People v. De PorceriPeople v. De Porceri
Opinion
The only issue presented by this appeal is whether a prior conviction of assault with intent to commit lewd touching (Pen. Code, § 220) 1 qualifies as a strike under the three strikes statutes. For the reasons stated below, we will affirm the judgment.
Pursuant to a negotiated plea, defendant Stefan de Porceri pleaded no contest to four felony counts of lewd touching of minors under the age of 14 years (counts 1-4; § 288, subd. (a))
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and two misdemeanor counts of annoying or molesting children under the age of 18 years (counts 5-6; § 647.6, subd. (a)). He also admitted a
Defendant submitted to the court whether this prior conviction qualified as a prior strike within the meaning of the three strikes statutes, sections 667 and 1170.12. The effect of a prior qualifying as a strike is to double a defendant’s sentence. (§§ 667, subd. (e)(1), 1170.12, subd. (c)(1).) Defendant agreed that his maximum sentence would be 28 years and his minimum would be 18 years with this strike. Without this strike his maximum sentence would be 14 years.
After the court determined that the prior conviction was a strike, the court denied defendant’s request to strike the strike and sentenced defendant, then age 52, to prison for 18 years, consisting of the lower term of three years on count 1, plus three consecutive two-year terms, one-third the midterm, for counts 2 through 4. These terms were doubled due to the prior strike. Defendant also received 90-day concurrent sentences for each of his two misdemeanor convictions.
1. Lists of Serious and Violent Felonies
On appeal defendant contends that a prior conviction of assault with intent to violate section 288 does not qualify as a strike because it is neither a violent nor a serious felony.
A prior felony conviction qualifies as a strike if it is “Any offense defined in subdivision (c) of Section 667.5 as a violent felony or any offense defined in subdivision (c) of Section 1192.7 as a serious felony in this state.” (§§ 667, subd. (d)(1), 1170.12, subd. (b)(1).) Both referenced statutes contain lists of felonies.
On March 8, 2000, the serious felony list in section 1192.7, subdivision (c)
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included 41 items set out below.
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This date is
2. Was Defendant’s Prior Crime an Attempt to Commit a Serious Felony?
Defendant’s prior crime was a violation of section 220, specifically assault with intent to violate section 288. Section 220 defines as a crime: “Every person who assaults another with intent to commit mayhem, rape, sodomy, oral copulation, or any violation of Section 264.1, 288 or 289.”
The lists of serious or violent felonies do not include either “assault with intent to violate section 288” or “any violation of section 220.” However, the serious felony list does include “(39) any attempt to commit a crime listed in this subdivision other than assault.” The Attorney General asserts that this item 39 includes defendant’s prior crime.
We note that “any attempt to commit a crime listed in this subdivision other than an assault” has been on the serious felony list since section 1192.7 was enacted in 1982 by Proposition 8. (Cf.
People
v.
Equarte
(1986)
Though an attempt to commit a crime is itself a crime (§§ 664, 21a), defendant does not argue that item 39 is limited to convictions of attempt. It has long been established that the serious felony list describes criminal conduct as well as specific crimes.
(Equarte, supra,
Since a lewd or lascivious act on a child under the age of 14 years is a serious felony under item 6, under item 39 “any attempt” to commit a lewd or lascivious act on a child is also a serious felony. The remaining question
is whether defendant’s conviction of assault with intent to violate section 288 qualifies as an attempt to commit a lewd or lascivious act on a child under the age of 14 years. In answering this question, we are confined to the least adjudicated elements of defendant’s prior conviction, because the prosecution provided no details about this offense.
(People v. Rodriguez
(1998)
Assault is statutorily defined as “an unlawful attempt, coupled with a present ability, to commit a violent injury on the person of another.” (§ 240.) In
People v. Williams
(2001)
Defendant contends, “Assault with the intent to commit [a] lewd act may be committed without necessarily attempting such an act.”
People
v.
