STATE OF IOWA, Plaintiff-Appellee, vs. JARED JAMES YORK, Defendant-Appellant.
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IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF IOWA
No. 9-682 / 08-1490
Filed November 25, 2009
STATE OF IOWA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
vs.
JARED JAMES YORK,
Defendant-Appellant.
________________________________________________________________
Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Washington County, Michael R.
Mullins, Judge.
Jared York appeals from his convictions and sentences for child
endangerment with bodily injury and involuntary manslaughter by public offense.
REVERSED AND REMANDED FOR RESENTENCING.
Mark C. Smith, State Appellate Defender, and Theresa R. Wilson,
Assistant Appellate Defender, for appellant.
Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, Darrel Mullins, Assistant Attorney
General, and Barbara A. Edmondson, County Attorney, for appellee.
Heard by Potterfield, P.J., Doyle, J., and Mahan, S.J.*
*Senior judge assigned by order pursuant to Iowa Code section 602.9206 (2009).
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POTTERFIELD, P.J.
Jared York appeals from his convictions and sentences for child
endangerment causing bodily injury, in violation of Iowa Code sections
726.6(1)(a) and 726.6(5) (2003), and involuntary manslaughter by public offense
(child endangerment), in violation of section 707.5(1).
He contends child
endangerment resulting in bodily injury merges into involuntary manslaughter
and appeals the trial court’s ruling to the contrary. We remand for resentencing.
I. Facts.
The jury could have found that Jared York violently shook his six month
old daughter, Rylie, causing fatal brain trauma and accompanying injuries of
bleeding on the brain, inside the eyes, and inside the optic nerve sheaths. Rylie
also had bruising on her torso, left arm, legs, and back, not typical of infants who
are not yet mobile, and earlier had sustained a fracture to her leg. The State did
not base any charges on these other injuries.
II. Scope and Standard of Review.
Our review of challenges to the legality of a merger decision by the trial
court is for errors at law. See State v. Anderson, 565 N.W.2d 340, 342 (Iowa
1997). We review claims of constitutional violations de novo. State v. Flanders,
546 N.W.2d 221, 224 (Iowa Ct. App. 1996).
III. Analysis.
The Iowa merger doctrine is expressed in Iowa Code section 701.9 and
Iowa Rule of Criminal Procedure 2.6(2).1 Anderson, 565 N.W.2d at 343. Iowa
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Formerly Iowa Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(2).
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Code section 701.9 codifies the double jeopardy protection against cumulative
punishment. State v. Halliburton, 539 N.W.2d 339, 344 (Iowa 1995).
Iowa Code section 701.9 provides:
No person shall be convicted of a public offense which is
necessarily included in another public offense of which the person
is convicted. If the jury returns a verdict of guilty of more than one
offense and such verdict conflicts with this section, the court shall
enter judgment of guilty of the greater of the offenses only.
Iowa Rule of Criminal Procedure 2.6(2) provides: “Upon prosecution for a
public offense, the defendant may be convicted of either the public offense
charged or an included offense, but not both.”
To be considered a lesser-included offense, the lesser offense must be
composed solely of some but not all elements of the greater offense. State v.
Jackson, 422 N.W.2d 475, 478 (Iowa 1988).
Involuntary manslaughter by public offense is committed when a person
“unintentionally causes the death of another person by the commission of a
public offense other than a forcible felony or escape.” Iowa Code § 707.5(1).
Our supreme court has retained an element of recklessness to the crime, which
is in the uniform jury instruction that was given to the jury that convicted Jared
York.
We conclude that the General Assembly intended to
preserve the common law requirement of recklessness in its
provisions for involuntary manslaughter.
Only by construing
subsection 707.5(1) to require some degree of fault at least
equivalent to that required by subsection 707.5(2) is the legislative
scheme of sanctions commensurate to culpability carried forward.
State v. Conner, 292 N.W.2d 682, 686 (Iowa 1980).
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The “public offense” element of involuntary manslaughter may be
committed in as many alternative ways as there are public offenses defined by
the Code, other than a forcible felony or escape. State v. Webb, 313 N.W.2d
550, 552 (Iowa 1981).
In this case, the public offense alleged in the trial
information and on which the jury was instructed is child endangerment resulting
in bodily injury in violation of Iowa Code sections 726.6(1) and 726.6(5).
In Webb, our supreme court considered whether assault is a lesserincluded offense of involuntary manslaughter by public offense where the public
offense alleged is assault. See id. The court discussed whether the courts look
to the charging language in the indictment or information or to the evidence by
which a crime may be proved to decide when and if a guilty verdict of more than
one offense conflicts with the statute prohibiting multiple convictions. Id. With
regard to involuntary manslaughter by public offense, the court differentiated
between “enumerated statutory definitions” like section 707.5(1), and the public
offense alternatives within subsection (1).
