Opinion ID: 2582445
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Intentional Child Abuse Resulting in Death or Great Bodily Harm

Text: {16} The charge of intentional child abuse resulting in death or great bodily harm arose from the injuries inflicted on Baby Briana in the last two days of her life. Abuse of a child consists of a person knowingly, intentionally or negligently, and without justifiable cause, causing or permitting a child to be: (1) placed in a situation that may endanger the child's life or health; (2) tortured, cruelly confined or cruelly punished. . . . Section 30-6-1(D). [T]o obtain a conviction under the theory of intentional child abuse, the State was required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that (1) Defendant caused Baby Briana to be placed in a situtation [situation] which endangered her life or health, or tortured or cruelly confined or punished Baby Briana; (2) Defendant acted intentionally; and (3) Defendant's actions resulted in the death of or great bodily harm to Baby Briana. Walters, 2007-NMSC-050, ¶ 28 (citing UJI 14-602 NMRA (defining the elements of intentional child abuse resulting in great bodily harm)). {17} We review the codefendants' statements related to Defendant's actions during the last two days of Baby Briana's life in order to determine the impact of those statements and whether their erroneous admission may be characterized as harmless. In her statement to police, Mother did not mention Defendant's behavior except to say that he was in the bedroom with her and Baby Briana and that he remained awake after she fell asleep. Father's statement to police was more condemnatory. He told police investigators that he and Defendant had been playing rough with Baby Briana and that they threw her up in the air so her head hit the ceiling and allowed her to fall to the floor. During his police interrogation, Defendant confirmed the information Father gave in his statement several times. First, Defendant admitted to throwing her up in the air so that her head hit the ceiling. Then, Defendant told police that he and Father were throwing Baby Briana up in the air and allowing her to fall to the floor. {18} Applying the first factor listed in Johnson to Mother's and Father's erroneously admitted statements, we acknowledge that in many cases eyewitness testimony describing a defendant's participation in child abuse would be tremendously important to the prosecution's case. Walters, 2007-NMSC-050, ¶ 32. As to the second Johnson factor, whether the erroneously admitted evidence was cumulative, Mother's and Father's statements merely tend to prove the elements already established by Defendant's confession. Defendant's confession constituted direct evidence sufficient to establish each element of intentional child abuse resulting in death or great bodily harm. Therefore Mother's and Father's statements may be characterized as cumulative. Johnson, 2004-NMSC-029, ¶ 38, 136 N.M. 348, 98 P.3d 998 (stating [c]umulative evidence is additional evidence of the same kind tending to prove the same point as other evidence already given). Considering the third Johnson factor, the presence or absence of evidence corroborating or contradicting the testimony of the witnesses on material points, the evidence of blunt force injury to Baby Briana's head corroborates Defendant's confession that he threw Baby Briana up so that her head hit the ceiling, as well as the statements of Mother and Father. See Walters, 2007-NMSC-050, ¶ 32. It is undisputed that Defendant did not have the opportunity to cross examine his codefendants, the fourth Johnson factor. However, the overall strength of the prosecution's case, the final Johnson factor, cannot be minimized. In his confession, Defendant repeatedly confirmed that he and Father threw Baby Briana up in the air so that she hit her head on the ceiling and allowed her to fall to the floor. In light of Defendant's confession and Baby Briana's injuries substantiating his confession, we hold that the trial court's admission of Mother's and Father's statements was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt with regard to Defendant's conviction of intentional child abuse resulting in death or great bodily harm.