Opinion ID: 2081107
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Sufficiency of the Evidence To Support the Kidnapping Conviction

Text: Count V of the indictment charged the defendant with kidnapping, 17-A M.R.S.A. § 301(1)(A)(4). The relevant portion of the indictment read that the defendant knowingly restrain[ed] one Alfred Gendreau with the intent to terrorize him, to wit; said Harold R. Estes, Jr. then and there knowingly confined said Alfred Gendreau for a substantial period of time in the place where his restriction commenced, to wit, did confine the said Alfred Gendreau for approximately one hour in the home of Alphonse Vaillancourt wherein his restriction commenced, and the said Harold R. Estes, Jr. then and there knowingly communicated to said Alfred Gendreau a threat to intentionally or knowingly kill Alphonse Vaillancourt, Mary Vaillancourt, David Vaillancourt, Christina (Tina) Estes, and him the said Alfred Gendreau . . . . The defendant argues that there was no evidence showing he intended to terrorize Gendreau and that the evidence of Gendreau's one-and-one-half-hour confinement was legally insufficient to satisfy the substantial period requirement necessary to establish restraint under 17-A M.R.S.A. § 301(2). From a reading of the relevant statutes, it appears that to secure a conviction under 17-A M.R.S.A. § 301(1)(A)(4) the State must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant knowingly restrained the victim with the intent to place the victim in fear of a crime of violence dangerous to human life against the victim or another person by communicating to the victim a threat to commit such a crime under circumstances in which a reasonable person in the victim's position would be placed in fear by such a threat. See 17-A M.R.S.A. § 301(1)(A)(4); id., § 210. The evidence bearing on this issue may be summarized as follows: Immediately upon Gendreau's entry into the Vaillancourt home, the defendant pointed a gun at his stomach and ordered him to [c]ome in here. The defendant then ordered Gendreau into a bedroom and told him to lie down on a bed. He told Gendreau that he intended to kill Alphonse, Mary and David Vaillancourt and Christina Estes, relatives of Gendreau. While confining Gendreau in the bedroom, the defendant fired his rifle at a television set, blowing the screen out of the set. The defendant then said to Gendreau, You think this gun is not loaded. The defendant communicated his readiness to commit the murders by saying to Gendreau, I'll only have a couple of years for it. I'll plead temporary insanity. Gendreau was held at gunpoint for one and one-half hours during which time he was scared. The defendant testified that when he told Gendreau he was going to kill the Vaillancourts he was just scaring him. This evidence was more than sufficient to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant intended to communicate to Gendreau a threat to commit a crime of violence dangerous to human life against Gendreau and the others enumerated in the indictment. [P]roof of the accused's intent at the time of the commission of the alleged criminal act may be drawn from the act itself or from the existing circumstances surrounding the incident, as well as from any other evidence having a legitimate tendency to shed light upon the accused's intent or mental state at the time. State v. Anderson, Me., 409 A.2d 1290, 1296 (1979); State v. Littlefield, Me., 389 A.2d 16, 22 (1978). The defendant also contends that the one-and-one-half-hour period of confinement of Gendreau does not satisfy the requirement of 17-A M.R.S.A. § 301(2)(C) that the confinement be for a substantial period. The Comment to Section 301 makes clear that the inclusion of the substantial period requirement in the statutory definition of restrain was intended to avoid having kidnapping include conduct that was merely incidental to the commission of some other crime against the victim: The third designated means [confinement for a substantial period] is designed to preclude kidnapping liability when the burglar puts the householder in the closet while he fills his sack with the silver. Comment, 17-A M.R.S.A. § 301. A comparison of Section 301 with Section 212.1 of the Model Penal Code demonstrates that our kidnapping statute was in significant respects based on the definition of kidnapping in the model code. The draftsmen of that code similarly expressed an intention to exclude from the definition of kidnapping restraints which were merely incidental to the commission of another offense against the victim. See Model Penal Code § 212.1, Comments at 13-16 (Tent. Draft No. 11, 1960). Here, the restraint was not merely incidental to the commission of some other offense against Gendreau. The restraint accompanied by the required intention to terrorize Gendreau was the essence of the wrongful conduct. See State v. Littlefield, supra, 389 A.2d at 21. Under such circumstances, confinement for a period of one and one-half hours more than satisfied the statutory requirement. For the foregoing reasons, we conclude that the evidence was sufficient to permit a rational trier of fact to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant had committed the crime of kidnapping as charged in the indictment. See, e. g., State v. Lagasse, Me., 410 A.2d 537, 542 (1980).