State v. Young

• Decision Date: 21 April 2004
• Docket Number: No. 27, No. 999, No. 022., No. 28
• Citation: 2004 NMSC 15,90 P.3d 477,135 N.M. 458
• Parties: STATE of New Mexico, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Robert YOUNG and Reis B. Lopez, Defendants-Appellants. State of New Mexico, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. David Sanchez, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: New Mexico Supreme Court

90 P.3d 477

135 N.M. 458

2004 NMSC 15

STATE of New Mexico, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Robert YOUNG and Reis B. Lopez, Defendants-Appellants.

State of New Mexico, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. David Sanchez, Defendant-Appellant.

Nos. 27,999, 28,022.

Supreme Court of New Mexico.

April 21, 2004.

Billy Blackburn, Gerald Baca, Albuquerque, for Appellant Robert Young.

Jacquelyn Robins, Joe M. Romero, Jr., Albuquerque, for Appellant Reis Lopez.

Patricia A. Madrid, Attorney General, Ralph E. Trujillo, Assistant Attorney General, Albuquerque, for Appellee.

Law Offices of Nancy L. Simmons, P.C., Nancy L. Simmons, Albuquerque, for Appellant.

Patricia A. Madrid, Attorney General, Ralph E. Trujillo, Assistant Attorney General, Albuquerque, for Appellee.

OPINION

SERNA, Justice.

{1} Defendants David Sanchez, Robert Young, and Reis Lopez are charged by grand jury indictment with the first degree murder of Ralph Garcia, in addition to other charges. The killing took place on August 31, 1999, at the Guadalupe County Correctional Facility (GCCF), where Garcia was a correctional employee and Defendants were inmates. The State seeks the death penalty based on two aggravating factors, murder of a peace officer and murder by an inmate of one who is lawfully on the premises of a penal institution. See NMSA 1978, § 31-20A-5(A), (D) (1981). Defendants moved to dismiss both aggravating circumstances on several grounds. See State v. Ogden, 118 N.M. 234, 239, 880 P.2d 845, 850 (1994) ("A defendant who has been notified that the State will seek the death penalty may move to dismiss an aggravating circumstance before trial."). They argue that corrections officers are not peace officers, that Garcia was not a peace officer because he had not completed the appropriate training, that GCCF was not a penal institution within the meaning of the Capital Felony Sentencing Act, and that Garcia was not lawfully on the premises of GCCF. The district court denied the motions to dismiss, finding that the State had probable cause for both aggravating circumstances. Reviewing the district court's ruling on interlocutory appeal, we affirm.

I. Standard of Review

{2} In Ogden, we established guidelines for the district court to follow in ruling on a motion to dismiss an aggravating circumstance. Aggravating circumstances are not elements of the crime of first degree murder, see NMSA 1978, § 30-2-1(A) (1994), and thus they "are not required to be formally charged in an indictment or ruled on by the grand jury for the existence of probable cause." Ogden, 118 N.M. at 241, 880 P.2d at 852. Once the State files a notice of intent to seek the death penalty, however, we endorsed a pretrial evaluation of a defendant's motion to dismiss aggravating circumstances through a circumscribed evidentiary hearing. Ogden, 118 N.M. at 239-40, 880 P.2d at 850-51. "Such a hearing should be summary in nature; we have no intention of allowing a trial within a trial on a pretrial challenge to aggravating circumstances." Id. at 240, 880 P.2d at 851. We noted that "[t]he burden of proof is on the State." Id. However, we also explained that it is important for courts not to interfere with the charging discretion of the prosecutor. Id. at 240-41, 880 P.2d at 851-52. As a result, a probable cause standard applies at the pretrial determination, and "the State will defeat the motion if it proves that there is probable cause to believe an aggravating circumstance is present." Id. at 240, 880 P.2d at 851. In order to establish probable cause, the State need not adduce evidence establishing a challenged aggravating circumstance beyond a reasonable doubt; the question instead is "whether there is that degree of evidence to bring within reasonable probabilities the fact that [an aggravating circumstance] was committed by the accused." State v. Garcia, 79 N.M. 367, 368-69, 443 P.2d 860, 861-62 (1968). "Pretrial review of aggravating circumstances is intended to screen out only those cases in which the State does not have any significant factual or legal basis for pursuing the death penalty, and the probable cause standard of review should reflect this objective." Ogden, 118 N.M. at 240, 880 P.2d at 851.

