State v. Steven B.

2015 NMSC 020, 8 N.M. Ct. App. 140
New Mexico Supreme Court·Decided June 25, 2015·No. 34,122 34,142·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

1 IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO 2 Opinion Number:________________ 3 Filing Date: June 25, 2015 4 NO. 34,122 5 STATE OF NEW MEXICO, 6 Plaintiff-Petitioner, 7 v. 8 STEVEN B., 9 Child-Respondent. 10 CONSOLIDATED WITH 11 NO. 34,142 12 STATE OF NEW MEXICO, 13 Plaintiff-Petitioner, 14 v. 15 ERNIE BEGAYE, 16 Defendant-Respondent.

17 ORIGINAL PROCEEDING ON CERTIORARI 18 Grant L. Foutz, District Judge

19 Hector H. Balderas, Attorney General 1 James W. Grayson, Assistant Attorney General 2 Santa Fe, NM

3 for Petitioner

4 Jorge A. Alvarado, Chief Public Defender 5 B. Douglas Wood, III, Assistant Appellate Defender 6 Santa Fe, NM

7 for Respondent Steven B.

8 Robert E. Tangora, L.L.C. 9 Robert E. Tangora 10 Santa Fe, NM

11 for Respondent Ernie Begaye

12 Damon P. Martinez, U.S. Attorney, District of New Mexico 13 Jonathon M. Gerson, Assistant U.S. Attorney 14 Albuquerque, NM

15 for Amicus Curiae United States

16 The Navajo Nation Department of Justice 17 Harrison Tsosie, Attorney General 18 Paul W. Spruhan, Assistant Attorney General 19 Window Rock, AZ

20 for Amicus Curiae The Navajo Nation 1 OPINION 2 MAES, Justice. 3 {1} In this consolidated appeal, Respondents Steven B. and Ernie Begaye 4 (Respondents), are both enrolled members of the Navajo Nation who stand accused 5 of offenses committed on Parcel Three of Fort Wingate (Parcel Three). The question 6 presented is whether Parcel Three is a dependent Indian community—and therefore 7 Indian country—under 18 U.S.C. § 1151(b) (2012) and Alaska v. Native Village of 8 Venetie Tribal Government, 522 U.S. 520 (1998). If so, then the district court 9 properly concluded that it lacked jurisdiction over Respondents. See State v. 10 Quintana, 2008-NMSC-012, ¶ 4, 143 N.M. 535, 178 P.3d 820 (“In general, ‘a state 11 does not have jurisdiction over crimes committed by an Indian in Indian country.’” 12 (quoting State v. Frank, 2002-NMSC-026, ¶ 12, 132 N.M. 544, 52 P.3d 404)). If not, 13 then we must reverse the district court and permit the State to proceed against 14 Respondents. 15 {2} We are not the first court to consider the Indian country status of Parcel Three. 16 More than a decade-and-a-half ago, the Court of Appeals in State v. Dick held that 17 Parcel Three is a dependent Indian community and ordered the dismissal of a DWI 18 prosecution due to a lack of state jurisdiction. See 1999-NMCA-062, ¶ 28, 127 N.M. 19 382, 981 P.2d 796, cert. granted, 127 N.M. 391, 981 P.2d 1209 (1999), cert. quashed,

1 129 N.M. 208, 4 P.3d 36 (2000). Four years later, the U.S. District Court for the 2 District of New Mexico reached the opposite conclusion in United States v. M.C., 3 holding that Parcel Three is not a dependent Indian community and dismissing an 4 indictment for second-degree murder due to a lack of federal jurisdiction. See 311 F. 5 Supp. 2d 1281, 1282, 1297 (D.N.M. 2004). 6 {3} Faced with these contradictory rulings, the district court determined that Dick 7 was controlling and dismissed the proceedings against Respondents. The Court of 8 Appeals affirmed, and the State now urges this Court to overrule Dick and to reverse. 9 We review the controlling case law, the history, and the present circumstances of 10 Parcel Three, and conclude that Dick was wrongly decided and must be overruled. 11 Parcel Three is not a dependent Indian community, and the district court, therefore, 12 has jurisdiction over Respondents. The district court and the Court of Appeals having 13 concluded otherwise, we reverse. 14 I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY 15 {4} The facts leading to these consolidated appeals are not in dispute. Respondents 16 are enrolled members of the Navajo Nation who were charged with offenses which, 17 if proven, were committed on Parcel Three. Respondent Steven B., a child, is the 18 subject of a petition alleging that he committed the delinquent act of battery against

1 a school official at Wingate High School, contrary to NMSA 1978, Sections 30-3- 2 9(E) (1989) and 32A-2-3(A) (2009). Respondent Begaye was charged in an unrelated 3 proceeding with 11 counts of criminal sexual penetration of a child under 13 years 4 of age, contrary to NMSA 1978, Section 30-9-11(D)(1) (2009), and with 14 counts 5 of criminal sexual contact of a minor on a child under 13 years of age, contrary to 6 NMSA 1978, Section 30-9-13(B)(1) (2003). The criminal sexual penetration and 7 criminal sexual contact allegedly occurred in the staff housing area of the Wingate 8 school campus. The alleged victims in both proceedings were non-Indians. 9 {5} Respondents moved to dismiss the proceedings for lack of state jurisdiction, 10 arguing that Parcel Three is a dependent Indian community and therefore Indian 11 country as held in Dick. The State acknowledged that Dick was controlling, but 12 argued that the courts should revisit the status of Parcel Three in light of the federal 13 district court’s contrary holding in M.C. The parties entered into stipulated findings 14 of fact and conclusions of law, including the State’s concession that the district court 15 was bound by stare decisis to follow Dick, and after an evidentiary hearing, the 16 district court granted Respondents’ motions to dismiss. 17 {6} The State appealed both rulings, arguing that Dick was wrongly decided and 18 that it should be overruled. The Court of Appeals considered the federal district

1 court’s reasoning in M.C. and declined to overrule Dick. See State v. Steven B., 2013- 2 NMCA-078, ¶¶ 14-15, 306 P.3d 509. As a result, the Court affirmed the dismissals 3 of the proceedings against Respondents. See id. ¶ 16; State v. Begaye, No. 32,136, 4 mem. op., ¶ 4 (N.M. Ct. App. Apr. 9, 2013) (non-precedential) (“Steven B. controls 5 this appeal.”). We granted certiorari in both cases and consolidated the proceedings 6 to settle for our state courts the question of Parcel Three’s status as a dependent 7 Indian community. 8 II. STANDARD OF REVIEW 9 {7} “Questions regarding subject matter jurisdiction ‘are questions of law which 10 are subject to de novo review.’” State v. Chavarria, 2009-NMSC-020, ¶ 11, 146 N.M. 11 251, 208 P.3d 896 (quoting State v. Montoya, 2008-NMSC-043, ¶ 9, 144 N.M. 458, 12 188 P.3d 1209). This Court defers to a district court’s factual determinations “if such 13 findings are supported by substantial evidence.” Frank, 2002-NMSC-026, ¶ 10 14 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). Because the State does not contest 15 the facts found by the district court, we review de novo whether the district court 16 correctly applied the law to the facts, viewing the facts in the manner most favorable 17 to Respondents as the prevailing parties. Id. 18 III. DISCUSSION

1 A. The issue before us is the type of “use” for which lands must be set aside 2 by the federal government to support a finding of a dependent Indian 3 community

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State v. Steven B., 2015 NMSC 020, 8 N.M. Ct. App. 140 (N.M. 2015).

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