Opinion ID: 1943965
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Kidnapping Evidence Insufficient

Text: Upon remand, the Superior Court concluded: At trial, it appeared that there was testimony in the record which suggested that Gronenthal had bound the victim after he had subdued her by smothering her. At that time, I determined that the jury could conclude from the evidence that Gronenthal thought the victim was dead, or knew she was alive but thought she was brain dead, or knew she was pretending to be dead and bound her hands and feet. However, at this time, with the benefit of the transcript of the proceedings, it appears that the testimony regarding the sequence of events is unclear. The victim may have been bound between the second and third attempts to suffocate her with the pillow, in which case the binding of her hands and feet would have been in furtherance of the intended sexual assault. In Weber v. State , the Delaware Supreme Court held that there must be a threshold determination by the trial judge that there are facts in the record which would support independent convictions on the kidnapping charge and on the underlying charge. Thus, the trial judge must determine, as a matter of law, if the evidence of restraint proves that there was `much more' (substantial) interference with the victim's liberty than is ordinarily incident to the underlying crime. With the benefit of the written record, I conclude that the testimony of the victim is not sufficient to establish a temporal sequence of restraint that demonstrates a substantial inference with the victim's liberty more than ordinarily incident to the underlying crimes. The Superior Court's factual findings and conclusions of law upon remand are supported by the record. They are also the product of an orderly and logical deductive process. Consequently, the Superior Court's judgment that the kidnapping charge should not have been submitted to the jury, as a matter of law, is affirmed. This means that the judgment of conviction for kidnapping must be vacated.