State v. Ceaser

• Citation: 585 N.W.2d 192
• Decision Date: 23 September 1998
• Docket Number: No. 97-1754,97-1754
• Parties: STATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. Rodney Lee CEASER, Appellant.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Iowa

Page 192

585 N.W.2d 192

STATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. Rodney Lee CEASER, Appellant.

No. 97-1754.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Sept. 23, 1998.

Linda Del Gallo, State Appellate Defender, and Shellie L. Knipfer, Assistant State Appellate Defender, for appellant.

Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, Robert P. Ewald, Assistant Attorney General, Thomas J. Ferguson, County Attorney, and D. Raymond Walton, Assistant County Attorney, for appellee.

Considered by McGIVERIN, C.J., and CARTER, LAVORATO, NEUMAN, and TERNUS, JJ.

TERNUS, Justice.

A jury found the defendant, Rodney Lee Ceaser, guilty of second-degree robbery, see Iowa Code §§ 711.1, .3 (1997), and the trial court sentenced him to a mandatory ten-year term of imprisonment, see id. §§ 902.9(3), .12. Ceaser appeals his conviction and sentence, contending (1) the trial court erroneously refused to instruct the jury on his claim of self-defense, and (2) Iowa Code section 902.12, which requires that he serve 100% of the maximum sentence without the possibility of parole or work release, violates the Equal Protection Clause of the federal and state constitutions. See U.S. Const. amend. XIV, § 1; Iowa Const. art. 1, § 6. The State claims error was not preserved on the latter issue. In response, Ceaser asserts his trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance if error was not preserved. We affirm.

I. Background Facts and Proceedings.

In May 1997, employees of Ray's SuperValu stopped Ceaser for shoplifting $30 worth of steak. Jason Robinson, the store manager, observed Ceaser put a quantity of meat down the front of his pants. Robinson confronted Ceaser and asked Ceaser to step to the back room with him, stating to Ceaser that he thought Ceaser had some stolen goods. Ceaser denied taking anything and quickly strode toward the exit. Another employee, Matt Bullerman, grabbed Ceaser and wrestled him to the floor. Ceaser struggled against the restraint by "throwing punches." During this tussle, the stolen meat came out of Ceaser's pants, coming to rest on the floor, and Robinson's glasses were knocked off.

Once Robinson and Bullerman had Ceaser under control, they proceeded to a back storeroom. On the way there and twice in the storeroom, Ceaser tried to escape. During the last attempt he successfully bolted from the storeroom, but Bullerman caught him in one of the aisles. Another struggle occurred in which Bullerman sustained a minor eye injury. Soon thereafter, the police arrived and Ceaser gave up his resistance.

The State charged Ceaser with second-degree robbery. Ceaser presented no evidence during trial, but did request a jury instruction on justification as a defense to the assault element of robbery. See Iowa Code §§ 704.3, 711.1(1). The court denied this request, holding in part that there was not substantial evidence to support the instruction. The jury returned a guilty verdict and the court imposed a mandatory ten-year sentence, specifically informing Ceaser that he was subject to the more onerous penalty imposed by section 902.12. Ceaser appeals.

II. Self-Defense Instruction.

We review a challenge to the district court's refusal to submit a jury instruction for correction of errors of law. See State v. Rains, 574 N.W.2d 904, 915 (Iowa 1998). If substantial evidence exists showing that an affirmative defense applies, the trial court must instruct on the defense. See id. Although the burden to disprove self-defense rests with the State, the defendant bears the burden of demonstrating that the record contains sufficient evidence to support an instruction on this issue. See State v. Lawler, 571 N.W.2d 486, 489 (Iowa 1997).

To understand the nature of the affirmative defense asserted by Ceaser, it is helpful to begin with a discussion of the underlying offense of second-degree robbery. The court submitted this charge under the first two alternatives of the general definition of robbery contained in the Iowa Code:

A person commits a robbery when, having the intent to commit a theft, the person does any of the following acts to assist or further the commission of the intended theft or the person's escape from the scene thereof with or without the stolen property:

1. Commits an assault upon another.

2. Threatens another with or purposely puts another in fear of immediate serious injury.

Iowa Code § 711.1. The element implicated in the justification defense asserted by Ceaser is the assault element of robbery.

