Opinion ID: 2582445
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Conspiracy to Commit Intentional Child Abuse

Text: {21} Conspiracy consists of knowingly combining with another for the purpose of committing a felony within or without this state. Section 30-28-2. An overt act is not required and the crime of conspiracy is complete when the felonious agreement is reached. Walters, 2007-NMSC-050, ¶ 42 (citing Johnson, 2004-NMSC-029, ¶ 49, 136 N.M. 348, 98 P.3d 998). To obtain a conviction under the theory of conspiracy, the State was required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that: (1) Defendant and Father by words or acts agreed together to commit intentional child abuse resulting in death or great bodily harm and (2) Defendant and Father intended to commit intentional child abuse resulting in death or great bodily harm. See UJI 14-2810 NMRA (defining the elements of conspiracy). {22} The inculpatory statements related to the charge of conspiracy are the following. Mother said that on the morning of July 19, 2002, Father told her that he threw Baby Briana up in the air once and maybe [Defendant] threw the baby up. Father also implicated Defendant in his statement to police. Father stated that he and Defendant were playing rough with Baby Briana and indicated Defendant participated in throwing Baby Briana to the ceiling and allowing her to fall to the floor. In his statement to police, Defendant admitted that on the night of July 18, 2002, he had thrown Baby Briana in the air so that she hit her head on the ceiling and that Father threw her in the air so she hit her head on the ceiling twice. {23} As in Walters, we conclude that the codefendants' statements were important to the prosecution's case. While the codefendants' statements do not constitute direct evidence of the existence of an agreement between Defendant and Father to commit intentional child abuse, Mother's and Father's statements related circumstances from which the jury could infer that Defendant and Father had agreed to act together to abuse Baby Briana. Walters, 2007-NMSC-050, ¶¶ 43-44. There is no direct evidence of conspiracy in this case, as neither Defendant nor Father acknowledged that they had entered an agreement to commit child abuse, and no other witness testified as to the existence of an agreement between Defendant and Father. Thus, the statements from Defendant's alleged coconspirator that he and Defendant were acting in conjunction with one another were important to the prosecution's case. We acknowledge that Defendant himself confessed to acting together with Father, making Father's and Mother's statements cumulative. However, because Defendant's statement is the only properly admitted piece of evidence to support the prosecution's conspiracy theory, we conclude that the admission of his codefendants' statements was not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Id.