State v. Walch

• Citation: 213 P.3d 1201,346 Or. 463
• Decision Date: 16 July 2009
• Docket Number: SC S055830.,CA A127510.,CC 041108.
• Parties: STATE of Oregon, Respondent on Review, v. Justin Keith WALCH, Petitioner on Review.
• Court: Supreme Court of Oregon

213 P.3d 1201

346 Or. 463

STATE of Oregon, Respondent on Review, v. Justin Keith WALCH, Petitioner on Review.

CC 041108.

CA A127510.

SC S055830.

Supreme Court of Oregon, En Banc.

Argued and Submitted November 12, 2008.

Decided July 16, 2009.

On review from the Court of Appeals.^*

George W. Kelly, Eugene, argued the cause and filed the brief for petitioner on review.

Joanna J. Jenkins, Assistant Attorney General, argued the cause and filed the brief for respondent on review. With her on the brief were Hardy Myers, Attorney General, and Mary H. Williams, Solicitor General.

BALMER, J.

The issue in this criminal case is whether evidence that defendant dragged the victim 15 feet and forced her into the trunk of a car is sufficient to show that defendant moved the victim "from one place to another" as that phrase is used in the kidnapping statute, ORS 163.225(1)(a), or if the state instead must prove that defendant moved the victim a "substantial distance." The trial court determined that the jury could have found that defendant had moved the victim from one place to another and denied defendant's motion for a judgment of acquittal. Defendant appealed, and the Court of Appeals affirmed. State v. Walch, 218 Or.App. 86, 178 P.3d 301 (2008). We allowed review and now affirm, although we do so for reasons somewhat different than those relied upon by the Court of Appeals.

Because the issue arises on a motion for judgment of acquittal, we state the facts in the light most favorable to the state. State v. Fries, 344 Or. 541, 543, 185 P.3d 453 (2008). At approximately 9:00 p.m. on March 15, 2004, the victim arrived at her friend Jeremy's house. The victim contacted another friend, Amanda, and arranged to purchase $50 worth of methamphetamine; the victim mentioned to Amanda that she had $350 in cash with her. Sometime later, Amanda, her friend Robert, and some other acquaintances arrived at the house. The victim gave Amanda the money to purchase the drugs, and the group left. Later that evening, defendant and Robert returned to the house with the drugs that the victim had purchased. The victim, Robert, and defendant shared the drugs, and the two men left.

At around 3:30 a.m., Robert and defendant returned to the house. Robert came into the house and told the victim that he had been in an accident in Amanda's car, which the two men had been driving that night. Robert phoned Amanda, spoke with her privately for a few minutes, and then told the victim that Amanda wanted to speak with her. Amanda asked the victim to go outside and look at her car, because she did not believe that Robert had been in an accident. The victim walked outside, looked at the car, and determined that there was no damage.

After looking at the car, the victim turned to walk back toward the house but heard a rustling in the bushes. Defendant emerged from the bushes; he put the victim in a chokehold, pushing her to the ground. Eventually, defendant turned the victim over and began strangling her with his hands. In the course of the struggle, defendant dragged the victim five to 15 feet toward the car. The victim regained her footing and asked why defendant was attacking her; he responded "I want your money." Although she had her money in her pocket, the victim told defendant that it was in the house. As defendant and the victim continued to struggle, the victim was pushed to the ground again. Defendant then picked her up and threw her into the trunk of the car. Defendant tried to close the victim in the trunk, but the lid hit the victim's head and would not close. The victim locked her knees against the inside of the trunk, so that defendant could not push her farther inside, and defendant was unable to close the lid. Eventually, defendant pulled the victim out of the trunk and told her to go to the house and retrieve her money.

The victim returned to the house. Once inside, Robert helped the victim change her clothes. At that point, the victim lost track of the pants that she had been wearing, along with the money that had been inside the pocket. Jeremy's mother called 9-1-1, and an ambulance arrived and transported the victim to the hospital. Police later arrested defendant in an apartment, where they also found $250 in cash. In searching Amanda's car, police found three rolls of tape, a meat cleaver, and a crowbar.

