Chambers v. People, 82SC176

• Decision Date: 21 May 1984
• Docket Number: No. 82SC176,82SC176
• Parties: Michael Darnell CHAMBERS, Petitioner, v. The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Respondent.
• Court: Colorado Supreme Court

Page 1173

682 P.2d 1173

Michael Darnell CHAMBERS, Petitioner, v. The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Respondent.

No. 82SC176.

Supreme Court of Colorado,

En Banc.

May 21, 1984.

Rehearings Denied June 11, 1984.

David F. Vela, Colo. State Public Defender, Jody Sorensen Theis, Deputy State Public Defender, Denver, for petitioner.

Duane Woodard, Atty. Gen., Charles B. Howe, Chief Deputy Atty. Gen., Richard H. Forman, Sol. Gen., John Daniel Dailey, First Asst. Atty. Gen., Denver, for respondent.

LOHR, Justice.

We granted certiorari to review the decision of the court of appeals in People v. Chambers, No. 80CA0905 (Colo.App. March 25, 1982). After a jury trial in Jefferson County District Court, the defendant, Michael Darnell Chambers, was convicted of attempted first degree murder, ¹ first degree assault, ² first degree sexual assault, ³ second degree kidnapping, ⁴ and three counts of crime of violence. ⁵ The Colorado Court of Appeals affirmed the convictions. On certiorari review, the defendant cites as error the failure of the jury instructions to specify a culpable mental state for the crime of kidnapping, the failure of the jury instructions to define the mental state "knowingly" in sufficient detail, and the refusal of the trial court to suppress evidence not made available to the defense until the time of trial. We reverse the second degree kidnapping conviction and affirm the judgment of the court of appeals in all other respects.

The nineteen-year-old victim's uncontroverted testimony was that on the evening of November 13, 1979, she was accosted in a parking lot by the defendant and told that she would not be harmed if she were quiet. When the victim screamed, the defendant produced a pistol and fired a shot, which passed through her purse and bruised her hip. Chambers then carried the struggling victim to his car, where a companion was waiting. When the victim attempted to flee, the defendant shot her a second time, the bullet entering her chest and lodging near her spine. The defendant then ordered her into the car and drove her to a residential neighborhood where both men raped her.

After the sexual assaults, the defendant and his companion told the victim a number of times that they were going to kill her because she could identify them. They drove her to another area where they bound her hands, blindfolded her and led her to the base of an embankment. There, the defendant tightened a thin, flexible object around her neck, inducing unconsciousness.

When the victim revived, Chambers and his companion decided to drive her to a hospital for treatment of her gunshot wounds. They first ascertained her address in order to be able to retaliate against her in the event she disclosed their crimes to the police. The victim volunteered her cooperation in concealing the events of the evening and, after the three fabricated an explanation for her injuries, Chambers and his companion took the victim to a hospital, where she was admitted for treatment. The following day the victim related the above version of the events to an investigating officer.

I.

The defendant contends that the jury instruction concerning the elements of second degree kidnapping was rendered fatally defective by the omission of the proper culpable mental state. ⁶ We agree.

It is well established that a criminal conviction may only ensue upon proof beyond a reasonable doubt of every element constituting the crime charged. In re Winship, 397 U.S. 358, 90 S.Ct. 1068, 25 L.Ed.2d 368 (1970). A corollary to this principle is that members of a jury must be adequately instructed to enable them to assess whether every element of an offense has been proved beyond a reasonable doubt. See People v. Martinez, 634 P.2d 26 (Colo.1981).

In this case the jury instruction defining the offense of second degree kidnapping omitted the statutory culpable mental state, "knowingly." ⁷ A separate joint operation instruction stated that, in order for a crime to have been committed, the proscribed act must have occurred in conjunction with a culpable mental state. ⁸ This instruction further specified the pertinent culpable mental states as "intentionally" and "knowingly" and defined those terms.

The defendant failed to object to the omission of the culpable mental state from the second degree kidnapping instruction. See Crim.P. 30. However, a trial court is under an obligation to instruct the jury properly, People v. Alvarez, 187 Colo. 290, 530 P.2d 506 (1975), and a failure to do so as to every element of a crime charged is plain error. People v. Butcher, 180 Colo. 429, 506 P.2d 362 (1973). Under the plain error standard, applicable here, we must review the defendant's assignment of error to determine whether his substantial rights were seriously affected. Crim.P. 52(b); People v. Barker, 180 Colo. 28, 501 P.2d 1041 (1972).

