Court Opinion

ID: 9699379
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 20:21:33.506115+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:39:39.683728
License: Public Domain

MACK, Associate Judge,
dissenting:
Implicit in the reasoning of the majority decision is the obvious conclusion that the facts of each case must be examined in the determination of whether kidnapping merges with another crime. See Robinson v. United States, D.C.App., 388 A.2d 1210 (No. 11036, decided this date). I accept the standards which the majority adopts in analyzing the facts — i. e., whether the involuntary detention (which is the essence of the kidnapping)1 is coextensive in time and place with the principal offense, and whether it exposed the victim to much greater danger than would have been the case otherwise. These standards are not signifi-cántly different from the “Levy-Lombardi ” standards adopted by the New York and California courts2 — i. e., whether the movement (detention) was “merely incidental” to the other crime “and did not substantially increase the risk of harm otherwise present.” See e. g., People v. Daniels, 71 Cal.2d 1119, 80 Cal.Rptr. 897, 910, 459 P.2d 225, 238 (1969). I might add that these Levy-Lombardi standards are alluded to, without disapproval, by the federal appellate court in this jurisdiction. Thus that court, in affirming separate convictions for kidnapping and robbery, speaks of detention going “both in time and place . far beyond the momentary detention necessarily associated with every robbery” and “substantially inereasftng] the risk of harm over and above that necessarily incident to the . . . robbery.” United States v. Wolford, 144 U.S.App.D.C. 1, 8, 444 F.2d 876, 883 (1971).
Since the facts of the instant case are virtually indistinguishable from Levy (and indeed present an easier case for merger) it is apparent why the majority, in reaching its result, elects to follow the charade of rejecting the Levy “rule of construction.” In doing so, I believe it has employed reasoning fatal to its own analysis. Focusing on one word appearing in the Levy opinion, the majority reasons that the term “aspor-tation” is used in the odd sense of carrying away a human being and that therefore the doctrine of merger does not come into play. This is so, says the majority because “such action is not an essential element of such crimes as robbery, rape or assault.” (Emphasis added.) The latter statement is undeniably true since the carrying away of a person is not an essential element of any crime (including kidnapping) except with respect to statutes promulgated to prevent traffic across boundaries. I would add that neither is detention of a person an essential element of the crimes of robbery, rape or assault. Following the reasoning of the majority to its logical conclusion, the merger standards (of coextensiveness and risk of greater danger) which it today adopts, become virtually meaningless.
It is clear that the Levy opinion employs the word “asportation” to describe any movement which is a “sometimes accompa-nypng]” feature of a crime which, with other restraints, has been treated as an integral part of the crime. Specifically it is describing the movement of a vehicle which is only incidental to the commission of the crime, or to put it another way, a moving vehicle which is merely the situs of the crime. See People v. Levy, 15 N.Y.2d 159, 164, 256 N.Y.S.2d 793, 796, 204 N.E.2d 842, 844, cert. denied, 381 U.S. 938, 85 S.Ct. 1770, 14 L.Ed.2d 701 (1965).3
*1209This is the precise factual situation which we have in the instant case. The victim, who had invited the appellant to share a beer at a bar, entered the vehicle of his own volition. The actual robbery commenced seconds later when appellant’s alleged accomplices entered the automobile with a gun.4 Appellant was instructed to continue driving. The whole episode consumed from 5 to 10 minutes. In the context of time and place it is difficult to imagine a more compressed factual situation. The car which the victim entered willingly was the situs of the crime. The fact of the automobile’s movement thereafter did not appear to restrict the victim’s freedom of movement beyond that incidental to the robbery. I agree, of course, that if this record can be read as showing either that the victim was exposed to greater danger because of the automobile movement or that such movement was planned to facilitate the robbery, the kidnapping count would support a separate conviction. However it seems to me that the facts support other inferences than those drawn by the majority. The victim testified that he did not know the people with whom he had been playing “crap.” He had been winning. He sought the companionship of appellant. The fact that the game was taking place out-of-doors for four or five hours under a street light says something about the probability of police surveillance in that particular block as well as the probability that people on the scene would summon the police. Indeed, as it developed the victim found the police four blocks from where he was put out of the car after the robbery. The circumstances provide a slim reed upon which to conclude that the victim was lured away from friends to face greater danger.
Finally, I mention again the obvious: that every robbery involves a temporary restriction of freedom of movement. The question of whether this restriction encroaches upon the interest protected by the kidnapping statute is one of fact. Time, place and purpose become essential factors. For this reason, in my opinion, the federal decisions do not provide the degree of support for the majority’s conclusion that it implies. It is true that the Second Circuit has refused to adopt a theory of merger, even when the Levy rationale was pressed upon it. That refusal, however, surfaced in the context of factual circumstances where victim truckdrivers were subjected to extended and planned detentions to enable highjackers to transport interstate commerce and conceal cargo. See United States v. DeLaMotte, 434 F.2d 289 (2d Cir. 1970), cert. denied, 401 U.S. 921, 91 S.Ct. 910, 27 L.Ed.2d 825 (1971). See also United States v. Baker, 419 F.2d 83 (2d Cir. 1969). In this jurisdiction, the federal court found factual circumstances to come within the literal language of our kidnapping statute where a victim trucker was seized and carried to Rock Creek Park at gun point for close to an hour to facilitate the hijacking of his liquor-laden truck some 3.8 miles away. See United States v. Wolford, supra. As noted above it distinguished these facts from the Levy-Lombardi cases and did not specifically disapprove those cases.5 See also Pynes v. United States, D.C.App., 385 A.2d 772 (1978).
None of these federal decisions deal with a unitary factual situation where a moving automobile is the situs of a principal offense. A kidnapping conviction for a rob*1210bery committed in a parked automobile during a five-to-ten minute period could hardly be sustained against challenge. Unless the movement of the automobile has special significance, the same result should obtain. I would reverse the conviction for kidnapping and dismiss the charge.

. United States v. Young, 512 F.2d 321 (4th Cir. 1975).

. People v. Levy, 15 N.Y.2d 159, 256 N.Y.S.2d 793, 204 N.E.2d 842, cert. denied, 381 U.S. 938, 85 S.Ct. 1770, 14 L.Ed.2d 701 (1965); People v. Lombardi, 20 N.Y.2d 266, 282 N.Y.S.2d 519, 229 N.E.2d 206 (1967).

.The Levy opinion recites as follows:
It is unlikely that these restraints, sometimes accompanied by asportation, which are *1209incidents to other crimes and have long been treated as integral parts of other crimes, were intended by the Legislature in framing its broad definition of kidnapping to constitute a separate crime of kidnapping, even though kidnapping might sometimes be spelled out literally from the statutory words.
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In the case before us the movement of the automobile, which was itself the situs of the robbery, was not essentially different in relation to the robbery than would be the tying up of a victim in a bank and his movement into another room. In essence the crime remained a robbery although some of the kidnapping statutory language might literally also apply to it. [Emphasis added.]

. Although the victim spoke of a shot being fired as he left the automobile, the gun which the government recovered was a blank one incapable of being fired.

. See also United States v. Young, supra where after a robbery the victim was locked in the trunk of his parked car.