State v. Castro
| Decision Date | 01 December 2016 |
| Docket Number | 33279-9-III |
| Court | Washington Court of Appeals |
| Parties | STATE OF WASHINGTON, Respondent, v. BENJAMIN SANTOS CASTRO, Appellant. |
THE COURT has considered appellant's motion for reconsideration and the answer thereto, and is of the opinion the motion should be denied. Therefore, IT IS ORDERED, the motion for reconsideration of this court's decision of September 29, 2016, is hereby denied.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED the opinion filed September 29, 2016, is amended as follows:
The third sentence on page fifteen that reads: Because there was no error, trial counsel did not perform deficiently by failing to propose another instruction, shall be amended to read: Because there was no error, trial counsel did not perform deficiently by proposing instructions.
Law enforcement officers arrested Benjamin Castro while he occupied a stolen car. Officers found methamphetamine and sundry burglary tools inside the car. A jury convicted Castro of possessing a stolen vehicle, making or having burglary tools, two counts of second degree possession of stolen property, and possession of a controlled substance. On appeal, Castro contends the jury heard insufficient evidence to convict him of possessing burglary tools, the prosecutor committed misconduct in her closing statement, and the trial court gave an erroneous jury instruction on reasonable doubt. We agree that Castro's conviction for possessing burglary tools must be dismissed for lack of evidence. We reject his other contentions and affirm the remaining convictions.
Benjamin Castro and Kayla Clark met during a methamphetamine and alcohol party, on the evening of December 12, 2013. Both Clark and Castro imbibed methamphetamine at the gathering. That same night the two decided to travel from Tacoma to Montana to visit Clark's family.
At the end of the December 12 party, Benjamin Castro and Kayla Clark, with passenger Tiny Mack, journeyed in a stolen Mitsubishi Outlander, from Tacoma. According to Clark, she knew, but did not inform Castro, that the Outlander was stolen. Upon commencement of the lengthy trek, Clark placed two bags of methamphetamine on the front passenger seat.
Benjamin Castro and Kayla Clark left Tiny Mack in North Bend. The two with Castro driving, traveled across Snoqualmie Pass and on to Cle Elum during the early morning of December 13. Castro and Clark stopped for the night in Cle Elum because the duo found no gas station in the Cascades foothills town open in the early morning hours. Castro pulled the Outlander into a Best Western Hotel parking lot.
Around 3:15 a.m., Cle Elum Police Officer Nicholas Burson responded to a request from the Cle Elum Best Western Hotel to direct the driver of a car parked in its parking lot to move the car. Officer Burson pulled his patrol car behind the white Outlander and typed the car's license plate into his computer. The computer replied with a notice that the car was stolen. Officer Burson pulled his patrol car away from the Outlander and waited for assistance.
Kittitas County Sheriff Deputy Mike McKean, Washington State Troopers Paul Bloom and Don Farrell, and Ellensburg Police Officer Drew Haulk arrived at the Cle Elum Best Western. Deputy McKean blocked the egress of the stolen white Outlander with his patrol car, activated the patrol car's emergency lights, and ordered the occupants of the Outlander to exit the vehicle. Benjamin Castro placed the Outlander's keys on the roof of the car and exited the car through the driver's door. Officers restrained Castro and placed him in the back seat of a patrol car. Kayla Clark also exited the car from the passenger's side, and officers handcuffed her.
Officer Nicholas Burson approached the Mitsubishi Outlander to determine if other persons occupied the car. The car doors remained open. Burson espied, on the front passenger's seat, two small bags of a white crystal substance that he identified as methamphetamine.
Officers placed Benjamin Castro and Kayla Clark under arrest. When arresting Castro, Officer Burson asked Castro if he possessed any sharp objects in his pockets before frisking him. Castro stated he possessed a needle. Burson removed a capped used hypodermic needle in a Sharps container from Castro's front right pants pocket. Burson also found, in Benjamin Castro's pants pocket, a spring-loaded window punch. The punch, when placed against a car window and released shatters the window. Burson also removed, from Castro's pockets, credit cards and a debit card belonging to Jessie Prince.