Iowa Code section 708.1 defines an assault in part as "[a]ny act which is intended to cause pain or injury to, or which is intended to result in physical contact which will be insulting or offensive to another, coupled with the apparent ability to execute the act" when done "without justification." Id. § 708.1(1). The "without justification" language of section 708.1 gives rise to the affirmative defense of justification to a charge of assault. See State v. Delay, 320 N.W.2d 831, 834 (Iowa 1982). The justification of self-defense, upon which Ceaser relies, is found in Iowa Code chapter 704: "A person is justified in the use of reasonable force when the person reasonably believes that such force is necessary to defend oneself or another from any imminent use of unlawful force." Iowa Code § 704.3.

At this point, it is helpful to turn to the facts of the present case. We think the critical issue here is whether Ceaser reasonably believed that his assaultive actions were necessary to defend himself from an "imminent use of unlawful force." This issue requires us to focus on the actions of the store employees toward Ceaser and to decide whether those actions could be fairly characterized as the use of "unlawful force."

At the time Robinson and Bullerman apprehended Ceaser, they were acting under the authority of Iowa Code section 808.12(1). This statute allows a merchant's employee to detain and search a shoplifter. See id. § 808.12(1) ("Persons concealing property ... may be detained and searched by a ... merchant's employee...."). In deciding exactly what force, if any, a merchant's employee may use to detain a shoplifter, we look first to the ordinary meaning of the word "detain." See State v. White, 545 N.W.2d 552, 555 (Iowa 1996) ("When examining a statutory term, we give words their ordinary meaning, absent any legislative definition or particular meaning in the law."). "Detain" is defined in the dictionary as "to hold or keep in or as if in custody" and "to restrain esp. from proceeding: hold back: STOP." Webster's Third New International Dictionary 616 (unabrid. ed.1993).

By authorizing merchants' employees to restrain shoplifters or hold them "in custody," the legislature must have contemplated the use of reasonable force to accomplish the detention. Such force would logically be that which would be permissible to prevent criminal interference with one's possession of property because the person being detained--a shoplifter--is interfering with a property right. Therefore, we turn to an examination of the force permitted to protect one's interest in property.

Iowa Code section 704.4 allows the use of "reasonable force to prevent or terminate criminal interference with the person's possession or other right in property." " 'Reasonable force' is that force and no more which a reasonable person, in like circumstances, would judge to be necessary to prevent an injury or loss...." Iowa Code § 704.1.

Applying the foregoing rules and definitions to this case, we conclude the store employees were lawfully entitled to use reasonable force to stop Ceaser from leaving the store. Viewing the facts of this case in light of this standard, we find insufficient evidence that Robinson and Bullerman used unreasonable force to restrain Ceaser when he refused Robinson's request to accompany Robinson to the back of the store. There was no testimony that Ceaser was harmed in any way or that the store employees used any force beyond that necessary merely to detain Ceaser.

Because the force used by the employees was lawful, there is no basis upon which a jury could find that Ceaser reasonably believed his assaultive actions were necessary to defend himself from an "imminent use of unlawful force." Consequently, the trial court was correct in ruling that the evidence was insufficient to warrant an instruction on self-defense.

III. Error Preservation on Equal Protection Claim.

Ceaser contends Iowa Code section 902.12, which requires that he serve his entire sentence, violates the Equal Protection Clauses of the United States and Iowa Constitutions. The State asserts Ceaser failed to preserve error on this issue in the district court. In response, Ceaser claims his sentence is void and, therefore, the normal error preservation rules are not applicable. See State v. Austin, 503 N.W.2d 604, 607 (Iowa 1993) (holding the requirement of error preservation does not bar review on appeal "when the appeal is from an illegal or void sentence").

The exclusion of illegal sentences from the principles of error preservation is limited to those cases in which a trial court has stepped outside the codified boundaries of allowable sentencing. See State v. Halliburton, 539 N.W.2d 339, 343 (Iowa 1995). In other words, the sentence is illegal because it is "beyond the power of the court to impose." State v. Wilson, 294 N.W.2d 824, 825 (Iowa 1980); accord State v. McCright, 569 N.W.2d 605, 608 (Iowa 1997). In the case before us the trial court is not criticized for departing from the sentencing authorized by law, but rather for sentencing Ceaser in accordance with the law. Thus, Ceaser's sentence is not illegal or void, even though it may be subject to a constitutional challenge. See McCright, 569 N.W.2d at 608. Consequently, Ceaser's equal protection claim is governed by our normal error preservation rules.

It is clear from the record that Ceaser's trial counsel did not make a constitutional challenge to the sentencing statutes in the district court. Therefore, any error with...