 Wn. App. at 378.

¶6 Under the juvenile restitution statute, “the court shall require the respondent to make restitution to any persons who have suffered loss or damage as a result of the offense committed by the respondent.” RCW 13.40-.190(1). This means that a juvenile court’s restitution order is authorized “if a causal connection exists between the crime as a whole and the property loss and damage.” State v. Hiett, 154 Wn.2d 560, 565, 115 P.3d 274 (2005). When others have participated in the crime along with the respondent, “all such participants shall be jointly and severally responsible for the payment of restitution.” RCW 13.40.190(1).

The statutory provision for joint and several responsibility demonstrates the legislature’s intent: an individual’s actual conduct does not determine the extent of his responsibility for restitution; instead, all acts which form the crime are imputed, for restitution purposes, to any participant.
Here, the relevant crime is defined as “intentionally takfing] or driv[ing] away any automobile or motor vehicle” without permission or “voluntarily riding in or upon said automobile or motor vehicle with knowledge of the fact that [it] was unlawfully taken.” Former RCW 9A.56.070(1). Taking the vehicle is an act which is necessary to commit the crime and is thus imputed to a knowing and voluntary rider who is, by statute, equally guilty with the person taking or driving the vehicle. Id.
[919]*919Under the restitution statute, then, the juvenile court’s order is authorized if a causal connection exists between the crime as a whole and the property loss and damage.

Hiett, 154 Wn.2d at 565 (alterations in original).

¶7 A sufficient causal connection exists if, “but for the criminal acts of the defendant, the victim would not have suffered the damages for which restitution is sought.” State v. Landrum, 66 Wn. App. 791, 799, 832 P.2d 1359 (1992). The court looks to the underlying facts of the charged offense, not the name of the crime to which the defendant entered a plea. Landrum, 66 Wn. App. at 799 (restitution for the victim’s counseling costs for sexual assault was proper even though defendants pleaded to lesser charges of fourth degree assault since it was undisputed that the assaults were of a sexual nature). Here, the facts underlying the charged offense establish the causal connection. S.T. was charged with taking a motor vehicle without permission. But for the taking, the vehicle would not have been damaged and the property in it would not have been lost.

¶8 S.T. contends that when the State amends a charge downward to facilitate a plea, as happened here, the statute authorizes restitution only for losses incurred as a result of the offense to which the defendant pleads. She asserts that because her conviction was only for an attempted taking, she can be liable only for the damage that resulted from the attempt.

¶9 The case law is not entirely clear on this point. Some cases state that a restitution order must be based on a causal relationship between “the crime charged and proven and the victim’s damages.” Dauenhauer, 103 Wn. App. at 378 (emphasis added). Arguably, such language suggests that when the State pleads the charge down to an attempt, it means the State lacks proof of the completed offense. S.T. has not, however, cited any cases in which the statute has been interpreted or applied in that manner.

¶10 To the contrary, this court has previously stated that the juvenile restitution statute will not be limited “simply [920]*920because a prosecutor may have chosen to charge a person with a lesser offense than the evidence would have permitted.” State v. Selland, 54 Wn. App. 122, 125, 772 P.2d 534 (1989).

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