Law enforcement contacted a tow truck company, and a tow truck removed the Mitsubishi Outlander from the hotel parking lot to the Cle Elum Police Department evidence lot. Officer Nicholas Burson sought and obtained a warrant to search the Outlander. Burson confiscated, from inside the car, a Taser stun gun, bolt cutters, a wallet belonging to Jessie Price, a purple bag with its padlock cut, two laptop computers, a Taurus Airsoft handgun with the orange tip removed, and a North Face backpack. Burson opened the backpack and discovered therein Benjamin Castro's credit cards, bolt cutters, pliers, handcuffs, various keys, a shim, colored stones, all-terrain vehicles (ATV) keys, receipts showing use of Jessie Prince's credit cards, binoculars, screwdriver a leatherman tool, gloves, magnet, wrench, wire snips, a fixed-blade knife, wrenches, a pocketknife, and two bags of methamphetamine.
The State of Washington charged Benjamin Castro with possession of a stolen vehicle, possession of stolen property in the second degree, possession of methamphetamine, and possession of burglary tools. On the first day of trial, the State amended its information to add a second count of possession of stolen property in the second degree.
During trial, Officer Nicholas Burson listed all of the objects he found inside the Outlander, including the objects found in the North Face backpack. During direct examination, Officer Burson testified:
Report of Proceedings (RP) (Mar. 10, 2015) at 88.
During trial testimony, Officer Nicholas Burson testified that one uses a window punch, such as found in Benjamin Castro's pocket, by placing the punch "to a window and pull[ing] and releasing] and it shatters the window." RP (Mar. 10, 2015) at 60. Officer Burson added that the punch breaks any window including house windows. Burson also declared that the confiscated bolt cutters "cut locks or a chainlink fence or anything metal." RP (Mar. 10, 2015) at 68. Officer Burson averred that "the edges [of found keys] . . . worn off them so they can be slipped inside more ignitions than they're supposed to, and you can kind of jiggle them and sometimes get cars to start with using a shaved key." RP (Mar. 10, 2015) at 85.
On the second day of trial, the court and counsel discussed jury instructions. During the conference, Benjamin Castro did not object to the use of 11 Washington Practice: Washington Pattern Jury Instruction: Criminal 4.01, at 85 (3d ed. 2008) (WPIC) as a jury instruction for the definition of reasonable doubt. The trial court instructed the jury on reasonable doubt:
A reasonable doubt is one for which a reason exists and may arise from the evidence or lack of evidence. It is such a doubt as would exist in the mind of a reasonable person after fully, fairly and carefully considering all of the evidence or lack of evidence. If, after such consideration, you have an abiding belief in the truth of the charge, you're satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt.
RP (Mar. 11, 2015) at 93-94. Castro proposed an instruction with the identical language.
During rebuttal in closing arguments, the State's attorney argued:
Evidence Instruction No. 3 says: A reasonable doubt is one for which a reason exists. Do you think you have a reason to doubt in this case? He's got this car and he's got all this stolen property on him. Do you have any reason to doubt that he knew that it was stolen? Absolutely not.
The jury found Benjamin Castro guilty on all five charges. The trial court sentenced Castro to fifty months in prison.
Benjamin Castro asserts four errors on appeal. First, insufficient evidence supports his conviction for making or having burglary tools. Second, the prosecutor committed misconduct during rebuttal argument. Third, the reasonable doubt instruction is unconstitutional. Fourth, his counsel was ineffective for proposing an erroneous jury instruction. The first argument attacks only the conviction for making or possessing burglary tools. The remaining arguments challenge all convictions. We agree with Benjamin Castro's first assignment of error and reverse his conviction for possession of burglary tools. We reject his other arguments and affirm the remaining four convictions.
Benjamin Castro contends that the State did not present sufficient evidence to support his conviction for making or having burglary tools because it only presented evidence that the tools were used for vehicle prowls. Evidence is sufficient if a rational trier of fact could find each element of the crime...
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