Rupp
(1953)
Defendant cites no case where conduct was found to amount to an assault with intent to commit a crime but not an attempt to commit the
crime. He argues that an “assault may be committed without physical contact when a person makes a demand or threat.” This type of assault “does not have to progress to the point of constituting an attempt.” This kind of conduct occurred in
People v. Imler
(1992)
We conclude that an assault with intent to commit a violation of section 288 necessarily involves an attempt to commit a lewd or lascivious act on a child under the age of 14. Thus, defendant’s prior conviction qualified as a serious felony under section 1192.7, subdivision (c)(39).
3. Statutory Surplusage and the Intent of the Voters
The Attorney General points out that this interpretation of “any attempt” in item
This type of redundancy has long been a feature of the serious felony list. The California Supreme Court has noted that the items on the serious felony list were not designed to be mutually exclusive. Instead, they are overlapping and cumulative.
(Equarte, supra,
While courts should strive to avoid constructions that make statutory words surplusage
(Williams v. Superior Court
(2001)
We turn to the statutory language on which defendant focuses. In 2000, Proposition 21 added item 29 to the serious felony list: “(29) assault with the intent to commit mayhem, rape, sodomy, or oral copulation, in violation of Section 220.” Proposition 21 also added the identical terms to the violent felony list in item 15.
Defendant contends that, in enacting item 29, the voters intentionally left out some of the conduct proscribed by section 220, which defines as a crime: “Every person who assaults another with intent to commit mayhem, rape, sodomy, oral copulation, or any violation of Section 264.1, 288 or 289.” Defendant contends that the omission to mention violations of sections 264.1, 288, and 289 is significant. It demonstrates an intent to exclude assault with intent to violate section 288 as a serious felony.
The court’s objective in interpreting statutory language added by initiative is to ascertain the voters’ intent.
(Williams
v.
Superior Court, supra,
We are familiar with the principle “‘“‘[w]here a statute, with reference to one subject contains a given provision, the omission of such provision from a similar statute concerning a related subject... is significant to show that a different intention existed.’ ” ’ ”
(People v. Duran
(2001)
Defendant cites nothing from the ballot arguments for and against Proposition 21 or from the Legislative Analyst’s analysis indicating an intent to make an exclusive listing of the violations of section 220 that would qualify as serious felonies. By the same token, there is no legislative history indicating that item 29 was intended to include violations of section 220 not specifically described. All we find is this explanation by the Legislative Analyst. “This measure revises the lists of specific crimes defined as serious or violent offenses, thus making most of them subject to the longer sentence provisions of existing law related to serious and violent offenses. In addition, these crimes would count as ‘strikes’ under the Three Strikes law.” (Voter Information Guide, Primary Elec. (Mar. 7, 2000) analysis of Prop. 21 by the Legis. Analyst, pp. 46-47 [<http://primary2000ss.ca.gov/VoterGuide/ Propositions/21analysis.htm> (as of Jan. 13, 2003)].)
Defendant recognizes that “[a]ssault with intent to commit. . . mayhem, sodomy,” and “oral copulation,” was not added to the serious felony list by Proposition 21. This language was added to item 10 of the statutory list by the Legislature in 1998. (Stats. 1998, ch. 936, § 13.) What Proposition 21 did was to move this language from item 10 to item 29 and to include the reference to section 220. By enacting section 1170.125, Proposition 21 also updated the serious felony list for purposes of the three strikes statutes.
