State v. Coria
| Decision Date | 27 June 2002 |
| Docket Number | No. 70879-7.,70879-7. |
| Citation | 146 Wash.2d 631,48 P.3d 980 |
| Parties | STATE of Washington, Petitioner, v. Angel CORIA, Respondent. |
| Court | Washington Supreme Court |
Gerald Home, Pierce County Prosecutor, Kathleen Proctor, Deputy Prosecutor, Michelle Luna-Green, Deputy Prosecutor, for Petitioner/Appellant.
Pattie Mhoon, Tacoma, for Appellee/Respondent.
Defendant Angel Coria was convicted of malicious mischief in the second degree for damaging community property owned by him and his wife, Kristen Coria. The defendant contends that because he is co-owner of the property, he did not damage "property of another" within the meaning of the malicious mischief statute. The Court of Appeals, Division Two, agreed and reversed the conviction. The state seeks review. We reverse the Court of Appeals, holding that the defendant did damage "property of another."
On Saturday, December 5, 1998, the defendant and his wife had an argument at a restaurant in Tacoma. After leaving, they had an altercation in the car, in which Mrs. Coria received a gash on the left side of her face. When they got home, Mrs. Coria ran inside to call 911, and the defendant got into his pickup truck and left. Tacoma Police Officer Wendy Haddow responded to the 911 call, reaching the Corias at 10:27 P.M.
Officer Haddow testified that when she arrived Mrs. Coria was crying, she had blood in her hair, and her face was swollen. She told Officer Haddow what happened. At the restaurant, the defendant became jealous because the waiters had been giving her too much attention. On the way home, the defendant drove to an empty parking lot. He slammed her face against his knee and the dashboard, punched her 10 times, and said that he would make sure no one would look at her again. She said she lost consciousness for a few minutes.
Officer Haddow called an ambulance for Mrs. Coria. At the hospital, Dr. Paul Hildebrand closed the gash on her face with six stitches. A CT scan revealed swelling on the right side of Mrs. Coria's head. Dr. Hildebrand testified that Mrs. Coria's injuries were consistent with her statements to police, including her reported loss of consciousness. Mrs. Coria's friend Debra Carrillo drove her home from the hospital around midnight.
The defendant got home later. Mrs. Coria ran to the neighbor's and called 911 again at 2:58 A.M. Again Officer Haddow responded (this time to the neighbor's) and again Mrs. Coria told her what happened. She said that she heard the defendant return and ran over to the neighbor's when she heard a loud banging noise coming from the garage. She said she went to the neighbor's because her neighbor had a big husband. She warned Officer Haddow not to try to arrest the defendant without backup because he was in a killing mood. But Officer Haddow was able to arrest the defendant, who was calm.
When Officer Haddow and Mrs. Coria returned to the house, it was a mess. A mirror was broken, the television was toppled over, the microwave was torn out of the wall, there were slashes in the kitchen linoleum, the couple's pet cockatiel was dead, and its cage was broken apart. When Officer Haddow came into the house, the Corias' three-year-old daughter pointed to the shattered mirror and said, "Daddy broke." 2 Report of Proceedings (RP) at 147. The exterior garage door was off its rollers, and the door leading from the garage into the house had been smashed in, its frame and lock broken. Officer Haddow estimated the damage around $620.
With the defendant in custody, Mrs. Coria obtained a protection order barring contact with her and their children. The defendant had several contacts with them before trial, but was not prosecuted for violating the order. He was charged with second degree assault, second degree malicious mischief, and willful killing of a pet. The corrected information alleged property damage in the approximate amount of $355. Clerk's Papers (CP) at 6-7.
In January 1999 Mrs. Coria recanted. She told the prosecutor and later testified that she became jealous in the restaurant because of the defendant's flirting. She lunged at him in the car. He pushed her away, and she hit her head on the ceiling and fell backwards, hitting her face on the dash. She denied being taken to the parking lot and losing consciousness. When they got home, to stop the defendant from leaving, she threatened to call 911 and lie to the police to get the defendant arrested. She broke the mirror in a "jealous rage," 1 RP at 108, and toppled over the television and the microwave. When the defendant returned they started to fight again, and she ran over to the neighbor's to force him not to leave, since he would not leave the children home alone. She said she called 911 from the neighbor's when she heard him banging on the garage.