We have held that the better practice is to include the applicable culpable mental state in each jury instruction setting forth the elements of a crime charged. People v. Mattas, 645 P.2d 254 (Colo.1982); People v. Martinez, 634 P.2d 26 (Colo.1981). Where this has not been done, we test the sufficiency of the instructions on plain error review by examining them as a whole to ascertain whether the court clearly informed the jury that the appropriate culpable mental state was an essential element of the crime. People v. Mattas; People v. Martinez; see People v. Archuleta, 180 Colo. 156, 503 P.2d 346 (1972).

In the present case the instructions on second degree kidnapping did not give the jury the requisite guidance. The elements instruction (no. 18) made no mention of a culpable mental state. The joint operation instruction (no. 14) contained definitions of two culpable mental states, "intentionally" or "with intent," and "knowingly." The elemental instructions for each of the other substantive crimes included the appropriate culpable mental state. In the case of attempted first degree murder (no. 16) and first degree assault (no. 17) this was "with intent." With respect to first degree sexual assault (no. 19), "knowingly" was specified as the mental state requisite to conviction. We conclude that the jury instructions here did not link the elements instruction for second degree kidnapping with the joint operation instruction so closely as to inform the jury with sufficient clarity that it could not convict the defendant of second degree kidnapping unless it found that he acted with a culpable mental state. Given the absence of such linkage, the number of substantive offenses, and the utilization of both defined culpable mental states in elemental instructions for other substantive offenses, we conclude that the jury was not clearly informed that a culpable mental state is an element of the crime of second degree kidnapping. Therefore, the trial court committed plain error, and the defendant's conviction for second degree kidnapping must be reversed.

Our conclusion is consistent with our prior cases in which we have considered the sufficiency of instructions omitting the culpable mental state from elemental instructions in various factual contexts. In People v. Hart, 658 P.2d 857 (Colo.1983), we found no plain error in an elemental instruction omitting the culpable mental state of "knowingly" where only two crimes were charged, the jury instruction regarding the elements of the second crime included "specific intent," and a joint operation instruction was given defining both "knowingly" and "specific intent." There, the definition of "knowingly," to have any relevance, must have been applicable to the crime defined without reference to a culpable mental state, and in any event, should the jury have mistakenly applied the more stringent mental state, "specific intent," the error would have inured to the defendant's benefit. In People v. Mattas, 645 P.2d 254 (Colo.1982), we upheld against plain error challenge a first degree sexual assault instruction devoid of a culpable mental state element. First degree burglary, the only other crime charged, was defined to include the mental state of "specific intent." However, each crime was the subject of a set of three instructions consisting of the elements instruction, followed immediately by a definition of terms, and then by a joint operation instruction. The joint operation instruction for first degree sexual assault included a definition of "intentionally." We concluded that the elemental instruction for first degree sexual assault was so closely linked to its companion joint operation instruction as to "adequately [apprise] the jury that it must find that the defendant possessed the requisite mental state for each charge." Mattas, 645 P.2d at 258. See also People v. Frysig, 628 P.2d 1004 (Colo.1981) (jury adequately instructed when proper culpable mental state linked to sexual assault through definition of one of the specified elements of the crime, even though missing from elemental instruction).

In contrast to Hart and Mattas, we overturned the defendant's conviction for second degree assault in People v. Martinez, 634 P.2d 26 (Colo.1981), where the defendant was convicted of that crime and of false imprisonment. Each involved the culpable mental state "knowingly," but whereas this element was included in the instruction defining false imprisonment it was not contained in the elemental instruction on second degree sexual assault. A single joint operation instruction was given. ⁹ There, lacking the linkage existing in Mattas and the basis for inference of the necessity of a culpable mental state found in Hart, we concluded that, taken as a whole, the instructions did not clearly inform the jury that "knowingly" was an essential element of second degree sexual assault. We have found other elemental instructions devoid of a culpable mental state to be fatally defective under this same test in various other factual contexts. People v. Bridges, 620 P.2d 1 (Colo.1980) (the only mental...