Court Opinion

ID: 9605588
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 02:39:11.286199+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:18:38.934728
License: Public Domain

HERNANDEZ, Judge (concurring in part and dissenting in part). I respectfully dissent from the part of the opinion that holds that specific intent is an essential element of the crime defined in the following segment of § 54 — 11-22(A), supra: “ * * * it is unlawful for any person to intentionally distribute * * * a controlled substance * * I have become persuaded that I was in error when I decided to the contrary in my specially concurring opinion in State v. Montoya, supra. I am still of the opinion that the following segment of § 54 — 11— 22(A), supra, does require specific intent as an essential element -of the crime defined : “ * * * it is unlawful for any person to * * * possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance * * In State v. Austin, supra, general criminal intent was defined as a mental state of conscious wrongdoing. Applying that definition to the first segment of § 54 — 11-22(A) set forth above, an individual to be guilty of that crime would have to know that what he was distributing was a controlled substance. This in my opinion is a mental state of conscious wrongdoing. Crimes of specific intent, however, consist of the doing of a prohibited act together with the mental intent to do the additional act specifically required for guilt. For example, § 54 — 11-22(A), N.M.S.A.1953 (Vol. 8, pt. 2, Supp.1973) provides in pertinent part: “ * * * it is unlawful for any person to * * * possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance * * Therefore to constitute the crime defined by the second segment of § 54 — 11-22(A), supra, a person must commit the crime of possessing a controlled substance together with the mental intent to distribute it. Section 40A-16-3, N.M.S.A. 1953 (Vol. 6, 2d Repl.) provides: “Burglary consists of the unauthorized entry of any vehicle, watercraft, aircraft, dwelling or other structure, movable or immovable, with the intent to commit any felony or theft therein.”