Opinion ID: 2632203
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Sufficiency of the Evidence for the Kidnapping Charge.

Text: {21} At trial, Defendant was convicted of kidnapping with great bodily harm under NMSA 1978, § 30-4-1 (1973, prior to 1995 amendment). On appeal, Defendant contends that there was insufficient evidence to support his conviction for kidnapping, arguing that there was no evidence of an intentional abduction separate from that necessarily involved in the attempted criminal sexual penetration and murder. {22} In reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence in a criminal case, we must determine whether substantial evidence, either direct or circumstantial, exists to support a verdict of guilty beyond a reasonable doubt for every element essential to a conviction. See State v. Rojo, 1999-NMSC-001, ¶ 19, 126 N.M. 438, 971 P.2d 829. The evidence is reviewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, resolving all conflicts and indulging all permissible inferences to uphold the conviction and disregarding all evidence and inferences to the contrary to ensure that a rational jury could have found each element of the crime established beyond a reasonable doubt. Id. {23} During the guilt phase of the trial, the court instructed the jury on the elements of kidnapping under UJI 14-404 (withdrawn in 1997) in the following manner: 1. The defendant took or restrained or confined [the victim] by force or deception; 2. The defendant intended to hold [the victim] for service against her will; 3. The defendant inflicted great bodily harm on [the victim]; 4. This happened in New Mexico on or about the 24th day of October, 1994. {24} As the Court of Appeals explained in State v. Pisio, 119 N.M. 252, 260, 889 P.2d 860, 868 (Ct.App.1994), the key to finding the restraint element in kidnapping, separate from that involved in criminal sexual penetration, is to determine the point at which the physical association between the defendant and the victim was no longer voluntary. A kidnapping can occur when an association begins voluntarily but the defendant's actual purpose is other than the reason the victim voluntarily associated with the defendant. Id. This Court identified distinct and separate conduct in State v. McGuire, 110 N.M. 304, 309, 795 P.2d 996, 1001 (1990), when the defendant abducted the victim while stealing her car, raped her, and then later forced her into the woods and murdered her. The Court found that once the defendant had confined the victim with the requisite intent, he had committed the crime of kidnapping, although the kidnapping continued throughout the course of defendant's other crimes and until the time of the victim's death. Id. Under the kidnapping statute in effect at the time, the victim could be confined by force or deception. Section 30-4-1 (1973, prior to 1995 amendment). {25} In this case, there were several points at which the jury might have found a kidnapping to have occurred. The jury could have found that Defendant kidnapped the victim by deception when he initially offered her a ride home from the mall with another intent in mind. See McGuire, 110 N.M. at 308-09, 795 P.2d at 1000-01 (determining that evidence of later sexual assault may be used by jury to infer that defendant had necessary criminal intent at time victim was first restrained); see also State v. Garcia, 100 N.M. 120, 124, 666 P.2d 1267, 1271 (Ct.App.1983) (observing that deception under the kidnapping statute includes acts that are intended to deceive a victim or omissions that conceal the defendant's purpose). The jury could have found that she was restrained by deception when Defendant changed the intended destination of the ride from her home to the remote location in the Four Hills area of Albuquerque. See State v. Laguna, 1999-NMCA-152, ¶ 13, 128 N.M. 345, 992 P.2d 896 (determining that deception occurred when defendant offered ride to victim, concealing intent of making sexual advances toward child), cert. denied, No. 26,017 (1999). The jury could also have determined that a kidnapping occurred when the victim made the final walk of 100 yards from the car to her death in the arroyo. See McGuire, 110 N.M. at 309, 795 P.2d at 1001 (kidnapping occurred during the course of the defendant's other crimes and continued until the victim's death). On the facts in this record, we hold that the crime of kidnapping was complete before either the act of attempted criminal sexual penetration or the act of murder began. See State v. Foster, 1999-NMSC-007, ¶¶ 33-34, 126 N.M. 646, 974 P.2d 140 (holding that conduct for kidnapping and murder was distinct when the crime of aggravated kidnapping was completed before the act of murder). {26} We do not agree with Defendant's assertion that the restraint used to kidnap the victim was necessarily the same as that used for the attempted criminal sexual penetration and the murder; Defendant's claim does not present a reasonable view of the evidence. Applying the kidnapping statute in effect to the facts of this case, we determine that there was considerable evidence presented from which the jury could conclude that Defendant took the victim with the intent of holding her for service against her will and then killed her. A rational jury could also have found that the kidnapping, attempted criminal sexual penetration, and the murder were separate acts constituting separate crimes. We conclude that there was sufficient evidence of an independent factual basis for each guilty verdict on the charges of kidnapping, attempted criminal sexual penetration, and murder. Defendant does not contest the sufficiency of the evidence for the murder or attempted criminal sexual penetration charges.