The defendant testified that he dropped off his wife after fighting at the restaurant and left. He said that the mirror was broken and the television was toppled over when he came back. They started arguing again and Mrs. Coria left. Then he went to see where she had gone, but locked himself out, and so broke in through the garage. He said the birdcage was knocked over during their fight, and that he accidentally hurt the bird when it got underfoot. The defense also presented Mrs. Coria's friend Debra Carrillo. She testified that in the car on the way home from the hospital Mrs. Coria told her that she had lied to the police in the first 911 call.
The jury found the defendant guilty of assault and malicious mischief, but could not reach a verdict on the count of willful killing of a pet. The Court of Appeals affirmed the assault conviction, but reversed the conviction for malicious mischief, based on the defendant's assertion that the items damaged were community property, and therefore not "property of another." We granted the state's petition for review.
Is community property co-owned and co-possessed by the defendant and his wife "property of another" for purposes of the crime of malicious mischief, RCW 9A.48.080(1)(a)?
We begin with the statute itself: a person commits malicious mischief in the second degree who knowingly and maliciously "[c]auses physical damage to the property of another in an amount exceeding two hundred fifty dollars." RCW 9A.48.080(1)(a). "Property of another" is not defined. The defendant argues that the definition of "property of another" must be understood from common law. This indicates, he says, that "property of another" does not include property in which the defendant has an equal equitable stake. Resp't's Suppl. Br. at 2-5. Thus, the defendant argues, the state's evidence was insufficient to support a conviction.
Clear statutory language must be afforded its plain meaning. In re Pers. Restraint of Long, 117 Wash.2d 292, 302, 815 P.2d 257 (1991). "When a statute is clear and unambiguous, its meaning is to be derived from the language of the statute alone and it is not subject to judicial construction." State v. Azpitarte, 140 Wash.2d 138, 141, 995 P.2d 31 (2000) (per curiam). "An ambiguity exists if the language at issue is susceptible to more than one reasonable interpretation." Id.
At least one court has observed that property owned jointly by defendant and victim is "property of another" as a "strictly literal" matter. People v. Brown, 185 Misc.2d 326, 333, 711 N.Y.S.2d 707 (N.Y.Crim.Ct.2000). It is beyond dispute that the items the defendant damaged were property, and that they belonged to Mrs. Coria, another person. Thus the defendant's conduct is squarely within the literal reach of the statute notwithstanding his interest in the property. Even the defendant does not argue that such a result is so absurd as to defeat literal enforcement of the law.
If there is any doubt about the meaning of "property of another," it is resolved by chapter 10.99 RCW, part of the legislature's official response to domestic violence. There we find explicit evidence of what conduct the legislature understands to be reached by the crime of malicious mischief. RCW 10.99.020(3)(m) specifically includes malicious mischief in the definition of "domestic violence" when committed by one family member against another. RCW 10.99.010 states that "it is the intent of the legislature that criminal laws be enforced without regard to whether the persons involved are or were married, cohabiting, or involved in a relationship." We are especially wary of permitting any domestic relationship to become a defense in criminal prosecutions.
Nevertheless, the defendant urges us to interpret "property of another" in the context of its meaning at common law, which supplements Washington penal statutes. RCW 9A.04.060. The defendant's argument is based on common law larceny. The general rule at common law was that one co-owner could not steal from another, since each co-owner is legally entitled to possession. See 2 WAYNE R. LAFAVE & AUSTIN W. SCOTT, JR., SUBSTANTIVE CRIMINAL LAW § 8.4, at 355 (1986). The Court of Appeals' view was that this rule determined the meaning of "property of another" absent legislative modification.
One such modification is RCW 9A.56.010(9), defining "owner" for purposes of theft as "a person, other than the actor, who has possession of or any other interest in the property or services involved, and without whose consent the actor has no authority to exert control over the property or services." Thus the court held in State v. Pike, 118 Wash.2d 585, 590, 826 P.2d 152 (1992), that a person with legal title to property could nevertheless steal it from a person with a superior possessory interest. In Pike, the defendant had taken his car from a mechanic. His conviction for theft was reversed, however, because the mechanic had not perfected his lien. Id. at 593, 826 P.2d 152.
Washington courts required legislative action to change the common law rule that a partner could not steal partnership property. State v. Eberhart, ...
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