Court Opinion

ID: 9587491
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:22:47.085083+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:51:06.395844
License: Public Domain

Mowbray, J.,
dissenting:
*587Respectfully, I dissent.
I would presume the Legislature in enacting the Enhancement Statute did so for the purpose of protecting our citizenry from the criminal element in our midst and to discourage the criminal from using deadly weapons to assault or rob victims.
In the instant case, the assailant threatened to kill his victim in the parking lot of a hotel and then knocked the victim to the ground. The assailant with his steel-capped boots proceeded to kick and beat the helpless victim repeatedly about the head and face, breaking his nose and six teeth, blackening his eyes, and causing facial contusions. This outrageous attack continued. The witnesses who found the victim moments later described him as a “bloody mess.”
Whether the injuries had been inflicted by the assailant pistol whipping the victim or by stomping him with steel-capped boots would matter little to the innocent victim. The result would be the same.
I would give the broadest possible interpretation to the Enhancement Statute to the end that its purpose would be given its fullest eifect. Therefore, I would affirm and uphold the appellant’s judgment of conviction in its entirety.1

 Many courts have held that even a harmless implement may be used for homicidal purposes. See, e.g., Commonwealth v. Tarrant, 314 N.E.2d 448 (Mass. 1974), aff’d., 326 N.E.2d 710 (Dog considered a dangerous weapon for purposes of armed robbery statute); Bass v. State, 172 So.2d 614 (Fla.App. 1965) (assault with shoes constituted assault with a deadly weapon).
Justice Rose, while speaking for the majority, has indicated that these cases “concern statutes where a deadly weapon was an element of a crime,” thus implying that the cited cases are irrelevant. However, I suggest it matters little to a victim whether the deadly weapon used to inflict harm is an element of a particular crime or an element within an enhancement statute.