Opinion ID: 1965052
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Sufficiency of the Evidence on Kidnapping

Text: Tovar challenges the sufficiency of the evidence on the kidnapping charge and claims that the state produced insufficient evidence that a kidnapping occurred at either 293 Atwater or earlier at 918 DeSoto. In analyzing a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence supporting a conviction, we look at the record to determine whether the evidence, when viewed in a light most favorable to the conviction, was sufficient to permit the jurors to reach the verdict which they did. State v. Webb, 440 N.W.2d 426, 430 (Minn.1989). In doing so, we must recognize that the jury is in the best position to evaluate witness credibility and assume that, after due consideration, the jurors believed the state's witnesses and did not believe the defense's witnesses. Profit, 591 N.W.2d at 467. A person is guilty of kidnapping if he confines a person, without the person's consent, To hold for ransom or reward for release, or as shield or hostage; To facilitate commission of any felony or flight thereafter; To commit great bodily harm or to terrorize the victim or another; or To hold in involuntary servitude. See Minn.Stat. § 609.25, subd. 1 (1998). There is no requirement that the person be detained for any particular length of time or transported any particular distance. See State v. Morris, 281 Minn. 119, 123-24, 160 N.W.2d 715, 718 (1968). Tovar was charged with kidnapping Christenson with the intent to cause great bodily harm. The woman caller and Cleveland testified that Tovar and others bound Christenson's hands and face with packing tape. They also testified that Tovar and others carried Christenson into the house, beat him, threw him down a flight of stairs and then carried him out of the house and put him in the back seat of his car. The medical examiner's testimony indicates that Christenson was severely beaten, receiving a serious concussion, sexually assaulted and, finally, repeatedly stabbed with both a double-pointed instrument, possibly a cooking fork, and a single-edged knife. We conclude that there was sufficient evidence in this record to support the guilty verdict on kidnapping with intent to cause great bodily harm.