In reviewing this language in item 29, we consider the legislative intent in expanding item 10 from “assault with intent to commit rape or robbery.” It appears that this language referring to mayhem, sodomy, and oral copulation was added to item 10 on March 16, 1998, when the Senate amended Assembly Bill No. 357. (<http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/97-98/bill/asm/ ab_0351-0400/ab_357_bill_19980316_amended_sen.html> [as of Jan. 13, 2003].) This amendment is explained by a Senate Public Safety Committee report from July 1, 1998. It was perceived to be cleanup legislation. The report stated: “Mayhem, robbery, and the sexual assault offenses are serious felonies, as are attempts to commit those crimes. The offenses defined in Penal Code Section 220 constitute an aggravated attempt to commit rape, rape in-concert, foreign object rape, lewd acts on a child under 14, sodomy, oral copulation or mayhem. (People v. Rupp (1953)
The legislative history does not explain why only some of the crimes underlying section 220 were mentioned. Further, we observe that not all forms of sodomy and oral copulation are serious felonies. Only sodomy and oral copulation “by force, violence, duress, menace, threat of great bodily injury, or fear of immediate and unlawful bodily injury on the victim or
another
We would reach the same conclusion without resort to this legislative history. The serious felony list has always been designed to describe or categorize some types of criminal conduct in more than one way. When the list is changed to add another description of criminal conduct, it should not be assumed that the new description was intended to be exclusive. It may merely be another way of describing conduct already on the list. We understand item 29 as intended merely to clarify that the specified violations of section 220 (“assault with the intent to commit mayhem, rape, sodomy, or oral copulation”) are serious felonies. It was not intended to exclude other unspecified violations of section 220 (assault with intent to commit any violation of § 264.1, 288 or 289) as serious felonies if they are otherwise described on the serious felony list.
Since a “lewd or lascivious act on a child under the age of 14 years” is a serious felony (§ 1192.7, subd. (c)(6)) and “any attempt to commit a crime listed in this subdivision” is a serious felony (§ 1192.7, subd. (c)(39)), we conclude that an assault with intent to violate section 288 is a serious felony as an attempt, though this crime is not also mentioned in section 1192.7, subdivision (c)(29), “assault with the intent to commit mayhem, rape, sodomy, or oral copulation, in violation of Section 220.”
In light of our conclusion, we need not reach defendant’s contention that item 29 should not be applied retroactively to the lewd touching counts 1, 2 and 4, which predate its enactment.
Disposition
The judgment is affirmed.
Wunderlich, J., and Mihara, J., concurred.
Appellant’s petition for review by the Supreme Court was denied April 16, 2003. Werdegar, J., Brown, J., and Moreno, J., were of the opinion that the petition should be granted.
Notes
Unspecified section references are to the Penal Code.
Section 288, subdivision (a), prohibits “Any person who willfully and lewdly commits any lewd or lascivious act, including any of the acts constituting other crimes provided for in Part 1, upon or with the body, or any part or member thereof, of a child who is under the age of 14 years, with the intent of arousing, appealing to, or gratifying the lust, passions, or sexual desires of that person or the child . . . .”
Further references to “the serious felony list” are to section 1192.7, subdivision (c) and references to “the violent felony list” are to section 667.5, subdivision (c).
“(1) Murder or voluntary manslaughter; (2) mayhem; (3) rape; (4) sodomy by force, violence, duress, menace, threat of great bodily injury, or fear of immediate and unlawful bodily injury on the victim or another person; (5) oral copulation by force, violence, duress, menace, threat of great bodily injury, or fear of immediate and unlawful bodily injury on the victim or another person; (6) lewd or lascivious act on a child under the age of 14 years; (7) any felony punishable by death or imprisonment in the state prison for life; (8) any felony in which the defendant personally inflicts great bodily injury on any person, other than an accomplice, or any felony in which the defendant personally uses a firearm; (9) attempted murder; (10) assault with intent to commit rape or robbery; (11) assault with a deadly weapon or instrument on a peace officer; (12) assault by a life prisoner on a noninmate; (13) assault with a deadly weapon by an inmate; (14) arson; (15) exploding a destructive device or any explosive with intent to injure; (16) exploding a destructive device or any explosive causing bodily injury, great bodily injury, or mayhem; (17) exploding a destructive device or any explosive with intent to murder; (18) any