Court Opinion

ID: 9719023
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 07:41:02.257513+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:04.260502
License: Public Domain

ANDERSON, Russell A., Justice
(concurring specially).
I concur in the result, but write separately to express my view of sentencing guidelines principles that support the majority’s conclusion that the district court abused its discretion by departing upward from the 150-month presumptive sentence for aiding and abetting second-degree felony murder.
Tina Leja was charged with and convicted of unintentional felony murder, with second-degree assault as the underlying felony. Specifically, she was convicted of intentionally aiding and abetting Darnell Smith in the assault, with the death of Bobby Holder a foreseeable consequence of the assault, but without intent to kill Holder. See Minn.Stat. §§ 609.05, subds. 1, 2; 609.19, subd. 2(1) (2002).1 Leja was *451also charged with and convicted of accessory after the fact; specifically, that she intentionally aided Darnell Smith, a person known by her to have committed a criminal act, “by destroying or concealing evidence of that crime, providing false or misleading information about the crime, or by obstructing the investigation or prosecution of the crime.” See Minn.Stat. § 609.495, subd. 3 (2002).2
At sentencing the district court concluded that the conviction for accessory after the fact could be sentenced separately because that offense was “not part of the same behavioral incident as the murder,” and because the offense of accessory after the fact involved “a different motivational factor, a new element * * * separated by time, place and motive.” Indeed, Leja’s misconduct in concealing the victim’s dismembered body occurred two days after the murder and was, in the words of the district court, “separated by time, place and motive” from the murder. See State v. Johnson, 273 Minn. 394, 404, 141 N.W.2d 517, 525 (1966) (in determining whether intentional crimes are committed in a single behavioral incident, factors to be considered are time, place, and “whether the segment of conduct involved was motivated by an effort to obtain a single criminal objective”).
I agree with the district court’s finding that the act of concealing the victim’s dismembered body two days after the murder was a different behavioral incident “separated by time, place and motive” from the murder; in fact, if the offense of accessory after the fact were a part of the same behavioral incident as the second-degree felony murder, the district court would have been prohibited from entering convictions for, and sentencing, both offenses. Minn.Stat. § 609.035, subd. 1 (2002) (providing that with certain exceptions, “if a person’s conduct constitutes more than one offense under the laws of this state, the person may be punished for only one of the offenses.”).
The court of appeals vacated the conviction and sentence for the offense of accessory after the fact, holding that as a matter of law, accomplice liability imposed under Minn.Stat. § 609.05 for the second-degree felony murder made Leja a principal in the commission of that offense, and that she therefore could not also be guilty as an accessory after the fact. State v. Leja, 660 N.W.2d 459, 465, 467 (Minn.App.2003). We did not grant review of that holding by the court of appeals and thus the law of the case is that Leja cannot be convicted or sentenced for the offense of accessory after the fact arising out of the separate behavioral incident of concealment of the victim’s body. In my view, when, as a matter of law, the district court cannot convict or sentence for misconduct arising from a distinct behavioral incident, the court cannot rely upon such misconduct to enhance a sentence for a different offense, arising out of a separate behavioral incident.
We have stated that the district court “may not rely on conduct underlying one conviction to support departure on a sentence for a separate conviction.” State v. Williams, 608 N.W.2d 837, 840 (Minn.2000). Accord, State v. Richardson, 670 N.W.2d 267, 285 (Minn.2003) (“For each offense, there must be substantial and compelling reasons to depart from the *452Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines’ presumptive sentence.”). We have also recognized that durational departures ordinarily should be confined to consideration of the conduct and surrounding circumstances that provide the basis for the offense of conviction, and should not be based on evidence that points to the defendant’s guilt of an offense that was never charged or if charged, was dismissed. State v. Womack, 319 N.W.2d 17, 19-20 (Minn.1982); State v. Misquadace, 644 N.W.2d 65, 68 (Minn.2002). For evidence of another offense to be considered for a durational departure, the other offense must show that the defendant committed the offense being sentenced in a particularly serious way. As we stated in State v. Cox, 343 N.W.2d 641 (Minn.1984):
The general issue that faces a sentencing court in deciding whether to depart durationally is whether the defendant’s conduct was significantly more or less serious than that typically involved in the commission of the crime in question. In making this determination the court may not consider evidence that points to the defendant’s guilt of some other offense but that does not support the conclusion that the defendant committed the offense in question in a particularly serious way.
Id. at 643.
Leja’s concealment of Holder’s body constitutes the separate offense of accomplice after the fact. The fact she and Andre Parker disposed of Holder’s body parts in various locations in two states, some of them never to be found, may have supported an upward durational departure for that offense. However, the fact of concealment and the manner in which it was done does not show that Leja’s aiding and abetting unintentional felony murder was committed in a particularly serious way. The state charged Leja with aiding and abetting second-degree felony murder and accomplice after the fact, and the court of appeals ruled that both convictions could not stand. The felony murder conviction carried a presumptive sentence of 150 months in prison, approximately the same term the trial court could have imposed for accomplice after the fact had it found the manner of concealment of the body a justifiable basis for a durational departure.3
As an accomplice, Leja is viewed by the law as equally culpable for the crime of which she was convicted, second-degree felony murder, as the individuals who actually committed the assault and murder. As such, she faced the presumptive sentence for that offense, the same as they would have had they been convicted of that offense. But when it comes to deciding whether to durationally depart from the presumptive sentence, each participant’s conduct in relation to the crime is individually examined. As the majority points out, the murder here was particularly gruesome, and Darnell Smith was appropriately convicted of first-degree premeditated murder. State v. Smith, 669 N.W.2d 19, 30 (Minn.2003). But the murderous assault of Holder and the dismemberment of his body were not the acts of Leja. She also was not convicted of aiding and abetting either premeditated or intentional murder, and cannot be sentenced for those offenses. In other words, the premeditated and intentional acts of Darnell Smith, the principal actor, cannot form the basis *453for enhancing the sentence of Leja, who was convicted of conduct which aided and abetted the assault causing Holder’s death, without intent to kill him.4
On appeal, the state abandoned its contention that Leja’s act of luring Holder to the residence was so egregious as to support an upward departure, and we are left with nothing else to show that Leja’s conduct was significantly more serious than that typically involved in aiding and abetting an unintentional felony murder. Acts of aiding and abetting create accomplice liability for a crime and subject the accomplice to the same sentence as if he or she actually committed it. Facts already taken into account by the legislature in determining the degree or seriousness of the offense are inappropriate bases for a departure. See, e.g., Taylor v. State, 670 N.W.2d 584, 589 (Minn.2003). Unless those acts of aiding and abetting are so egregious as to warrant a departure, the presumptive sentence must be imposed.

