Court Opinion

ID: 9586137
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:07:36.003431+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:24:21.243509
License: Public Domain

STEELMAN, Judge,
dissenting.
Because I believe the trial court erred in refusing to submit the lesser included offense of false imprisonment to the jury, I am compelled to respectfully dissent.
The defendant was indicted for second-degree kidnapping pursuant to N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-39(a)(3). The original indictment alleged that the kidnapping was for the purpose of facilitating the felony of rape. The superceding indictment upon which the State proceeded at trial stated that the defendant “unlawfully, willfully, and feloniously did kidnap Karen Robinson, a person who had attained the age of 16 years, by unlawfully removing the victim from one place to another, without her consent, for the purpose of terrorizing the said person so removed.”
In order for the State to prove second-degree kidnapping in the instant case, it had to prove that the defendant’s intent was to terrorize Robinson when he unlawfully removed her from one place to another. In State v. Whitaker, 316 N.C. 515, 342 S.E.2d 514 (1986), the State proceeded on a theory that the kidnapping was perpetrated in order to facilitate a felony, specifically rape. In discussing whether it was error for the trial court to have failed to instruct on the lesser included offense of false imprisonment the Whitaker Court stated:
The crime of false imprisonment is a lesser included offense of kidnapping. When any evidence presented at trial would permit *268the jury to convict defendant of the lesser included offense, the trial court must instruct the jury regarding that lesser included offense. Failure to so instruct the jury constitutes reversible error not cured by a verdict of guilty of the offense charged. “So, whether a defendant who confines, restrains, or removes another is guilty of kidnapping or false imprisonment depends upon whether the act was committed to accomplish one of the purposes enumerated in our kidnapping statute.” The crux of this question, then, concerns whether “there was evidence from which the jury could have concluded that the defendant, although restraining, confining and removing the victim, [did so] for some purpose other than ... to commit [attempted second degree] rape.”
Id. at 520-21, 342 S.E.2d at 518 (internal citations omitted) (brackets in original). “The trial court may refrain from submitting the lesser offense to the jury only where the ‘evidence is clear and positive as to each element of the offense charged’ and no evidence supports a lesser-included offense.” State v. Lawrence, 352 N.C. 1, 19, 530 S.E.2d 807, 819 (2000). “ ‘The determining factor is the presence of evidence to support a conviction of the lesser included offense.’ ” State v. Kyle, 333 N.C. 687, 703, 430 S.E.2d 412, 421 (1993), quoting State v. Boykin, 310 N.C. 118, 121, 310 S.E.2d 315, 317 (1984).
Robinson testified at trial that after defendant had grabbed her and dragged her some distance, he pushed her to the ground, reached inside her shirt, and “fondled and put his hands all over me up here, and everywhere.” Defendant made a statement to two officers that the victim was wearing a short skirt, that her attire “turned him on sexually[,]” and that he missed his girlfriend.
Defendant contends that this evidence demonstrates that his intent was to commit some form of sexual assault, and not to terrorize Robinson. The majority is correct in stating that the two purposes are not mutually exclusive; the defendant may have intended to both terrorize and sexually assault the victim. The State could have indicted defendant based on N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-39(a)(2), removal for the purpose of facilitating the commission of a felony (in this instance, sexual assault), as well as on N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-39(a)(3), removal for the purpose of terrorizing the victim. The State did not proceed under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-39(a)(2), however, and thus if the defendant’s sole intent was to commit a sexual assault, he could not be convicted of second-degree kidnapping as indicted.
*269In the instant case, I assume arguendo that “the evidence was . . . sufficient to convict defendant of kidnapping for the purpose of [terrorizing the victim]. That, however, is not the issue.” State v. Lang, 58 N.C. App. 117, 122, 293 S.E.2d 255, 258 (1982). “Only when the evidence of intent to commit [one of the enumerated purposes under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-39(a)] is overwhelming or uncontradicted should that factual issue of intent, which separates the greater offense from the lesser, be taken from the jury.” State v. Little, 51 N.C. App. 64, 71, 275 S.E.2d 249, 253 (1981). The issue is whether there was any evidence from which the jury could conclude that the defendant removed the victim not for the purpose of terrorizing her, but for some other purpose.
The evidence in the instant case is neither overwhelming nor uncontradicted that the defendant removed the victim for the purpose of terrorizing her. All of the defendant’s actions and statements are consistent with a purpose to sexually assault the victim in some fashion. The evidence that the defendant acted for the purpose of sexual gratificátion permits a reasonable inference that his purpose was not to terrorize. See Lang, 58 N.C. App. at 122, 293 S.E.2d at 258. “ ‘Evidence giving rise to a reasonable inference to dispute the State’s contention,’ is sufficient to support an instruction on a lesser offense.” State v. Hargett, 148 N.C. App. 688, 692, 559 S.E.2d 282, 286 (2002).
In Whitaker, 316 N.C. at 517, 342 S.E.2d at 516, a female taxi driver was directed by the defendant to a dead end street whereupon he grabbed her by the throat, directed her to drive to a church parking lot, told her “I want to eat you,” and told her to pull her pants down to her knees. The victim managed to get away from defendant before any sexual assault occurred. The defendant was convicted of second-degree kidnapping, based on a theory that he restrained and removed her for the purpose of facilitating the commission of a felony (attempted rape). On these facts, our Supreme Court held that because the evidence could reasonably allow the jury to infer that the purpose of the restraint and removal was a sexual assault not amounting to rape (that the defendant did not intend to have forced vaginal intercourse with the victim), it was error for the trial court to refuse to instruct the jury on false imprisonment. “The question of defendant’s purpose in abducting the victim, being a question of his state of mind, should have been for the jury to decide, as the evidence did not point unerringly to a conclusion that defendant did or did not intend to attempt to rape the victim.” Id. at 521, 342 S.E.2d at 518; see also State v. Banks, 295 N.C. 399, 245 S.E.2d 743 (1978).
*270Therefore, though the State’s evidence may have been sufficient to go to the jury on the charge of kidnapping based on an intent to terrorize, the State’s evidence of that intent was not overwhelming, and the State’s own evidence was sufficient to support a jury finding that the defendant’s intent was to commit a sexual assault, and not to terrorize the victim.
This is a terrible case where an innocent victim was brutally assaulted by a stranger. As much as I would like to join in the majority opinion, the Supreme Court holding in Whitaker mandates a new trial in this matter.