{3} We also explained in Ogden that "[p]retrial rulings on the support of aggravating circumstances can present questions of fact, law, or mixed fact and law, and this will affect the standard of review." Id. at 239, 880 P.2d at 850. "A motion to dismiss an aggravating circumstance that presents a purely legal question should be granted when the district court finds that the aggravating circumstance does not apply as a matter of law." Id. "When the applicability of an aggravating circumstance raises a question of fact or a mixed question of fact and law, the district court should grant the defendant's motion to dismiss the aggravating circumstance only when it finds that there is not probable cause to support the aggravating circumstance." Id. at 240, 880 P.2d at 851. For motions involving issues of fact or mixed issues of fact and law, "[t]he district court must not weigh the evidence or consider evidence of mitigating circumstances." Id. "[D]istrict courts should be aware of the potential for impeding prosecutorial charging discretion, and they should confine their review" as outlined in Ogden. Id. at 241, 880 P.2d at 852. "On appeal, we will review questions of law de novo, and we will review questions of fact to see whether the district court correctly evaluated probable cause to support the aggravating circumstance." Id. at 240, 880 P.2d at 851.

II. The Aggravating Circumstance of Murder by an Inmate at a Penal Institution

{4} In enumerating the aggravating circumstances that make a first degree murder eligible for the death penalty under the Capital Felony Sentencing Act, the Legislature has specified that it is an aggravating circumstance if, "while incarcerated in a penal institution in New Mexico, the defendant, with the intent to kill, murdered a person who was at the time incarcerated in or lawfully on the premises of a penal institution in New Mexico." Section 31-20A-5(D). The State alleged in its notice of intent to seek the death penalty that Defendants murdered Garcia with the intent to kill while he was lawfully on the premises of GCCF, a penal institution in New Mexico. Defendants claim that this aggravating circumstance should not apply in this case because GCCF is not a "penal institution" within the meaning of Section 31-20A-5(D) or because Garcia was not lawfully on the premises. We reject both of these arguments.

{5} "The chief aim of statutory construction is to give effect to the intent of the legislature." Roth v. Thompson, 113 N.M. 331, 332, 825 P.2d 1241, 1242 (1992). "[T]he plain language of the statute [is] the primary indicator of legislative intent." Whitely v. N.M. State Pers. Bd., 115 N.M. 308, 311, 850 P.2d 1011, 1014 (1993). The Legislature specifically instructed that "penal institution" in Section 31-20A-5(D) "includes facilities under the jurisdiction of the corrections and criminal rehabilitation department and county and municipal jails."¹ In a different provision, the Legislature provided that "local jail" includes facilities operated "by a private independent contractor pursuant to an agreement with a county, municipality or combination of such local governments." NMSA 1978, § 33-3-28(D)(2) (1985). See generally Ogden, 118 N.M. at 243, 880 P.2d at 854 ("Statutes on the same general subject should be construed by reference to each other ...."); Roth, 113 N.M. at 334, 825 P.2d at 1244 ("A fundamental rule of statutory construction is that all provisions of a statute, together with other statutes in pari materia, must be read together to ascertain the legislative intent."). In addition, the Legislature has stated that "[c]ontracts between local public bodies and private independent contractors for the operation, or provision and operation, of a jail are specifically authorized." NMSA 1978, § 33-3-1(B) (1984).

{6} In accordance with this statutory authority, Wackenhut Corrections Corp. had a contract with the County to operate GCCF as a correctional facility. Pursuant to a separate contract between the County and the Department of Corrections, which was incorporated into the County's contract with Wackenhut, GCCF housed inmates, including Defendants, who were committed to the supervision of the Department of Corrections. These inmates were subject to the typical consequences of incarceration in a public facility, such as receiving time served on their sentences and being subject to prosecution for escape or other crimes directed at inmates, see NMSA 1978, § 30-22-8 (1963) ("Escape from jail consists of any person who shall have been lawfully committed to any jail, escaping or attempting to escape from such jail.") (emphasis added), and the administrators of GCCF were obligated to comply with specific statutory duties, including the maintenance of a clean facility and the provision of food for the prisoners, NMSA 1978, §§ 33-3-5 (1984) (applying to "independent contractor[s]"), -6 (1984) (same). We believe it is clear that GCCF is a penal institution within the plain language of Section 31-20A-5. The fact that GCCF housed inmates from the Department rather than county inmates is immaterial both for the definition of "local jail" in Section 33-3-28 and the definition of "penal institution" in Section 31-20A-5(D). Thus, GCCF is a penal institution within the plain language of the statute. {7} Defendants also claim that Garcia was not lawfully on the premises at the time of the killing because he had not completed his training as a corrections officer. The County's contracts with Wackenhut and the Department of Corrections provided that GCCF corrections officers receive training that complied with Department and County policies. The contracts further provided that the Department would train all corrections officers at its main training academy or...