New Mexico v. Samora
Annotate this CaseDefendant Anthony Samora was accused of luring a sixteen-year-old male into his truck by deception, driving him to a secluded location in Albuquerque, and then forcibly having sex. A jury convicted Defendant of second-degree criminal sexual penetration in the commission of a felony (CSP-felony), and first-degree kidnapping. Due to sentencing enhancements, Defendant was sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after thirty years for his CSP-felony conviction plus a consecutive eighteen-year sentence for his kidnapping conviction. In a direct appeal, Defendant raised a variety of challenges to both convictions, including a challenge to the district court for omitting that the sexual act had to be non-consensual when instructing the jury on CSP-felony. The New Mexico Supreme Court concluded that it was fundamental error to omit the phrase “without consent” from the jury instructions relevant to CSP-felony, and accordingly reversed and remanded on Defendant’s CSP conviction. The same fundamental error also infected the jury’s findings with respect to Defendant’s intent to inflict a sexual offense against the alleged victim, and that too was reversed. This case was remanded back to the district court, where Defendant could be retried on both charges.
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