State v. Thompson

CourtNew Mexico Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 7, 2011
Docket28,491
StatusUnpublished

This text of State v. Thompson (State v. Thompson) 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. Thompson, (N.M. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

1 This memorandum opinion was not selected for publication in the New Mexico Reports. Please see 2 Rule 12-405 NMRA for restrictions on the citation of unpublished memorandum opinions. Please 3 also note that this electronic memorandum opinion may contain computer-generated errors or other 4 deviations from the official paper version filed by the Court of Appeals and does not include the 5 filing date. 6 IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO

7 STATE OF NEW MEXICO,

8 Plaintiff-Appellee,

9 v. NO. 28,491

10 RYAN JAMES ALAN THOMPSON,

11 Defendant-Appellant.

12 APPEAL FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF SAN JUAN COUNTY 13 Sandra A. Price, District Judge

14 Gary K. King, Attorney General 15 Andrew S. Montgomery, Assistant Attorney General 16 Santa Fe, NM

17 for Appellee

18 Albright Law & Consulting 19 Jennifer R. Albright 20 Albuquerque, NM

21 for Appellant

22 MEMORANDUM OPINION

23 BUSTAMANTE, Judge. 1 Defendant entered a conditional plea to one count of manufacturing child

2 pornography, contrary to NMSA 1978, Section 30-6A-3(D) (2001) (amended 2007),

3 a second degree felony, reserving the right to appeal the district court’s denial of his

4 motion to dismiss and his motion to suppress. On appeal, Defendant argues (1) his

5 act of saving pornographic images of children to a compact disc (CD) did not

6 constitute manufacturing child pornography; (2) his statement taken prior to warnings

7 being given in accordance with Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966), should have

8 been suppressed; (3) his trial counsel was ineffective; and (4) the State committed

9 prosecutorial misconduct. Having considered these arguments, we affirm

10 Defendant’s conviction.

11 BACKGROUND

12 I. Defendant Was Properly Charged Under Section 30-6A-3(D)

13 Defendant filed a motion to dismiss pursuant to Rule 5-601(B) NMRA and

14 State v. Foulenfont, 119 N.M. 788, 895 P.2d 1329 (Ct. App. 1995), arguing that

15 Section 30-6A-3(D), which criminalizes the manufacturing of child pornography, did

16 not apply to his act of saving images to a CD. We previously addressed this matter

17 in State v. Smith, 2009-NMCA-028, 145 N.M. 757, 204 P.3d 1267. In Smith, the

18 defendant was charged with copying pornographic images of children to an external

19 hard drive. This Court held that “the copying of digital images to a portable storage

2 1 device creates a new digital copy of the prohibited image sufficient to constitute

2 manufacturing under the definition of manufacturing found in . . . Section 30-6A-

3 2(D).” Id. ¶ 2.

4 To the extent Defendant asks this Court to reconsider its decision in Smith, we

5 decline to do so. Defendant raises the same statutory construction arguments raised

6 in Smith. Specifically, Defendant argues that this Court should not apply a formalistic

7 and mechanical construction of the statute and should consider the gradation in

8 sentencing imposed by the statute in order to distinguish individuals who merely copy

9 photographs that have already been taken from those who actually photograph

10 children. This Court rejected this argument in Smith. See id. ¶¶ 10-17. To the extent

11 Defendant asserts that Smith presents “an incomplete analysis that violate[s] basic

12 tenets of statutory construction[,]” we disagree. Smith relies on the plain language of

13 the statute and the definition of “manufacture” as reflecting legislative intent,

14 consistent with how our courts interpret legislative acts. See id. ¶¶ 9-13 (citing State

15 of N.M. ex rel. Gaming Control Bd. v. Ten (10) Gaming Devices, 2005-NMCA-117,

16 ¶ 6, 138 N.M. 426, 120 P.3d 848, and State v. Frazier, 2007-NMSC-032, ¶ 23, 142

17 N.M. 120, 164 P.3d 1); see also Buzbee v. Donnelly, 96 N.M. 692, 700, 634 P.2d

18 1244, 1252 (1981) (“When a statute uses terms of art, we interpret these terms in

3 1 accordance with case law interpretation or statutory definition of those words, if

2 any.”).

3 Defendant also contends that his case is distinguishable from Smith, because in

4 Smith the State alleged the defendant copied images to both an external hard drive and

5 a CD and then transferred those copies to another computer. Defendant alleges that

6 because (1) there is no allegation that Defendant saved the images to another

7 computer, and (2) there was no evidence that saving a digital image directly from a

8 website to a CD creates a new image, his conduct does not constitute manufacturing

9 child pornography. To the extent Defendant is arguing that because he did not

10 transfer copies to another computer he cannot be charged for manufacturing, the act

11 of transferring the copies to another computer present in Smith was not necessary to

12 our determination that the defendant had committed manufacturing under Section 30-

13 6A-3(D). In Smith, we relied on Section 30-6A-3(D) which defines “manufacture”

14 as the “copying by any means” of “any prohibited sexual act or simulation of such an

15 act if one or more of the participants in that act is a child under eighteen years of

16 age[.]” 2009-NMCA-028, ¶ 9. Relying on this definition, we held that “when a

17 defendant copies the pornographic image to an external drive, he not only creates yet

18 another record of the prohibited act, but he also places it into a format that is easily

19 transferrable to many computers.” Id. ¶ 17. We held that the creation of a

4 1 transportable, shareable copy of the images constituted more than mere possession,

2 and satisfied the Legislature’s definition of manufacturing. Id.

3 To the extent Defendant argues that denial of the motion to dismiss was error

4 because there was not evidence to support that saving a digital image directly to a CD

5 creates a new image, Defendant misapprehends the nature of a Foulenfont motion. “In

6 Foulenfont, we stated that it was proper for a district court to decide purely legal

7 matters and dismiss a case when appropriate before trial.” State v. LaPietra, 2010-

8 NMCA-009, ¶ 7, 147 N.M. 569, 226 P.3d 668. “Questions of fact, however, are the

9 unique purview of the jury and, as such, should be decided by the jury alone.” Id.; see

10 also Foulenfont, 119 N.M. at 789-90, 895 P.2d at 1330-31. To the extent Defendant

11 is arguing that evidence needed to be presented as to whether a new image was

12 created, we understand Defendant to argue that whether a new image was created is

13 a factual matter. However, to the extent this is a factual matter, the district court was

14 correct in denying Defendant’s motion to dismiss. See State v. Hughey, 2007-NMSC-

15 036, ¶ 11, 142 N.M. 83, 163 P.3d 470 (holding that “where a motion involves factual

16 matters that are not capable of resolution without a trial on the merits, the trial court

17 lacks the authority to grant the motion prior to trial”).

18 Defendant could have required the State to make a factual showing by

19 exercising his right to a jury trial. Defendant appears to argue that he should now be

5 1 allowed to withdraw his plea. However, Defendant did not move to withdraw his plea

2 with the district court, and may not attack his plea for the first time on appeal. See

3 State v. Andazola, 2003-NMCA-146, ¶ 25, 134 N.M. 710, 82 P.3d 77 (“[I]f a

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