Opinion ID: 155821
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Vicki Lueras Offenses

Text: 86 Vicki Lueras testified that on the night of April 3, 1986, she was talking on the telephone in her bedroom when the call was disconnected. When she got up to check the telephone line, she saw a person she identified as petitioner in the kitchen trying to turn off the kitchen light. After about a minute he was able to turn off the light. He then came toward her, backing her into her bedroom. He turned off the bedroom light, pushed her down on the bed, and tried to remove her pants. She started screaming her father's name, and he panicked and ran out the back door. She testified that petitioner was in her house [f]or about five minutes altogether. 87 In this case, because the aggravating factor for the burglary charge was the commission of a battery upon a person inside the dwelling, the aggravated burglary was not complete until petitioner unlawfully entered the victim's dwelling with the requisite intent to commit a felony and committed a battery. Cf. State v. Livernois, 123 N.M. 128, 134-35, 934 P.2d 1057, 1063-64 (1997) (holding, where aggravating factor of burglary charge was possession of deadly weapon, aggravated burglary offense was complete when, armed with a deadly weapon and with requisite intent, defendant entered building). The jury instructions for the aggravated burglary charge required the jury to find that while inside the victim's dwelling, petitioner touched or applied force to Vick[i] Lueras in a rude or angry manner. The jury instructions for the attempted CSP II charge required the jury to find that petitioner began to do an act which constituted a substantial part of the criminal sexual penetration but failed to commit the criminal sexual penetration. 88 Based on our review of the record, we conclude the conduct constituting the attempted CSP and the aggravated burglary was unitary. First, the acts underlying both offenses were not sufficiently separated in time or space to be considered distinct. See Pisio, 119 N.M. at 261, 889 P.2d at 869 (holding conduct underlying kidnapping, assault, criminal sexual contact, and CSP II charges was unitary where conduct all occurred within same initial five-minute period following victim's entry into apartment); cf. State v. Kersey, 120 N.M. 517, 523, 903 P.2d 828, 834 (1995) (holding kidnapping and felony murder were distinct acts where kidnapping took place two hours before and sixty miles away from murder). Lueras' testimony established that the acts constituting the attempted CSP (throwing the victim down on the bed and attempting to undo her pants) and those constituting the battery (the offensive touching) took place simultaneously. The entire criminal episode took place over a short period of time and in the same area. There was no significant movement of the victim. Cf. Herron v. State, 111 N.M. 357, 361-62, 805 P.2d 624, 628-29 (1991) (holding movement or relocation of victim tends to establish that acts involved in continuous criminal episodes are separate and distinct). The acts underlying the aggravated burglary offense and the attempted CSP offense were also uninterrupted by intervening acts. 89 In addition, because the criminal sexual penetration was not completed, the acts constituting attempted CSP were not of a different nature than the acts constituting battery. Furthermore, the object and result of the aggravated burglary and attempted CSP were not distinct. The jury instructions required the jury to find, as one of the elements of the aggravated burglary charge, that petitioner entered the dwelling with intent to commit CSP; the State has not suggested, either at trial or before this court, that petitioner entered the victim's dwelling with intent to commit theft or another felony unrelated to CSP. See State v. Contreras, 120 N.M. 486, 490, 903 P.2d 228, 232 (1995) (finding object and result of felony murder and robbery united where, almost immediately after stabbing cab driver, defendant took the cab and its contents); cf. Livernois, 123 N.M. at 134, 934 P.2d at 1063 (holding conduct underlying felony murder and predicate felony of aggravated burglary not unitary where defendant entered building with intent to commit theft, but subsequently committed murder). The evidence presented at trial therefore does not allow any determination that a separate factual basis existed for each offense. Instead, the conduct constituting attempted CSP was the same conduct that was used as the aggravating factor for the aggravated burglary charge, and this aggravated burglary charge was used to raise the attempted CSP offense to attempted CSP II. 90 Because the conduct underlying the Lueras charges was unitary, we must turn to the second prong of the Swafford test, which focuses on legislative intent to impose multiple punishments for unitary conduct. Our review of New Mexico case law, the relevant statutes, and available legislative history has revealed no express authorization of multiple punishment in this context. We therefore turn to the Blockburger test to determine legislative intent. 91 Under the Blockburger test, the court must determine  'whether each provision requires proof of a fact the other does not.'  Swafford, 112 N.M. at 8, 810 P.2d at 1228 (quoting Blockburger, 284 U.S. at 304, 52 S.Ct. at 182). If one statute is subsumed within the other, the inquiry is over and the statutes are the same for double jeopardy purposes. Id. at 3, 810 P.2d at 1223. A statute is subsumed within another if all of the elements of that statute are included within the elements of the other statute. Contreras, 120 N.M. at 490, 903 P.2d at 232. In this case, because the attempted CSP II charge was premised on the attempted perpetration of the CSP during the commission of the aggravated burglary, petitioner could not have been convicted of attempted CSP II unless the State proved all the elements of aggravated burglary. The elements of aggravated burglary are thus subsumed by the elements of the attempted CSP II. See Pisio, 119 N.M. at 262, 889 P.2d at 870 (holding defendant's convictions for CSP II, based on a felony, and predicate felony of kidnapping violated Double Jeopardy Clause where underlying conduct was unitary); see also State v. McGruder, 123 N.M. 302, 310, 940 P.2d 150, 158 (1997) (citing Pisio as case in which double jeopardy principles preclude multiple punishment based on unitary conduct for CSP II and kidnapping, where kidnapping is the felony enhancing the base offense). 92 The State argues there was no double jeopardy violation because CSP was not a necessary predicate to petitioner's conviction for aggravated burglary. The State points out that petitioner could have been convicted of aggravated burglary under New Mexico law even if he had not sexually assaulted his victims. 11 Under the same reasoning, because the CSP II statute does not expressly enumerate aggravated burglary as an element of CSP II, but instead refers generally to CSP perpetrated during the commission of any other felony, aggravated burglary is not necessarily subsumed by the CSP II charge. This argument has been rejected, however, by both the Supreme Court and by New Mexico courts in the analogous context of felony murder. 12 See Whalen v. United States, 445 U.S. 684, 693-94, 100 S.Ct. 1432, 1438-39, 63 L.Ed.2d 715 (1980) (holding defendant could not be punished for both felony murder and predicate felony of rape because rape offense was subsumed within felony-murder offense even though felony-murder statute listed other felonies which could satisfy felony element); Contreras, 120 N.M. at 490-91, 903 P.2d at 232-33 (adopting Whalen analysis in context of felony murder);Swafford, 112 N.M. at 8 n. 4, 810 P.2d at 1228 n. 4 (suggesting majority's approach in Whalen may be understood as an exception to traditional analysis [i.e., strict elements application of Blockburger ] designed to cope more effectively with the complicated problem of compound and predicate offenses). 93 In the related situation of criminal statutes written in the alternative, New Mexico courts have also indicated that in applying the Blockburger test to determine legislative intent, the court should focus on the legal theory of the case and disregard any inapplicable statutory elements. State v. Cowden, 121 N.M. 703, 704, 917 P.2d 972, 973 (Ct.App.), cert. denied, 121 N.M. 644, 916 P.2d 844 (1996). We therefore reject the State's argument and conclude that petitioner's convictions for both aggravated burglary and attempted CSP II arising from the Lueras incident violated the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Constitution. Thus, we remand to the district court so that the less serious Lueras offense can be vacated. 13