Court Opinion

ID: 9590409
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:54:39.684331+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:16:27.462620
License: Public Domain

DONNELLY, Judge (concurring in part and dissenting in part). I concur in the majority opinion affirming defendant’s conviction and finding that the trial judge did not err in (1) denying the motion for acquittal, (2) the admission of evidence, or (3) his rulings upon defendant’s challenges to prospective jurors. I respectfully dissent from the holding of the majority reversing defendant’s conviction for embezzlement of over $2,500.00. As shown by the record, defendant was charged with one count of embezzlement over $2,500.00 under NMSA 1978, § 30-16-8, a third degree felony. At trial, the State introduced evidence showing that defendant, while an employee of CWA Local 8611, cashed 22 checks and made 14 cash withdrawals of monies of the union without authorization or authority totalling $16,-571.00 between October 17, 1979 and April 18, 1980. The checks and cash withdrawal vouchers were drawn on several different accounts held by the union at Mountain States Federal Credit Union. The information filed against defendant charged a single count of embezzlement, not a series of separate embezzlements. Whether the acts of the defendant constituted separate offenses or one continuing offense was a factual question of defendant’s intent, properly to be determined by the jury. See State v. Clokey, 89 N.M. 453, 553 P.2d 1260 (1976); State v. Allen, 59 N.M. 139, 280 P.2d 298 (1955). In State v. Allen, involving a charge of larceny, the court quoted with approval from People v. Cox, 286 N.Y. 137, 36 N.E.2d 84, 136 A.L.R. 943 (1941): “As long as the larceny is held to be pursuant to a single intent, and one complete, illegal scheme, it matters not the length of the period over which the takings continued.” This same rule was discussed in Nelson v. State, 208 Tenn. 179, 344 S.W.2d 540 (1960), a case similar to the instant cause. There, defendants were charged with illegally diverting monies of a labor union. From the summer of 1956 through January 1958, they signed and cashed 85 union checks totalling $6,148.28. No single check exceeded or equalled the amount of $100.00. The court held: [T]he general law seems to be in other States that if each taking of these separate checks is the result of a separate independent impulse or intent each taking is a separate crime, but “On the other hand, where it appears that successive takings are actuated by a single, continuing, criminal impulse or intent or are pursuant to the execution of a general larcenous scheme, it has been held ... that such successive takings constitute a single larceny, regardless of the extent of the time which may have elapsed between each taking.” [Annot.,] 136 A.L.R., 948, 950 [(1942)] * * *. “Whether a series of successive acts of taking constitutes several thefts or one single crime must be determined by the particular facts and circumstances of each case." [Id., at] Page 951. [Emphasis added.] Similarly, State v. Van Auken, 77 Wash.2d 136, 460 P.2d 277 (1969), held that charges of embezzlement of money or property lawfully received do not depend on the time of acquisition or whether parts of the total which has been misappropriated come into possession of the accused at different times. See Annot. 136 A.L.R. 948. Defendant did not submit an alternative requested instruction or challenge the instruction given on the single charge of embezzlement. See NMSA 1978, U.J.I. Crim. 16.31 (Repl.Pamp.1982). Under the evidence herein, the jury could properly have found that defendant’s actions of embezzlement constituted an intent to commit one continuing criminal scheme rather than a series of separate crimes. As stated in the Committee Commentary to U.J.I. 16.31, “Embezzlement, like larceny, is divided into degrees depending on the value of the property.” In determining whether the evidence supports a criminal charge or an essential element thereof, the reviewing court must view the evidence in a light most favorable to the State, resolving all conflicts therein and indulging in all permissible inferences therefrom in favor of the verdict. State v. Tovar, 98 N.M. 655, 651 P.2d 1299 (1982). NMSA 1978, Crim.P.R. 7(a) (Repl.Pamp.1980), provides further that a criminal information shall not be deemed invalid “nor shall the trial, judgment or other proceedings thereon be stayed, arrested or in any manner affected, because of any defect, error, omission, imperfection or repugnancy therein which does not prejudice the substantial rights of the defendant upon the merits.” Under the facts here no prejudice has been shown. I would affirm defendant’s conviction as a third degree felony.