Opinion ID: 1057580
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Kidnapping as a Separate Offense

Text: Next, Mr. Henretta argues that the proof presented was insufficient to warrant his separate conviction for kidnapping, asserting that any movement or confinement of Ms. Crabtree was merely incidental to the accompanying felonies of robbery and murder. In support of this argument, Mr. Henretta cites State v. Anthony, 817 S.W.2d 299 (Tenn.1991), wherein we heard consolidated appeals of two cases. The defendant in each case was convicted of both armed robbery and aggravated kidnapping. In one of the cases, the defendant and his accomplice robbed a restaurant at gunpoint, and, during the approximately five minutes that they were at the restaurant, the defendant forced one restaurant employee to remain in an office while his accomplice held three other employees outside at the back of the restaurant. The defendant in the other case robbed an insurance agency at gunpoint. In the second case, the robbery took approximately four minutes during which time the defendant forced the owner and an employee into a bathroom. At the time these offenses were committed, the applicable version of the aggravated kidnapping statute was the same as in the present matter, requiring conviction of [a]ny person who unlawfully seizes, confines, inveigles, entices, decoys, abducts, conceals, kidnaps or carries away another with the felonious intent to: (1) [c]ause the other to be confined secretly against his will; (2) [d]etain the other against his will; or (3) [s]end the other out of the state against his will. Tenn.Code Ann. § 39-2-301(a) (1982). [8] We acknowledged that a literal construction of this language could overrun other crimes such as robbery and rape, both of which frequently involve brief confinement. Seeking to preserve rights guaranteed a defendant under Article I, section 8 of this state's constitution, [9] we determined that the kidnapping convictions were improper in both cases under review, holding that the proper test was whether the confinement, movement, or detention is essentially incidental to the accompanying felony and is not, therefore, sufficient to support a separate conviction for kidnapping, or whether it is significant enough, in and of itself, to warrant independent prosecution and is, therefore, sufficient to support such a conviction. Anthony, 817 S.W.2d at 306. Later, however, in State v. Dixon, 957 S.W.2d 532 (Tenn.1997), we replaced this so-called essentially incidental test with a two-part test. Under this two-part test, the evidence will be sufficient to support a separate conviction for aggravated kidnapping if 1) the movement or confinement of the victim exceeded that necessary for commission of the accompanying crime and 2) the additional movement or confinement: [a)] prevented the victim from summoning help; [b)] lessened the defendant's risk of detection; or [c)] created a significant danger or increased the victim's risk of harm. Id. at 535. This two-part test provides the structure for applying the due process principles announced in Anthony. State v. Richardson, 251 S.W.3d 438, 443 (Tenn. 2008); State v. Fuller, 172 S.W.3d 533, 537 (Tenn.2005). The kidnapping statute applicable in the instant matter was superceded under 1989 statutory revisions. [10] However, as we noted in Dixon, the due process principles of Anthony and the test designed to implement them are equally applicable to kidnapping convictions under the law in effect both before and after the effective date of the 1989 Criminal Code Revision. 957 S.W.2d at 533 n. 1. Both parts of the Dixon test are met under the circumstances of the instant case. Ms. Crabtree was raped and robbed in the middle portion of the store and was then moved to the storeroom located in the rear portion of the store. In his confession, Mr. Henretta states that we both grabbed her at the store room entrance. We told her to lay down and Goodhart had sex with her first and I went and got her purse. ... After I got her purse I went back and had sex with her. Investigating officers found one of Ms. Crabtree's shoes on the floor in this middle portion of the store, where she was raped and robbed. Her other shoe and her body were found at the rear portion of the store. It is clear from Mr. Henretta's confession that the rape and robbery had already occurred when Ms. Crabtree was moved to the rear of the store and, therefore, moving her to that location obviously was not necessary to accomplish those offenses. Second, movement of Ms. Crabtree to the room at the rear of the store placed her farther from the front door and thereby diminished her access to any potential rescuer and lessened her assailants' risk of detection. Mr. Henretta also asserts that Ms. Crabtree's body was moved to the rear of the store after she was killed, apparently contending that a conviction of kidnapping does not lie for transporting a dead body. Mr. Henretta references no evidence to support his assertion that Ms. Crabtree was already dead when she was taken to the rear of the store and the evidence presented indicates otherwise. Ms. Crabtree died from loss of blood as a result of the cuts to her neck. No evidence of blood was found in the middle portion of the store at the storeroom entrance where Ms. Crabtree was initially accosted, raped and robbed. However, a large pool of blood was found near Ms. Crabtree's body in the rear portion of the store, showing that that is where Mr. Henretta cut her throat and where she bled to death.