Opinion ID: 2015283
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Heading: The Criminal-Mischief Conviction.

Text: A. Challenge to the marshaling instruction. Chang alleges the marshaling instruction submitted to the jury with respect to the second-degree criminal-mischief charge was erroneous because it did not require the State to establish that the damage that occurred to the parked car and Tyler's vehicle was intentionally inflicted. Our review of alleged errors in jury instructions is for correction of errors at law. Iowa R.App. P. 4; State v. Rains, 574 N.W.2d 904, 915 (Iowa 1998). This court's task is to determine whether the instructions that were given correctly state the law. State v. Mesch, 574 N.W.2d 10, 12 (1997). The critical statute is section 716.1, which defines criminal mischief. That statute provides: Any damage, defacing, alteration, or destruction of tangible property is criminal mischief when done intentionally by one who has no right to so act. Iowa Code § 716.1. Criminal mischief in the second degree, as set forth in section 716.4, is criminal mischief that results in a replacement or repair cost of more than $1000 but less than $10,000. It is a class D felony. The district court's marshaling instruction to the jury provided: The State must prove all of the following elements of Criminal Mischief: 1. On or about the 7th day of December, 1996, the defendant damaged a squad car belonging to the University of Northern Iowa and a vehicle belonging to Lori Frost. 2. The defendant intended to do the act which damaged the property. 3. When the defendant damaged the property, he did not have the right to do so. The district court also submitted an instruction on general criminal intent, which advised the jury: To commit a crime a person must intend to do an act which is against the law. While it is not necessary that a person know the act is against the law, it is necessary that the person was aware he was doing the act and he did it voluntarily, not by mistake or accident. You may, but are not required to, conclude a person intends the natural results of his acts. The latter instruction is identical to that contained in I Iowa Criminal Jury Instruction 200.1. Chang urges that the plain wording of section 716.1 requires an intent to damage, deface, alter, or destroy tangible property. In response to this contention, the State urges (1) the statute does not expressly require a specific intent to damage property, and the court should not read that intent into the act; and (2) public policy concerns dictate that a specific intent to damage not be made an element of the crime. We disagree with both of the State's contentions. First, we believe that the statute does expressly require an intent to damage, deface, alter, or destroy property. When a statute is plain and its meaning clear, courts are not permitted to search for meaning beyond its express terms. State v. Burns, 541 N.W.2d 875, 876 (Iowa 1995). The language of this statute does not speak to acts causing damage but to the damage itself. In interpreting written language, modifiers must be taken as relating to the preceding antecedents. State v. Lohr, 266 N.W.2d 1, 3 (Iowa 1978). The only antecedents to which the modifier intentionally may refer are the words damage, defacing, alteration, [and] destruction. [1] We have previously suggested that section 716.4 requires that the prosecution prove intentional damage to tangible property. In State v. Perry, 440 N.W.2d 389 (Iowa 1989), this court was considering the overlap between section 321.78 (willful injury or tampering of a vehicle) and section 716.1 (criminal mischief). As part of that discussion, we stated: Under section 321.78, prosecution must prove willful injury of a vehicle. The requirement is much the same under sections 716.1 and 716.4 in which the prosecution must prove intentional damage of tangible property. Perry, 440 N.W.2d at 391 (emphasis added). We conclude that the district court erred in instructing the jury that the State need only establish that the defendant intended to do the act that damaged the property. The instruction should have required the State to establish that the defendant intended to cause the damage. This error in instructing the jury requires a reversal of Changs conviction for second-degree criminal mischief. That charge is remanded to the district court for retrial. B. Challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence. Chang also urges that his motion for a directed verdict should have been granted because the evidence was not sufficient to sustain a conviction of criminal mischief in the second degree under a correct application of the law in which the State was required to establish an intent to damage tangible property. Assuming without deciding that Chang's argument has merit with respect to the striking of the parked vehicle, a reasonable jury could have concluded that he deliberately rammed officer Tyler's vehicle in order to effect his escape. From that the jury could also logically infer that Chang intended the natural consequences of that action, i.e., that Tyler's vehicle would be damaged. Consequently, Chang's motion for directed verdict was properly denied.