Opinion ID: 2631066
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Negligently Permitting Child Abuse Resulting in Death or Great Bodily Harm

Text: {25} The charge of negligently permitting child abuse resulting in death or great bodily harm pertains to the injuries inflicted on Baby Briana in the last two days of her life. Abuse of a child consists of a person knowingly, intentionally or negligently, and without justifiable cause, causing or permitting a child to be . . . placed in a situation that may endanger the child's life or health [or] tortured, cruelly confined or cruelly punished, resulting in the death of, or great bodily harm to, the child. Section 30-6-1(D); see also § 30-6-1(E)-(F). Under this theory, the State was required to prove in relevant part that: (1) Defendant permitted Baby Briana to be placed in a situation which endangered the life or health of Baby Briana or permitted Baby Briana to be tortured or cruelly punished; (2) Defendant acted intentionally or with reckless disregard; (3) Defendant was a parent, guardian or custodian of the child, or had accepted responsibility for the child's welfare; (4) Defendant's actions or failure to act resulted in the death of or great bodily harm to Baby Briana; and (5) this happened in New Mexico on or between July 18, 2002, and July 19, 2002. See UJI 14-603 NMRA (defining the elements of negligently permitting child abuse with bodily harm). {26} A review of Father's and Uncle's statements reveals that they are largely silent with regard to Defendant's actions or knowledge during the last two days of Baby Briana's life. Father and Uncle both stated that Defendant was in the room on the night of July 18, 2002, and Uncle stated that Defendant consumed five to six beers that night. In Defendant's statement to police she did not contradict Father's or Uncle's statements in any significant respect. Defendant told police that she was in the room with Father, Uncle, and Baby Briana, and that she fell asleep around 10:00 p.m. after drinking two to three beers. The statements given by Father and Uncle referred almost exclusively to their own conduct of throwing Baby Briana in the air and allowing her to fall to the floor and to sexually assaulting Baby Briana. In his interview with police, Father explicitly stated that Defendant was passed out while Baby Briana was being thrown in the air: Q. When [Baby Briana] hit her head on the ceiling? Did she cry? A. Yeah. Q. What did Stephanie say? A. I don't even know, I don't even know if she was awake or no. Q. Did she pass out? A. She just passed out. Later in his interview with police, Father was questioned about Defendant's whereabouts on the night of July 18, 2002: Q. And where's your wife this whole time? A. She was there too. Q. Did she see it happen? A. She passed out. Q. She saw some of it happen because she told part of it, correct? A. She was passed out. Q. She was passed out? So the only ones awake were you, Briana and Steven? Yes or no? A. Yes, sir. Father and Uncle did not indicate in any way that Defendant participated in the abuse of Baby Briana in any way. {27} Considering the first of the Johnson harmless-error factors, the importance of the witness' testimony, Father's and Uncle's testimonial statements were not significantly damaging to Defendant. Father and Uncle merely placed Defendant in the room with Baby Briana on the night of her death, a fact Defendant admitted in her own statement to police. As to the second Johnson factor, the statements were essentially cumulative to Defendant's own admissible testimony. See Johnson, 2004-NMSC-029, ¶ 38, 136 N.M. 348, 98 P.3d 998 (describing that [c]umulative evidence is additional evidence of the same kind tending to prove the same points as other evidence already given). The only distinction between Defendant's version of events, and Father's and Uncle's description of Defendant's behavior, was the number of beers Defendant consumed. Defendant claimed she consumed two or three beers, while Uncle told police she drank five or six. As to the third factor articulated in Johnson, the presence or absence of evidence corroborating or contradicting the testimony of the witness on material points, Defendant's own statement to police corroborated the statements of Father and Uncle. Regarding the fourth factor listed in Johnson, the extent of Defendant's opportunity to cross-examine Father or Uncle, Defendant did not have an occasion to cross-examine her codefendants, as neither testified at the joint trial. {28} Finally, as to the overall strength of the prosecution's case, a jury would have found support for each of the elements of negligently permitting child abuse merely by examining the physical evidence in this case. The physical evidence admitted at trial established that Baby Briana suffered from three limb fractures, the subdural hematoma that killed her, fresh retinal bleeding, and dozens of bruises and bite marks all over her body. This evidence, coupled with Defendant's own statement placing her in the room with Baby Briana on the night the abuse occurred, provides overwhelming proof that Defendant negligently permitted child abuse, resulting in the death or great bodily harm of Baby Briana. {29} After examining each of the Johnson factors, the admission of Father's and Uncle's statements was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt as to Defendant's conviction for negligently permitting child abuse resulting in death or great bodily harm. Father and Uncle did not inculpate Defendant in any way with regard to their abuse of Baby Briana. The statements of Father and Uncle were merely additional evidence tending to prove what had already been demonstrated by physical evidence and Defendant's own testimony. Because the statements of Father and Uncle did not serve to strengthen or corroborate the other evidence of guilt, we conclude [their] erroneous admission was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt with respect to [Defendant's] conviction for negligently permitting child abuse resulting in death or great bodily harm. Johnson, 2004-NMSC-029, ¶ 53, 136 N.M. 348, 98 P.3d 998.