burglary of the first degree; (19) robbery or bank robbery; (20) kidnapping; (21) holding of a hostage by a person confined in a state prison; (22) attempt to commit a felony punishable by death or imprisonment in the state prison for life; (23) any felony in which the defendant personally used a dangerous or deadly weapon; (24) selling, furnishing, administering, giving, or offering to sell, furnish, administer, or give to a minor any heroin, cocaine, phencyclidine (PCP), or any methamphetamine-related drug, as described in paragraph (2) of subdivision (d) of Section 11055 of the Health and Safety Code, or any of the precursors of methamphetamines, as described in subparagraph (A) of paragraph (1) of subdivision (f) of Section 11055 or subdivision (a) of Section 11100 of the Health and Safety Code; (25) any violation of subdivision (a) of Section 289 where the act is accomplished against the victim’s will by force, violence, duress, menace, or fear of immediate and unlawful bodily injury on the victim or another person; (26) grand theft involving a firearm; (27) carjacking; (28) any felony offense, which would also constitute a felony violation of Section 186.22; (29) assault with the intent to commit mayhem, rape, sodomy, or oral copulation, in violation of Section 220; (30) throwing acid or flammable substances, in violation of Section 244; (31) assault with a deadly weapon, firearm, machinegun, assault weapon, or semiautomatic firearm or assault on a peace officer or firefighter, in violation of Section 245; (32) assault with a deadly weapon against a public transit employee, custodial officer, or school employee, in violation of Sections 245.2, 245.3, or 245.5; (33) discharge of a firearm at an inhabited dwelling, vehicle, or aircraft, in violation of Section 246; (34) commission of rape or penetration by a foreign object in concert with another person, in violation of Section 264.1; (35) continuous sexual abuse of a child, in violation of Section 288.5; (36) shooting from a vehicle, in violation of subdivision (c) or (d) of Section 12034; (37) intimidation of victims or witnesses, in violation of Section 136.1; (38) terrorist threats, in violation Section 422; (39) any attempt to commit a crime listed in this subdivision other than an assault; (40) any violation of Section 12022.53; (41) any conspiracy to commit an offense described in this subdivision.”
On June 30, 1993, the serious felony list included only the following 27 items: “(1) Murder or voluntary manslaughter; (2) mayhem; (3) rape; (4) sodomy by force, violence, duress, menace, threat of great bodily injury, or fear of immediate and unlawful bodily injury on the victim or another person; (5) oral copulation by force, violence, duress, menace, threat of great bodily injury, or fear of immediate and unlawful bodily injury on the victim or another person; (6) lewd or lascivious act on a child under the age of 14 years; (7) any felony punishable by death or imprisonment in the state prison for life; (8) any felony in which the defendant personally inflicts great bodily injury on any person, other than an accomplice, or any felony in which the defendant personally uses a firearm; (9) attempted murder; (10) assault with intent to commit rape or robbery; (11) assault with a deadly weapon or instrument on a peace officer; (12) assault by a life prisoner on a noninmate; (13) assault with a deadly weapon by an inmate; (14) arson; (15) exploding a destructive device or any explosive with intent to injure; (16) exploding a destructive device or any explosive causing great bodily injury or mayhem; (17) exploding a destructive device or any explosive with intent to murder; (18) burglary of an inhabited dwelling house, or trailer coach as defined by the Vehicle Code, or inhabited portion of any other building; (19) robbery or bank robbery; (20) kidnapping; (21) holding of a hostage by a person confined in a state prison; (22) attempt to commit a felony punishable by death or imprisonment in the state prison for life; (23) any felony in which the defendant personally used a dangerous or deadly weapon; (24) selling, furnishing, administering, giving, or offering to sell, furnish, administer, or give to a minor any heroin, cocaine, phencyclidine (PCP), or any methamphetamine-related drug, as described in paragraph (2) of subdivision ( d) of Section 11055 of the Health and Safety Code, or any of the precursors of methamphetamines, as described in subparagraph (A) of paragraph (1) of subdivision (f) of Section 11055 or subdivision (a) of Section 11100 of the Health and Safety Code; (25) any violation of subdivision (a) of Section 289 where the act is accomplished against the victim’s will by force, violence, duress, menace, or fear of immediate and unlawful bodily injury on the victim or another person; (26) grand theft involving a firearm; (27) any attempt to commit a crime listed in this subdivision other than an assault.” (Stats. 1989, ch. 1044, § 2.5, pp. 3632-3633.)