Although we look to the indictment or information to determine the
enumerated statutory definition of a particular offense with which
the defendant has been charged, alternative ways of committing a
crime within an enumerated definition are not similarly treated. This
is because the legal test for identifying lesser included offenses
depends on the statutory definition of the greater offense rather
than the evidence by which the offense may be proved in a
particular case.
Id.2
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In 2004, in an unpublished decision, our court relied on the above language in Webb to
find that child endangerment did not merge with involuntary manslaughter by public
offense, where the alleged public offense was child endangerment. State v. Petithory,
No. 03-1679 (Iowa Ct. App. Dec. 8, 2004), aff’d 702 N.W.2d 854 (Iowa 2005). The
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However, the Webb language has been undermined by a string of
opinions from the Iowa Supreme Court. The supreme court in State v. Anderson,
565 N.W.2d 340, 343 (Iowa 1997), chronicles the evolution of the test for lesserincluded offenses. In State v. Jeffries, 430 N.W.2d 728, 736 (1988), the supreme
court decided to retain the strict statutory-elements approach (“the elements
test”) to lesser-included offenses. Jeffries was not a rejection of the “impossibility
test,” which provides one offense is a lesser-included offense of the greater when
the greater offense cannot be committed without also committing the lesser.
State v. McNitt, 451 N.W.2d 824, 825 (Iowa 1990). In fact, the Jeffries “elements
test” can help in applying the impossibility test.
When a case is tried to a jury, the determination of whether a
particular lesser crime must be submitted as a lesser-included
offense of the crime charged may logically begin with the court’s
marshaling instruction on the greater offense. The trial court must
determine whether if the elements of the greater offense are
established, in the manner in which the State has sought to prove
those elements, then the elements of any lesser offense have also
necessarily been established. It is not essential that the elements
of the lesser offense be described in the statutes in the same
manner as the elements of the greater offense.
State v. Turecek, 456 N.W.2d 219, 223 (1990).
Finally, in State v. Steens, 464 N.W.2d 874, 875 (Iowa 1991), the supreme
court recognized that when there are alternative ways to commit an offense, the
alternative submitted to the jury controls.
Six years later, in Anderson, 565
N.W.2d at 344, the supreme court reaffirmed that “when a statute provides
alternative ways of committing the offense, the alternative submitted to the jury
controls.”
district court here relied on that opinion to rule that the guilty verdicts for child
endangerment and involuntary manslaughter did not merge.
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Here, the involuntary manslaughter alternative submitted to the jury was
the reckless commission of child endangerment. We compare the instructions
submitted to the jury to determine whether it is possible to commit the greater
offense without also committing the lesser offense.
Instruction No. 24
The State must prove both of the following of Involuntary
Manslaughter:
1. On or about the 26th day of August, 2003, the defendant
recklessly committed the crime of child endangerment.
2. When the defendant committed the crime, the defendant
unintentionally caused the death of Rylie York.
If the State has proved both the elements, the defendant is
guilty of involuntary manslaughter. If the State has failed to prove
either of the elements, the defendant is not guilty of Involuntary
Manslaughter.
Instruction No. 25
The State must prove all of the following elements of Child
Endangerment resulting in bodily injury:
1. On or about the 26th day of August, 2003, the defendant
was the parent of Rylie York.
2. Rylie York was under the age of fourteen years.
3. The defendant knowingly acted in a manner creating a
substantial risk to Rylie York’s physical health or safety.
4. The defendant’s act resulted in bodily injury to Rylie York.
If the State has proved all of the elements, the defendant is
guilty of Child Endangerment resulting in bodily injury. If the State
has failed to prove any one of the elements, the defendant is not
guilty of Child Endangerment resulting in bodily injury (and you will
then consider the crime of child endangerment explained in
Instruction No. 27.)
The elements of involuntary manslaughter as presented to the jury are
identical to the elements of child endangerment with the exception that the State
must also prove that the defendant committed child endangerment recklessly,
and unintentionally caused the death of the victim.
Thus, it is impossible to
commit the greater offense—involuntary manslaughter by commission of child
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endangerment—without also committing the lesser offense—child endangerment
causing bodily injury.
Consequently, the two offenses for which York was
convicted are greater and lesser-included offenses for purposes of double
jeopardy analysis.
We must now consider whether the legislature “clearly indicated” multiple
punishments for both crimes. State v. Lewis, 514 N.W.2d 63, 69 (1994); see
Halliburton, 539 N.W.2d at 344 (noting that if the crimes meet the legal elements
test for lesser-included offenses, “we then study whether the legislature intended
multiple punishments for both offenses”) (citing Lewis, 514 N.W.2d at 69).
