Court Opinion

ID: 9786721
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 00:01:36.727615+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:36:47.877119
License: Public Domain

ROBINSON, Judge, concurring in part and dissenting in part. {45} I concur with the majority in reversing the district court’s calculation of the term of Defendant’s commitment to the Las Vegas Medical Center. I dissent from the majority’s conclusion that the Double Jeopardy Clause prohibits the court from finding more than one act of attempted second degree murder and one act of assault with intent to commit a violent felony on a peace officer. {46} I dissent because I do not see a violation of the Double Jeopardy Clause. I agree with the district court that each of the three shots fired at Officer Casaus was a separate event. The shots took separate and distinct efforts by Defendant in different and changing locations. He simply committed three separate acts, and each is separately punishable. Neither party argues that the unit of prosecution is clearly defined, and we must therefore proceed to the second step in the analysis of whether Defendant’s acts were separated by sufficient indicia of distinctness to allow for three convictions. I have determined that there are such indicia of distinctness present. {47} Each of the three shots was fired from a different location along Alameda Boulevard over a two-mile distance. Furthermore, the shots were not fired in rapid succession, and there was some time between each shot. These facts are different from those in Varela where the defendant’s conduct of firing multiple shots into the victim’s truck in rapid succession, constituted one continuous course of conduct because the shots were not separated by time or space. 1999-NMSC-045, ¶ 39. {48} I, therefore, respectfully concur in part and dissent in part.