Opinion ID: 6215723
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Substantially Increased Risk of Harm

Text: ¶41 Finally, we hold that the trial court did not err when it defined the asportation element without referencing whether the movement “substantially increased the risk of harm to the victim.” Harlan, 8 P.3d at 477. As we have noted before, and now reiterate, that standard is not an element of second degree kidnapping. See Id. at 477–78. There is no requirement that a defendant’s movement of the victim must substantially increase the risk of harm to the victim in order for a jury to find the defendant guilty of second degree kidnapping. The statutory requirement is that the movement be from “one place to another.” We do not, and in fact may not, “encroach upon the prerogative of the General Assembly to define the elements of an offense.” Id. at 477. Because the standard is neither an element nor a legal definition of one of the statutory elements, a trial 19 court does not err when it tenders second degree kidnapping jury instructions without this language. ¶42 Substantial risk of harm to the victim is, however, a factor that appellate courts may consider when evaluating a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence in a second degree kidnapping case. That is, when the issue is whether there was sufficient evidence to show that the victim was moved from one place to another, a reviewing court may consider whether that movement resulted in a “demonstrable increase in risk of harm to the victim.” Apodaca, 712 P.2d at 475. The standard is, therefore, only one manner in which appellate courts may resolve the question of whether the prosecution has produced enough evidence to convince a reasonable juror that the defendant’s movement of the victim was from one place to another. Because this inquiry is a legal question that we review de novo, see McCoy, ¶¶ 19–20, 442 P.3d at 385, the standard which we use to answer that question on appeal is not a necessary instruction for a jury sitting as finder of fact.