United States v. Kluttz

9 C.M.A. 20, 9 USCMA 20, 25 C.M.R. 282, 1958 CMA LEXIS 656, 1958 WL 3143
CourtUnited States Court of Military Appeals
DecidedMarch 14, 1958
DocketNo. 10,230
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 9 C.M.A. 20 (United States v. Kluttz) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Military 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. Kluttz, 9 C.M.A. 20, 9 USCMA 20, 25 C.M.R. 282, 1958 CMA LEXIS 656, 1958 WL 3143 (cma 1958).

Opinion

Opinion of the Court

GEORGE W. LatimeR, Judge:

The accused was charged with burglary with intent to commit rape, in violation of Article 129, Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 USC § 929, and with assault with intent to commit rape, in violation of Article 134, Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 USC § 934. By exceptions and substitutions, a general court-martial found him guilty of burglary with intent to commit indecent assault and of indecent assault, in violation of the same respective Articles. He was sentenced to be dishonorably discharged, to forfeit all pay and allowances, and to be confined at hard labor for seven years. The sentence approved by the convening authority provides for dishonorable discharge, total forfeitures, and confinement at hard labor for five years. The board of review affirmed, and the accused’s petition for review to this Court was granted upon two issues, which are:

“1. Whether ‘burglary with intent to commit indecent assault’ is an offense cognizable under the Uniform Code of Military Justice; and if so, whether it is a lesser included offense of burglary with intent to commit rape.
“2. Whether the instruction of the law officer, as to voluntariness of the pretrial confession, that ‘Basically, what you should consider that evidence of involuntariness and volun-tariness for is to make up your minds individually whether you believe that statement, Prosecution Exhibit 9, to be the truth.’ was erroneous and prejudicial.”

One tine of the two-pronged first question has only specious logic to recommend it. Burglary in military law includes the elements of ' the common-law crime except that the felony intended has been limited to those offenses specified in Articles 118 through 128 of the Uniform Code, 10 USC §§ 918 through 928, respectively. Indecent assault is not defined in any Article but is recognized as an offense under Article 134. Paragraph 213d (2) ; paragraph 127c, page 224; Appendix 6c, Model Specification 120, Manual for Courts-Martial, United States, 1951; United States v Headspeth, 2 USCMA 635, 10 CMR 133. Syllogistic reasoning would seem to compel a conclusion that there is no crime in military law such as burglary with the intent to commit indecent assault. However, we do not choose to follow that course, for to do so would lead us into a position of absurdity.

Simple assault is a subject offense [23]*23of Article 128, and that Article is included within the range of Articles mentioned in Article 129. Since all the elements of simple assault are embraced within the offense of indecent assault, United States v Hobbs, 7 USCMA 693, 23 CMR 157, it is manifest that a finding of the greater offense necessarily includes a finding of the lesser, and so in this instance we have more than an adequate base to support the conviction. At the worst, we have a finding which includes a nonessential element.

The record certainly sustains either variety of assault, for the accused admitted the following facts in his pretrial confession which was received in evidence. On the night in question, he had been drinking at the noncommis-sioned officers’ club. On his way home his thoughts centered on the victim, who, according to his story, had previously shown a friendly attitude toward him and had given him signs of encouragement. Knowing her husband was at the NCO Club at the time, he “wandered” into the house, finding the door unlocked. His entry awakened her and when she jumped up he hastened away. As opposed to that, the victim testified that she had fallen asleep but was awakened sometime later to find a male stranger draped diagonally across her bed with the top part of his body across her torso. The man was intermittently kissing her and suggesting she keep quiet. She further testified that during this sequence the intruder’s hand was on her breast; that she jumped out of bed, but the man gave chase and held her fast by her forearms; that he shook her, tried to kiss her, and told her to be quiet, and that he fled when she called her dogs.

It would be reductio ad absurdum to regard these facts as failing to support a finding of burglary within Article 129. In fondling a woman not his wife against her will, the accused committed an offense under Article 128, and that brings his acts within the purview of the punitive Article for burglary.

Furthermore, we propound‘d an additional reason to hold that the court returned a proper finding of burglary in this case. If every person’s right in their dwelling house to be free from an intruder’s offer to do them bodily harm is to be safeguarded, there is consistency in protecting the absolute security of the female occupant of that place against the intruder’s taking of indecent, lewd, or lascivious liberties with her person. A woman’s security of habitation and person is certainly rendered less sacred by the unlawful advances of the latter situation. Indeed, military law conceives indecent assault an offense of far greater severity than simple assault, an idea of which may be gleaned from a comparison of the maximum imposable sentences in the case of each crime.

We respond in the negative to the second branch of the first granted question, which is whether burglary with intent to commit indecent assault is a lesser included offense of burglary with intent to commit rape. Burglary remains the same crime, regardless of which intent actuates the entry. To view an analogous situation, in United States v Jenkins, 1 USCMA 329, 3 CMR 63, it was decided that desertion with intent to remain away permanently was not a lesser included offense of desertion with intent to shirk important service. The reasons for arriving at that conclusion were that Congress prescribed a number of variations in the intent with which the offense of desertion might be committed and did not classify them differently as to gravity. Each form of the offense carried the same maximum penalty, was defined specifically as the same offense and was a crime, to all intents and purposes, on the same level. Viewing this crime in the light of such criteria, a similar result must be reached in this ease. Burglary can be predicated on one of many intents and the nature and prescribed punishment for the crime does not vary with the degree of gravity of the intent with which the entry is made. There is only a difference in punishment if, from the evidence, it appears that the intended offense was actually committed, in which case the [24]*24pleader must charge the substantive offense in a separate specification. Paragraph 208, Manual for Courts-Martial, United States, 1951. This much decided, the question now becomes whether the court could legally by exceptions and substitutions return the verdict it did.

Paragraph 746(2), Manual for Courts-Martial, United States, 1951, permits the court to return findings by exception and substitution, provided that such action does not change the nature or identity of any offense charged in the specification or increase the amount of punishment that might be imposed for any such offense. By excepting the word rape and substituting the words indecent assault in a burglary charge, we have already shown that there is no change in the punishment imposable, and the crime is still burglary. But whether there is a fatal variance between the crime alleged and the offense found is a more difficult question.

In United States v Parker, 6 USCMA 274, 19 CMR 400, we said: “To make out the offense of burglary, it is essential that the specific intent alleged, . . . exist at the time of the breaking and entering.” And this is the rule generally in civilian communities.

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Bluebook (online)
9 C.M.A. 20, 9 USCMA 20, 25 C.M.R. 282, 1958 CMA LEXIS 656, 1958 WL 3143, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-kluttz-cma-1958.