The State relies on three cases decided by the Iowa Supreme Court in the
1990’s to support its argument that the Iowa legislature intended that we impose
separate punishments for these two offenses charged on the basis of a single
act: Lewis, Halliburton, and State v. Perez, 563 N.W.2d 625, 628-29 (Iowa 1997).
In Lewis, the supreme court concluded that the legislature intended
separate punishments for criminal gang participation as a class D felony and the
underlying criminal act used as the predicate, which might carry a longer
sentence. Lewis, 514 N.W.2d at 69. The court discerned the legislative intent in
the State’s argument that otherwise the criminal gang participation crime would
be “useless” as it merged with the underlying criminal act. Lewis, 514 N.W.2d at
69.
In Halliburton, the court concluded that even though possession of an
offensive weapon was a lesser-included offense of possession of an offensive
weapon by a felon, the Legislature intended cumulative punishment. Halliburton,
539 N.W.2d at 344-45.
To support its conclusion, the court noted that both
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offenses were class D felonies and only by imposing cumulative punishments
could it give effect to the possession as a felon alternative of Iowa Code section
724.26, see id. at 344,3 and that the two statutes had different purposes. See id.
at 344-45.
In Perez, the court turned to the Supreme Court opinion in Missouri v.
Hunter, 459 U.S. 359, 366, 103 S. Ct. 673, 678, 74 L. Ed. 2d 535, 542 (1983), for
the proposition that the elements test need not be applied at all.
“Where a
legislature specifically authorizes cumulative punishment under two statutes . . .
the prosecutor may seek and the trial court or jury may impose cumulative
punishment under such statutes in a single trial.” Perez, 563 N.W.2d at 627
(citing Hunter, 459 U.S. at 368-69, 103 S. Ct. at 679, 74 L. Ed. 2d at 544).
The Perez court acknowledged that courts must presume that the
legislature does not intend cumulative punishments “in the absence of a clear
indication of contrary legislative intent.” Id. at 628 (citing Hunter, 459 U.S. at 366,
103 S. Ct. at 678, 74 L. Ed. 2d at 542). The court went on to find an express
legislative will in Iowa Code section 708.3, which makes assault while
participating in a felony causing serious injury punishable as a C felony. Id. The
court found that the legislature intended punishment for both the assault and the
predicate felony. Id.
The State argues here that legislative intent to impose cumulative
punishment for a single act that otherwise would require a merger of sentences
can be gleaned from the use in the statute of a general reference to a necessary
3
Halliburton dealt with Iowa Code section 724.26 (1993), which was reworded in 2002.
2002 Iowa Acts ch. 1003, § 243.
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predicate offense (for example, public offense as a predicate for one alternative
way to commit involuntary manslaughter, Iowa Code section 707.5(1), a criminal
act as a predicate for criminal gang activity, Iowa Code section 723A.1(1), a
felony in assault while participating in a felony, Iowa Code section 708.3, a
forcible felony as a predicate for felony murder) as opposed to a specific
reference to an identified specific crime (such as sexual abuse as a predicate for
first degree burglary, Iowa Code section 713.3(1)).
The State’s argument
correctly catalogues these offenses and predicates as those in which our cases
have ruled against merger. However, the argument does not shed any light on
why the more generic reference reflects a clear legislative intent against merger,
nor why these offenses logically should not merge with their predicates under the
elements tests.
In August 2006, the Iowa Supreme Court revisited its position that willful
injury as a predicate forcible felony for felony murder does not merge with felony
murder.
State v. Heemstra, 721 N.W.2d 549, 551 (Iowa 2006).
The court
considered and rejected the argument that the legislature had determined that a
willful injury resulting in death would not merge with a conviction for felony
murder arising from the same assault. Id. at 557. The court went on to say,
“Furthermore, we should not defer to the legislature for a signal for us to adopt a
legal principle that is the responsibility of the court and within the power of the
court to apply, based on legal precedent, common sense, and fairness.” Id. at
558. The Heemstra court overruled its precedent to the extent the previous
cases held that willful injury did not merge into felony murder where the felonious
assault was the act that caused the death of the victim. Id.
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The principle of Heemstra applies to this case wherein the court imposed
consecutive sentences for child endangerment and involuntary manslaughter
over defense objection. Since there is no clear indication of legislative intent,
and common sense and fairness dictate that the two offenses merge, we will not
presume the Legislature intended cumulative punishments.
IV. Conclusion.
We conclude it is impossible to commit the greater offense of involuntary
manslaughter by child endangerment without also committing the lesser offense
of child endangerment. Consequently, York’s conviction for child endangerment
merges with his conviction for involuntary manslaughter. Because there is no
clear indication that the Legislature intended cumulative punishments, we
reverse and remand for resentencing.
REVERSED AND REMANDED FOR RESENTENCING.
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