“(1) Murder or voluntary manslaughter, [Tf] (2) Mayhem. [If] (3) Rape as defined in paragraph (2) or (6) of subdivision (a) of Section 261 or paragraph (1) or (4) of subdivision (a) of Section 262. [TO (4) Sodomy by force, violence, duress, menace, or fear of immediate and unlawful bodily injury on the victim or another person. [TO (5) Oral copulation by force, violence, duress, menace, or fear of immediate and unlawful bodily injury on the victim or another person. [TO (6) Lewd acts on a child under the age of 14 years as defined in Section 288. [TO (7) Any felony punishable by death or imprisonment in the state prison for life. [TO (8) Any felony in which the defendant inflicts great bodily injury on any person other than an accomplice which has been charged and proved as provided for in Section 12022.7 or 12022.9 on or after July 1, 1977, or as specified prior to July 1, 1977, in Sections 213, 264, and 461, or any felony in which the defendant uses a firearm which use has been charged and proved as provided in Section 12022.5, or 12022.55. [1|] (9) Any robbery. [1J] (10) Arson, in violation of subdivision (a) or (b) of Section 451. [H] (11) The offense defined in subdivision (a) of Section 289 where the act is accomplished against the victim’s will by force, violence, duress, menace, or fear of immediate and unlawful bodily injury on the victim or another person. [1] (12) Attempted murder, [f] (13) A violation of Section 12308, 12309, or 12310. [H] (14) Kidnapping. [1] (15) Assault with the intent to commit mayhem, rape, sodomy, or oral copulation, in violation of Section 220. [*[] (16) Continuous sexual abuse of a child, in violation of Section 288.5. [f] (17) Carjacking, as defined in subdivision (a) of Section 215. [10 (18) A violation of Section 264.1. [K] (19) Extortion, as defined in Section 518, which would constitute a felony violation of Section 186.22 of the Penal Code. [1¡] (20) Threats to victims or witnesses, as defined in Section 136.1, which would constitute a felony violation of Section 186.22 of the Penal Code. [1|] (21) Any burglary of the first degree, as defined in subdivision (a) of Section 460, wherein it is charged and proved that another person, other than an accomplice, was present in the residence during the commission of the burglary. [10 (22) Any violation of Section 12022.53.”
On June 30, 1993, the violent felony list included only the following 15 items: “(1) Murder or voluntary manslaughter. [*|] (2) Mayhem. [K] (3) Rape as defined in paragraph (2) of Section 261. [10 (4) Sodomy by force, violence, duress, menace, or fear of immediate and unlawful bodily injury on the victim or another person. [H] (5) Oral copulation by force, violence, duress, menace, or fear of immediate and unlawful bodily injury on the victim or another person. [K] (6) Lewd acts on a child under the age of 14 years as defined in Section 288. [10 (7) Any felony punishable by death or imprisonment in the state prison for life. [K] (8) Any felony in which the defendant inflicts great bodily injury on any person other than an accomplice which has been charged and proved as provided for in Section 12022.7 or 12022.9 on or after July 1, 1977, or as specified prior to July 1, 1977, in Sections 213, 264, and 461, or any felony in which the defendant uses a firearm which use has been charged and proved as provided in Section 12022.5, or 12022.55. [K] (9) Any robbery perpetrated in an inhabited dwelling house, vessel, as defined in Section 21 of the Harbors and Navigation Code, which is inhabited and designed for habitation, inhabited trailer coach, as defined in the Vehicle Code, or in the inhabited portion of any other building, wherein it is charged and proved that the defendant personally used a deadly or dangerous weapon, as provided in subdivision (b) of Section 12022, in the commission of that robbery. [1J] (10) Arson, in violation of subdivision (a) of Section 451. [U] (11) The offense defined in subdivision (a) of Section 289 where the act is accomplished against the victim’s will by force, violence, duress, menace, or fear of immediate and unlawful bodily injury on the victim or another person. [K] (12) Attempted murder. [D] (13) A violation of Section 12308. [U] (14) Kidnapping, in violation of subdivision (b) of Section 207. [1f] (15) Continuous sexual abuse of a child, in violation of Section 288.5.” (Stats. 1991, ch. 451, § 1, pp. 2246-2247.)