Title: Ochoa v. State

State: delaware

Issuer: Delaware Supreme Court

Document:

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE 
 
JAVIER OCHOA,   
 
Defendant Below- 
Appellant, 
 
v. 
 
STATE OF DELAWARE, 
 
Plaintiff Below- 
Appellee. 
§ 
§  No. 494, 2009 
§ 
§ 
§  Court Below─Superior Court 
§  of the State of Delaware 
§  in and for New Castle County 
§  Cr. ID No. 0804030992 
§ 
§ 
§ 
 
 
 
 
 
Submitted: November 10, 2009 
 
 
 
 
   Decided: November 23, 2009 
 
Before STEELE, Chief Justice, JACOBS and RIDGELY, Justices 
 
 
 
 
 
 
O R D E R  
 
 
This 23rd day of November 2009, upon consideration of the 
appellant’s opening brief and the appellee’s motion to remand, it appears to 
the Court that: 
 
(1) 
The defendant-appellant, Javier Ochoa, filed an appeal from the 
Superior Court’s July 31, 2009 order affirming his Court of Common Pleas 
conviction of Carrying a Concealed Dangerous Instrument.1  The plaintiff-
appellee, the State of Delaware, has moved to remand this matter to the 
Superior Court so that the matter may, in turn, be remanded to the Court of 
                                                 
1 Del. Code Ann. tit. 11, §§1443(a) and 222(4). 
 
2 
Common Pleas for entry of an order of dismissal of the charge.2  For the 
reasons that follow, we conclude that the matter should be remanded to the 
Court of Common Pleas.     
 
(2) 
The record reflects that, on April 22, 2008, two officers from 
the Wilmington Police Department were patrolling a high-crime area in the 
City of Wilmington.  They stopped a woman in the 100 block of North 
Clayton Street who said she was looking for a friend named “Javier.”  A 
search of the DELJIS database revealed that the woman had an outstanding 
capias for her arrest.  After taking the woman into custody, one of the 
officers stopped Ochoa, who was about a block away, and asked him if he 
knew the woman who had been arrested.  He denied knowing the woman.  
Because the two had given the officers conflicting stories, Ochoa was patted 
down as a cautionary measure.  A tire punch, a tool used to repair flat tires, 
was found in Ochoa’s back pocket.  When asked why he had the tool in his 
pocket, Ochoa stated that he used it in his work as a painter.  Ochoa did not 
answer any of the officers’ other questions.       
 
(3) 
Ochoa was arrested and charged with Carrying a Concealed 
Dangerous Instrument.  He was convicted at a non-jury trial in the Court of 
Common Pleas and was immediately sentenced to 60 days of Level V 
                                                 
2 Ct. Comm. Pleas Cr. R. 48(a). 
 
3 
incarceration, to be suspended for 1 year of probation.  Ochoa appealed to 
the Superior Court, which affirmed his conviction.  In Ochoa’s appeal to this 
Court, the State, in essence, concedes in its motion to remand that there was 
insufficient evidence presented at trial in the Court of Common Pleas to 
convict Ochoa of the charge of Carrying a Concealed Dangerous 
Instrument.3  The State requests that, in the interest of justice, this matter be 
remanded to the Superior Court so that it might, in turn, be remanded to the 
Court of Common Pleas for dismissal of the charge.     
 
(4) 
We conclude, in the interest of justice and efficiency, that the 
State’s motion for remand should be granted.  This matter will, therefore, be 
remanded to the Superior Court with directions to, in turn, remand it to the 
Court of Common Pleas for dismissal of the charge of Carrying a Concealed 
Deadly Instrument. 
 
NOW, THEREFORE, IT IS ORDERED that this matter is hereby 
REMANDED to the Superior Court for further proceedings in accordance 
herewith.  Jurisdiction is not retained. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
BY THE COURT: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
/s/ Henry duPont Ridgely 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Justice 
   
                                                 
3 Upshur v. State, 420 A.2d 165, 169 (Del. 1980) (a conviction of that charge requires the 
State to demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt that the instrument was “used, attempted 
to be used, or threatened to be used” to cause physical injury).