State v. Martinez

• Decision Date: 16 November 2000
• Docket Number: No. 990568-CA.,990568-CA.
• Citation: 14 P.3d 114,2000 UT App 320
• Parties: STATE of Utah, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. Michael Trevor MARTINEZ, Defendant and Appellant.
• Court: Utah Court of Appeals

14 P.3d 114

2000 UT App 320

STATE of Utah, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. Michael Trevor MARTINEZ, Defendant and Appellant.

No. 990568-CA.

Court of Appeals of Utah.

November 16, 2000.

Joan C. Watt, Lynn R. Brown, and Stephen W. Howard, Salt Lake Legal Defender Association, Salt Lake City, for Appellant.

Jan Graham, Attorney General and Joanne C. Slotnik, Assistant Attorney General, Salt Lake City, for Appellee.

Before Judges GREENWOOD, BILLINGS, and DAVIS.

OPINION

BILLINGS, Judge:

¶ 1 Michael Martinez (Defendant) appeals his conviction for unlawful sexual activity with a minor in violation of Utah Code Ann. § 76-5-401, arguing the trial court erred by ruling that unlawful sexual activity with a minor is a strict liability crime. We affirm.

BACKGROUND

¶ 2 Nineteen-year-old Defendant had sexual intercourse with a fifteen-year-old girl. Defendant was charged with one count of rape, in violation of Utah Code Ann. § 76-5-402 (1999), and in the alternative, with one count of unlawful sexual activity with a minor, in violation of Utah Code Ann. § 76-5-401(2)(a) (1999).¹ Defendant filed a motion in limine seeking a determination that unlawful sexual activity with a minor is not a strict liability crime and requesting permission to introduce evidence that he was reasonably mistaken as to the age of the victim.

¶ 3 The trial court denied the motion, ruling unlawful sexual activity with a minor is a strict liability crime, and Defendant was not entitled to produce evidence that he mistook the victim's age. Defendant subsequently entered a conditional guilty plea to unlawful sexual activity with a minor. Defendant now appeals the trial court's ruling that unlawful sexual activity with a child is a strict liability crime.

ISSUES AND STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶ 4 Whether unlawful sexual activity with a minor is a strict liability crime is a question of statutory interpretation which "we review for correctness and give no deference to the conclusions of the trial court." Adkins v. Uncle Bart's, Inc., 2000 UT 14,- ¶ 11, 1 P.3d 528; see also Platts v. Parents Helping Parents, 947 P.2d 658, 661 (Utah 1997) (stating that "matters of statutory construction are questions of law that are reviewed for correctness").

¶ 5 If we conclude that unlawful sexual activity with a minor imposes strict liability, we must determine whether eliminating a culpable mental state as to the victim's age violates Defendant's federal due process rights. "A challenge to the constitutionality of a statute presents a question of law, which we review for correctness, according no deference to the trial court's ruling." Provo City v. Whatcott, 2000 UT App 86,¶ 5, 1 P.3d 1113.

ANALYSIS

Strict Liability Under Section 76-5-401

¶ 6 Defendant argues the trial court erred in ruling that section 76-5-401 imposes strict liability. Defendant asserts the State must prove that he had the necessary criminal intent before it can convict him of committing a crime. Because section 76-5-401² does not specify the culpable mental state required to convict a defendant of unlawful sexual activity with a minor, section 76-2-102 supplies the required mental state. Under section 76-2-102, a crime requires a mental state of at least recklessness unless this crime is one of strict liability. See Utah Code Ann. § 76-2-102 (1999). A crime is one of strict liability when "the statute defining the offense clearly indicates a legislative purpose to impose criminal responsibility for commission of the conduct prohibited by the statute without requiring proof of any culpable mental state." Id. Thus, we must determine whether Utah's criminal code clearly indicates a legislative purpose to impose strict liability for unlawful sexual activity with a minor.

¶ 7 "It is `a fundamental rule of statutory interpretation . . . that a statute "be looked at in its entirety and in accordance with the purpose which was sought to be accomplished."'" W.C.P. v. State, 1999 UT App 35,¶ 8, 974 P.2d 302, cert. denied, 984 P.2d 1023 (Utah 1999) (citations omitted). We conclude that the legislature intended a violation of section 76-5-401 to be a strict liability crime.

¶ 8 The plain language of Utah's criminal code explicitly precludes the defense of mistake of fact regarding the victim's age in crimes involving sexual acts against children:

It is not a defense to the crime of unlawful sexual activity with a minor, a violation of Section 76-5-401, . . . that the actor mistakenly believed the victim to be 16 years of age or older at the time of the alleged offense or was unaware of the victim's true age.

