United States v. Grijalva

53 M.J. 501, 2000 CCA LEXIS 116, 2000 WL 576254
CourtUnited States Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals
DecidedApril 25, 2000
DocketACM 33169
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 53 M.J. 501 (United States v. Grijalva) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Grijalva, 53 M.J. 501, 2000 CCA LEXIS 116, 2000 WL 576254 (afcca 2000).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

SPISAK, Senior Judge:

The appellant pled guilty to attempted premeditated murder and desertion. Articles 80 and 85, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. §§ 880, 885. When the military judge rejected his plea to the attempt charge, the appellant entered a plea of guilty to the lesser included offense of aggravated assault by the intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm. Article 128, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. § 928. The military judge accepted his plea to desertion and, after the government presented its case, convicted the appellant of attempted premeditated murder. The appellant’s approved sentence consists of a dishonorable discharge and confinement for 30 years. The appellant alleges two errors, both of which relate to the military judge’s use of information obtained during the plea inquiry on the charged offense and on the later plea to the lesser included offense of [502]*502aggravated assault. We find no error prejudicial to the appellant’s substantial rights and affirm.

The appellant contends that after rejecting his plea of guilty to attempted premeditated murder, the military judge improperly used parts of that plea inquiry to support his plea of guilty to aggravated assault. In fact, the military judge merely referenced the appellant’s earlier statements as a means to facilitate getting responses from the appellant. The military judge did-not assert these matters as fact, but used the prior statements to form questions during the second plea inquiry. We find no error in his doing so.

The appellant next complains that the military judge improperly relied on statements from the second plea inquiry to support his conviction on the attempted premeditated murder charge. The error arises because the military judge, sua sponte, entered special findings of fact in which he found in part as follows:

On 15 September, the accused went to the couplfe’s home within a few hours after the no-contact order from his commander expired and found Mrs. Grijalva and their youngest daughter asleep on the floor. As he stated during the providency inquiry, the accused went to the house with the intent to shoot his wife. He moved their daughter into the bedroom so that she wouldn’t be injured when he shot his wife. He came back from the bedroom, sat down for 10-15 minutes, pulled the handgun out of his BDU pants and shot his wife in the back. Prior to the shooting, Mrs. Grijalva never woke up, spoke to the accused, or in any way provoked him.

The appellant argues that none of these facts could be deduced from the evidence presented in support of the attempted' murder charge. Rather, he claims they came from the inquiry into the appellant’s guilty plea to aggravated assault and should not have been relied on by the military judge in reaching his findings on the charged offense of attempted premeditated murder. However, the military judge advised the appellant at the outset of the plea inquiry that his statements could be used by the government and the military judge to prove the charged offense.

I have one other thing to ask you. You are pleading guilty to aggravated assault by intentionally inflicting grievous bodily harm with a loaded firearm which is a lesser included offense of attempted premeditated murder. And certain of those elements, the elements of the offense to which you’re pleading guilty may be similar to the attempted premeditated murder. And some of what you tell me, the Government may use that in their argument or in their case to prove the charged offense.
So you understand that some of what you tell me, or anything that you tell me that applies to the elements of attempted premeditated murder, I may also consider that in deciding whether you are guilty of that charged offense.

Both appellate defense counsel and the government appear to agree that the only issue remaining after the guilty plea inquiry was whether the appellant had a premeditated design to kill or merely the specific intent to injure his wife, Lisa Grijalva, when he shot her. The question we must resolve is whether admissions made concerning the intent to commit a lesser offense may be considered as part of the evidence in support of a finding of guilty to the greater offense. The appellant argues against such consideration and relies heavily on United States v. Ramelb, 44 M.J. 625 (Army Ct.Crim.App.1996). The appellant in Ramelb pled guilty to wrongful appropriation, but not guilty to the charged offense of larceny. As a result, the only element left unproven .was the element of the specific [503]*503intent to permanently deprive another of the use of the property. During presentation of evidence on the greater offense, the trial counsel called a Captain who had heard the plea inquiry to testify about Ramelb’s admission during that inquiry — that he had spent the money for personal reasons. Our Army brethren held “that the elements of a lesser offense established by an accused’s plea of guilty — but not the accused’s admissions made in support of that plea — can be used as proof to establish the common elements of a greater offense to which an accused has pleaded not guilty.” Id. at 629 (emphasis added). The court relied heavily on a series of cases that held that a plea to one charged offense cannot be used to prove a separate charged offense. See United States v. Caszatt, 29 C.M.R. 521, 522, 1960 WL 4549 (C.M.A.1960); United States v. Cahn, 31 M.J. 729 (A.F.C.M.R.1990); United States v. Collins, 17 M.J. 901 (A.F.C.M.R.1983); United States v. Thomas, 39 M.J. 1094 (A.C.M.R. 1994); United States v. Wasco, 8 C.M.R. 580, 1953 WL 1713 (N.B.R.1953).

[502]*502(Emphasis added). When the military judge asked if he understood and agreed to those uses, the appellant answered in the affirmative. The military judge then asked trial defense counsel if they too agreed with the proposed uses of the appellant’s statements. Counsel also agreed. Thus, the appellant was on notice before beginning the plea inquiry that the military judge could use his statements to support a finding of guilty to the charged offense.

[503]*503The Army Court’s conclusion in Ramelb is correct — the prosecution is not permitted to use a plea of guilty to one offense as evidence of guilt of another, unrelated offense. United States v. Wahnon, 1 M.J. 144, 145 (C.M.A.1975); Caszatt, 29 C.M.R. at 523; United States v. Vasquez, 9 M.J. 517, 518 (A.F.C.M.R.1980). However, the elements of a lesser included offense established during a guilty plea inquiry may be used as proof to establish the common elements of a greater offense to which the appellant pleads not guilty. United States v. Rivera, 23 M.J. 89, 95 (C.M.A.1986). The Discussion to Rule for Courts-Martial (R.C.M.) 920(e), further clarifies this point by saying that court members should be instructed “that, when a guilty plea to a lesser included offense has been accepted, the members should accept as proved the matters admitted by the plea, but must determine whether the remaining elements are established.” While the language used in Ramelb

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Related

United States v. Craig
63 M.J. 611 (Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals, 2006)
United States v. Grijalva
55 M.J. 223 (Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, 2001)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
53 M.J. 501, 2000 CCA LEXIS 116, 2000 WL 576254, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-grijalva-afcca-2000.