. Minn.Stat. § 609.05, subd. 1 provides that "[a] person is criminally liable for a crime committed by another if the person intentionally aids, advises, hires, counsels, or conspires with or otherwise procures the other to commit the crime.” Subdivision 2 provides that a person liable under subdivision 1 "is also liable for any other crime committed in pursuance of the intended crime if reasonably foreseeable by the person as a probable consequence of committing or attempting to commit the crime intended.” The amended complaint alternatively charged Leja with "acting alone,” but there is no evidence that she did *451so or took any part in the act of assaulting Holder.

. Subdivision 3 of the statute, creating the separate crime of accomplice after the fact, was enacted in 1993, after the Ming Sen Shiue and Schmit cases were decided. Act of May 20, 1993, ch. 326, art. 4, § 25, 1993 Minn. Laws 2037.

. Accomplice after the fact is an unranked offense under the sentencing guidelines. The trial court determined to rank it at what was then severity level eight and imposed the presumptive 81-month term. "[GJenerally in a case in which an upward departure in sentence length is justified, the upper limit will be double the presumptive sentence length.” State v. Evans, 311 N.W.2d 481, 483 (Minn.1981) (emphasis deleted).

. The level of activity necessary to prove accomplice liability for a crime is that the defendant played a knowing role in its commission, as distinguished from mere presence, inaction, knowledge or passive acquiescence; active participation in the offense is not required, however, and the defendant’s presence, companionship and conduct before and after the offense is committed are relevant considerations. State v. Gates, 615 N.W.2d 331, 337 (Minn.2000).