Utah Code Ann. § 76-2-304.5(2) (1999). The clear language of this section supports the conclusion that the legislature intended to render a defendant's state of mind regarding the age of the victim irrelevant. Thus, the element of the victim's age under section 76-5-401 is one of strict liability.³

¶ 9 Defendant acknowledges he may not raise mistake of age as an affirmative defense, but argues a mens rea is nonetheless an element of unlawful sexual activity with a minor that the State must prove. Defendant first argues that the burden of proof differs between a mens rea requirement and an affirmative defense. Contrary to Defendant's assertion, "[i]t is fundamental that the State carries the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt each element of an offense, including the absence of an affirmative defense once the defense is put into issue." State v. Hill, 727 P.2d 221, 222 (Utah 1986); see also Utah Code Ann. §§ 76-1-501(1), 502(2)(b) (1999).

¶ 10 Applying this principle to section 76-5-401, it is clear that the burden of proving the mens rea for unlawful sexual activity with a minor is precisely the same as the burden of disproving the affirmative defense of mistake of age. That is, proof that Defendant knew or was aware of the risk that his partner was under sixteen (Defendant's proposed mens rea requirement) is no more or less than proof that Defendant did not mistakenly believe his partner was sixteen or was unaware of the risk that his partner was under sixteen. Thus, to require the State to prove a mens rea is to require the State to disprove mistake of fact, contrary to section 76-2-304.5(2).

¶ 11 Defendant further argues that mens rea differs from an affirmative defense in that the former is based on objective criteria whereas the latter is based on subjective criteria. Defendant quotes our supreme court's opinion in State v. Elton, 680 P.2d 727 (Utah 1984):

There is no inconsistency in requiring a mens rea of criminal negligence as to age and an affirmative defense of mistake of fact as to age. The mens rea requirement may be based on objective criteria, while the ignorance or mistake of fact defense bears upon the subjective state of mind of the defendant.

Id. at 730 (emphasis added).⁴ Defendant argues that Elton and section 76-2-304.5 establish a sort of evidentiary rule permitting the State to present objective evidence bearing on the mens rea, such as the victim's appearance, demeanor, and statements to Defendant, but prohibiting Defendant from presenting evidence of his contemporaneous subjective opinion of the victim's age. We disagree.

¶ 12 Defendant misunderstands the Elton court's reference to subjective and objective criteria. That comment does not refer to the type of evidence that the parties may present, i.e., objective facts versus subjective opinions. Rather, it refers to whether the defendant's mental state is to be judged by what the defendant was actually aware of-a subjective test—or what the defendant ought to have been aware of-an objective test.⁵ Because the Elton court held that the defendant could be convicted for criminal negligence, the mens rea could be based on objective criteria: what the defendant ought to have been aware of. See id. at 729-30. Neither Elton nor section 76-2-304.5 establishes any evidentiary rule, by implication or otherwise.⁶

¶ 13 Defendant finally argues that the Utah Supreme Court has previously held that section 76-5-401 does not impose strict liability. See State v. Elton, 680 P.2d 727, 729 (Utah 1984). Although the Elton court stated that "§ 76-5-401 . . . does not clearly indicate `a legislative purpose to impose strict liability,'" id.,⁷ it recognized that its construction of section 76-5-401 "may have only limited significance, as the Legislature has amended the Utah Criminal Code in 1983 to disallow mistake of fact as to age as a defense to the crime of unlawful sexual [activity with a minor]." Elton, 680 P.2d at 732 n. 8. Thus, the Elton court construed a criminal code substantially different from that under which Defendant was convicted. Accord W.C.P., 1999 UT App 35 at ¶ 10 n. 2, 974 P.2d 302.⁸

¶ 14 In concluding section 76-2-304.5(2) imposes strict liability, we note that we have previously held that nearly identical parallel language in section 76-2-304.5(1) indicates a legislative intent to impose strict liability for sexual acts against children under fourteen.⁹ See W.C.P., 1999 UT App 35 at ¶¶ 6-10, 974 P.2d 302. We observed that by "expressly remov[ing] mistake as to age as a defense," "the criminal code's treatment of this issue evinces a clear legislative intent to impose strict liability." Id. at ¶ 10. Notably, no such provision precludes a mistake of fact defense when the alleged victim is a minor of sixteen or seventeen.

¶ 15 Finally, we note that a majority of jurisdictions impose strict liability for sexual offenses against fourteen- and fifteen-year olds under statutes similar to Utah's. See Colin Campbell, Annotation, Mistake or Lack of Information as to Victim's Age as Defense to Statutory Rape, 46 A.L.R.5th 499, 508 (1997).¹⁰

¶ 16 We conclude that section 76-5-401 imposes strict liability on a defendant who engages in sexual activity with a fourteen- or fifteen-year-old victim. The statutory scheme in its entirety reflects a legislative intent to protect minors from sexual exploitation by older...