Court Opinion

ID: 9603710
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 02:09:10.017211+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:11:57.924031
License: Public Domain

TYSON, Judge
concurring in part, dissenting in part.
I concur in the portion of the majority’s opinion reversing defendant’s second-degree kidnapping convictions with respect to: (1) Ricardo Rodriguez, Sr., 03 CRS 10254; (2) Peter Lucas, 03 CRS 10257; (3) Alvaro Perez, 03 CRS 10258; (4) Tamara Basden, 03 CRS 10245; and (5) Laketria Sharpless, 03 CRS 10247.
I respectfully dissent from the majority’s reversal of defendant’s convictions for second-degree kidnapping of: (1) Adrian Panter, 03 CRS 10248; (2) Skylar Panter, 03 CRS 10249; (3) Tracy Long, 03 CRS 10252; and (4) Dennis Long, 03 CRS 10251.
I. Movement Inherent and Integral to Robbery
The majority’s opinion holds the movement of the Longs and Panters by the masked man from outside in the parking lot to inside the hotel lobby was inherent in. the armed robbery and not sufficient to support the second-degree kidnapping convictions. I disagree.
*462Numerous precedents recognize a clear distinction between a defendant’s asportation of a victim necessary to complete a crime, other than kidnapping, and removal of a victim that is incidental to the commission of the crime. State v. Davidson, 77 N.C. App. 540, 543, 335 S.E.2d 518, 520 (“Since none of the property was kept in the dressing room, it was not necessary to move the victims there in order to commit the robbery. Removal of the victims to the dressing room thus was not an inherent and integral part of the robbery. Rather, . . . [defendant engaged in] a separate course of conduct designed to remove the victims from the view of passersby who might have hindered the commission of the crime.”), disc. rev. and cert. denied, 314 N.C. 670, 337 S.E.2d 583 (1985), disc. rev. denied, 315 N.C. 393, 338 S.E.2d 882 (1986); State v. Joyce, 104 N.C. App. 558, 567, 410 S.E.2d 516, 521 (1991) (“All victims in the case at bar were moved from one room to another room where they were confined. The removals were not an integral part of the crime nor necessary to facilitate the robberies, since the rooms where the victims were ordered to go did not contain safes, cash registers or lock boxes which held property to be taken.”), cert. denied, 331 N.C. 120, 414 S.E.2d 764 (1992); State v. Warren, 122 N.C. App. 738, 741, 471 S.E.2d 667, 669 (1996) (“the removals by defendant were not an integral part of the crime nor necessary to facilitate the robbery. Indeed . . . the rooms where the victims were ordered to go did not contain safes, cash registers or lock boxes which held property to be taken.” (citation omitted)).
Our Courts have consistently applied this analysis to other crimes committed in conjunction with a kidnapping. See State v. Newman and State v. Newman, 308 N.C. 231, 239-40, 302 S.E.2d 174, 181 (1983) (“Removal of [the victim] from her automobile to the location where the rape occurred was not such asportation as was inherent in the commission of the crime of rape. Rather, it was a separate course of conduct, designed to remove her from the view of a passerby who might have hindered the commission of the crime.”); State v. Walker, 84 N.C. App. 540, 543, 353 S.E.2d 245, 247 (1987) (“Asportation of a rape victim is sufficient to support a charge of kidnapping if the defendant could have perpetrated the offense when he first threatened the victim, and instead, took the victim to a more secluded area to prevent others from witnessing or hindering the rape.”); State v. Mebane, 106 N.C. App. 516, 532, 418 S.E.2d 245, 255 (“[Restraint, confinement, and asportation of a rape victim may constitute kidnapping if it is a separate, complete act, independent of and apart from the rape.”), disc. rev. denied, 332 N.C. 670, 424 S.E.2d 414 (1992).
*463Here, the evidence shows two couples were returning to the hotel after dinner when Mrs. Long noticed a robbery in progress in the lobby. All four persons attempted to run when one of the masked men exited the hotel and forced them inside at gunpoint, ordered them to their knees, and demanded their money. The masked men could have robbed the Longs and the Panters outside of the hotel. The money and valuables taken from them were located on their persons, not inside the hotel. It was not necessary to move them inside the hotel, the movement was not “an inherent and integral part” of the armed robbery, and the victims were restrained in the hotel lobby, where the robbery was accomplished. Davidson, 77 N.C. App. at 543, 335 S.E.2d at 520. Instead, the masked man forced them inside into a more secretive location to commit the crime. See id. (“Since none of the property was kept in the dressing room, it was not necessary to move the victims there in order to commit the robbery. Removal of the victims to the dressing room thus was not an inherent and integral part of the robbery. Rather, ... it was a separate course of conduct designed to remove the victims from the view of passersby who might have hindered the commission of the crime.”).
The majority’s opinion cites Irwin to equate the movement of the four victims inside the hotel as nothing more than a “mere technical asportation.” State v. Irwin, 304 N.C. 93, 103, 282 S.E.2d 439, 446 (1981). My review of Irwin shows the defendant and an accomplice forced a drugstore employee to walk from her position near the fountain cash register to the back of the store where the prescription counter and safe were located. Id. at 96-97, 282 S.E.2d at 442. Our Supreme Court reversed the kidnapping conviction due to the employee’s removal to the back of the store was “an inherent and integral part of the attempted armed robbery,” since the employee was needed to open the safe. Id. at 103, 282 S.E.2d at 446. Irwin does not mandate defendant’s convictions for kidnapping the Panters and the Longs be vacated. Numerous and consistent precedents cited above support a holding of no error for defendant’s kidnapping of the Longs and the Panters.
II. Conclusion
The movement of the Longs and the Panters from outside the hotel to its lobby was not “an inherent and integral part” of the armed robberies and was a sufficient and separate asportation apart from the robbery to support convictions for second-degree kidnapping. I find no error in defendant’s convictions for second-*464degree kidnapping, 03 CRS 10248, 03 CRS 10249, 03 CRS 10251, and 03 CRS 10252.1 respectfully dissent.