A grand jury indicted defendant for multiple crimes, including kidnapping in the first degree. ORS 163.235(1), set out below. At the close of the state's case, defendant moved for a judgment of acquittal on the kidnapping charge, arguing that the evidence was insufficient to show that the movement of the victim had been "substantial." The trial court denied that motion, and a jury convicted defendant of kidnapping in the first degree.¹ Defendant appealed, arguing again that the evidence was insufficient to sustain a kidnapping conviction. Specifically, he argued that no reasonable factfinder could have found that he had moved the victim "from one place to another," as required by ORS 163.225(1)(a), the companion statute to ORS 163.235.²

As noted, the Court of Appeals affirmed. The court first determined, based on this court's opinion in State v. Murray, 340 Or. 599, 136 P.3d 10 (2006), that the phrase "from one place to another" in ORS 163.225(1)(a) requires that the victim's movement be "substantial." The court then noted the qualitative differences between the open driveway from which the victim had been moved and the enclosed trunk in which she had been placed. In concluding that the movement in this case was sufficient, the court reasoned as follows:

"Because Murray teaches that movement from one place to another is `substantial' movement, and defendant moved the victim from one place to another, we conclude that the movement here was also substantial, despite the fact that the actual distance, as measured in feet and inches, might be less than the distance the court found to be insubstantial in [other cases]."

Walch, 218 Or.App. at 92, 178 P.3d 301. Defendant petitioned for review of the Court of Appeals decision, and we allowed review to consider whether moving the victim from the driveway to the car trunk here qualified as moving the victim "from one place to another" for purposes of ORS 163.225(1)(a).

In reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence in a criminal case, "the relevant question is whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the state, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt." State v. King, 307 Or. 332, 339, 768 P.2d 391 (1989). The first-degree kidnapping statute, ORS 163.235(1), provides:

"A person commits the crime of kidnapping in the first degree if the person violates ORS 163.225 with any of the following purposes:

"(a) To compel any person to pay or deliver money or property as ransom;

"(b) To hold the victim as a shield or hostage;

"(c) To cause physical injury to the victim; or

"(d) To terrorize the victim or another person."

ORS 163.225, in turn, provides, in relevant part:

"(1) A person commits the crime of kidnapping in the second degree if, with intent to interfere substantially with another's personal liberty, and without consent or legal authority, the person:

"(a) Takes the person from one place to another; or

"(b) Secretly confines the person in a place where the person is not likely to be found."

Thus, to establish kidnapping here, the state had to prove that defendant (1) took the victim "from one place to another"; (2) "with intent to interfere substantially with [her] personal liberty"; (3) "without consent or legal authority"; and (4) with the purpose of causing her "physical injury." ORS 163.235(1)(c); ORS 163.225(1)(a).

Defendant does not argue that the evidence was not sufficient for the jury to find that he intended to "interfere substantially" with the victim's personal liberty, that he acted "without consent or legal authority," and that his purpose in taking the victim was to cause her "physical injury." His sole argument on review is that the facts described above are not sufficient to permit a reasonable juror to find that he took the victim "from one place to another," as required by ORS 163.225(1)(a).

As this court recently noted, an analysis of the text and context of the phrase "from one place to another" in the kidnapping statute provides little guidance in determining its meaning:

"The question of what is included in the concept of `taking' a person `from one place to another' is, at bottom, an exercise in metaphysics. The words `from' and `to' create no problem here, because they clearly describe the idea of movement, i.e., of a change of position. And `another' simply replicates `place'—i.e., the statutory phrase fairly may be paraphrased as a matter of standard English to require that a person be moved `from place to place.' Thus, in the final analysis, this case comes down to the question of how one is to define the term `place' for the purposes of ORS 163.225(1)(a).

"And here is where the metaphysics problem arises. The criminal code, of which ORS 163.225 is a part, contains no definition of `place.' Absent a special definition, we ordinarily would resort to dictionary definitions, assuming that the legislature meant to use a word of common usage in its ordinary sense. See PGE [v. Bureau of Labor and Industries ], 317 Or. 606,] 611[, 859 P.2d 1143 (1993)] (noting that words of common usage typically should be given their plain, natural, and ordinary meaning). But resort to a dictionary gets us nowhere here. `Place' is defined, in Webster's Third New Int'l Dictionary 1727 (unabridged ed 2002), as `an indefinite region or expanse.' Such a definition hardly can be said to clarify the issue. (There are many other definitions, but none comes as close as the foregoing to addressing the problem before us.)"

Murray, 340 Or. at 603-04, 136 P.3d 10. We turn to legislative...