Opinion ID: 1207988
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Sexual Assaults

Text: As with kidnapping, serious physical injury is not a required element of sexual assault, but can nevertheless be related to the offense. In this case, however, the sexual assault offenses were not sufficiently related to the face and nose injury to involve serious physical injury under the meaning of § 13-604.02(A). The record indicates that serious physical injury to the victim's face and nose was inflicted both before and after the sexual assaults: defendant caused the injury by punching the victim during the kidnapping while he dragged her away and by kicking her face after committing the second sexual assault. Nothing in the record suggests, however, that defendant intentionally or knowingly inflicted a serious physical injury to the victim during or in direct relation to the sexual assaults. We do not suggest that an injury must always occur during the commission of an offense to be related for purposes of sentence enhancement. We hold that in this case, where the injury occurred during the other offenses and was more closely related to those other offenses, the necessary statutory requirement of involving was not met. Defendant committed kidnapping and aggravated assault to enable him to sexually assault the victim and to thwart identification. The serious physical injury was not closely related to the sexual assaults, was not a necessary accompaniment to the sexual assaults, and the injury did not have an effect on the sexual assaults. The sexual assaults were not felony offenses involving the intentional or knowing infliction of serious physical injury upon another, as that term (serious physical injury) is defined by statute. Defendant committed sexual assault by intentionally or knowingly engaging in sexual intercourse with the victim without her consent. See A.R.S. § 13-1406(A). Defendant injured the victim when he committed the sexual assaults  all victims of sexual assault suffer both physical and emotional injuries as a result of an assault. However, any injury the victim suffered as a result of the acts defendant committed that were necessary to satisfy the elements of the crime of sexual assault was not so severe that it constituted a physical injury that created a risk of death, caused serious and permanent disfigurement, serious impairment of health, or loss or protracted impairment of the function of any bodily organ or limb. See A.R.S. § 13-105(31). In fact, in 1989 the legislature amended the sexual assault statute to include a discrete sentence enhancement provision similar to the statute at issue in this case. Now, if a defendant commits a sexual assault involving the intentional or knowing infliction of serious physical injury, and the defendant has a prior conviction for sexual assault, then the defendant shall be sentenced to life imprisonment. A.R.S. § 13-1406(C). Nor can we say that the sexual assaults involved serious physical injury separate from the face and nose injury. The victim appears to have suffered only serious physical injury to her face and nose, under § 13-105(31). The pain, roughness, and scratching inflicted during the sexual assaults do not meet the statutory requirement of reasonable risk of death, serious and permanent disfigurement, serious impairment of health, or loss or protracted impairment of the function of any bodily organ or limb. Accordingly, we hold that the trial court erred in sentencing defendant under § 13-604.02(A) for the sexual assault counts.