Opinion ID: 1407600
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Restraint by means of secreting the victim.

Text: In determining whether there is sufficient evidence of restraint by means of secreting the victim under either the substantial evidence or the Jackson test, the setting of events and the physical surroundings must be examined carefully. The area where the State asserts the victim was secreted, i.e., the apartment's exterior loading area, had no outside doors, was visible from the children's play area and a tire swing located only about 30 feet away, and could be viewed from the rear windows of another apartment only about 40 feet distant. In short, the exterior loading area was plainly visible from the outside. Additionally, the apartment's first floor rear exit, or fire door, opened into one end of the exterior loading area only a few feet from where Mr. Miners observed Green and the victim. This door provided additional public access to the area. Further, the place where Green and the victim were found was near the bottom of the back stairway which led to all of the upstairs apartments. This stairway was used in common by the occupants of and visitors to the apartments. Finally, at best, a total of only 2 to 3 minutes elapsed from the time the victim first screamed to the time Mr. Miners reached the exterior loading area and actually saw Kelly in Green's arms. Considering the unusually short time involved, the minimal distance the victim was moved (estimated variously, by the prosecuting attorney, as from 20 to 50 feet), the location of the participants when found, the clear visibility of that location from the outside as well as the total lack of any evidence of actual isolation from open public areas, there is no substantial evidence of restraint by means of secreting the victim in a place where she was not likely to be found. Further, under the Jackson test, no rational trier of fact could have found beyond a reasonable doubt, that the victim had been restrained by means of secreting her in a place where she was not likely to be found. Under either test it is clear Green could hardly have chosen a more public place to accost his victim or commit the homicide some 2 to 3 minutes later. [4] Moreover, although appellant lifted and moved the victim to the apartment's exterior loading area, it is clear these events were actually an integral part of and not independent of the underlying homicide. While movement of the victim occurred, the mere incidental restraint and movement of a victim which might occur during the course of a homicide are not, standing alone, indicia of a true kidnapping. See State v. Johnson, 92 Wn.2d 671, 676, 600 P.2d 1249 (1979). Although we characterize the movement and restraint in this case as incidental, we do not mean to suggest that under every conceivable set of facts a movement of 20 to 50 feet or being found in a stairwell would be incidental. That which constitutes incidental movement is not solely a matter of measuring feet and inches. It is a determination to be made under the facts of each case, in light of the totality of surrounding circumstances. This characterization is as much a consideration of the relation between the restraint and the homicide as it is a measure of the precise distance moved or place held. It involves an evaluation of the nature of the restraint in which distance is but one factor to be considered. As stated by the Michigan Court of Appeals in People v. Adams, 389 Mich. 222, 236, 205 N.W.2d 415 (1973) in referring to a case of assault: We have concluded that under the kidnapping statute a movement of the victim does not constitute an asportation unless it has significance independent of the assault. And, unless the victim is removed from the environment where he is found, the consequences of the movement itself to the victim are not independently significant from the assault  the movement does not manifest the commission of a separate crime  and punishment for injury to the victim must be founded upon crimes other than kidnapping. New York has taken a similar view of the merging of a technical kidnapping when that kidnapping is merely incidental to the commission of another crime. People v. Cassidy, 40 N.Y.2d 763, 358 N.E.2d 870, 390 N.Y.S.2d 45 (1976); People v. Levy, 15 N.Y.2d 159, 164, 204 N.E.2d 842, 256 N.Y.S.2d 793, cert. denied, 381 U.S. 938, 14 L.Ed.2d 701, 85 S.Ct. 1770 (1965). See also State v. Johnson, supra . We hold that kidnapping by means of secreting or holding the victim in a place where she was not likely to be found has not been established either by substantial evidence or by the standard of proof required by Jackson v. Virginia, supra .