State v. ArdoinState v. Ardoin
|, The state charged defendant, David Gilbert Ardoin, by grand jury indictment with aggravated rape, in violation of
In his reasons for verdict, Judge Arcen-eaux found, based on the testimony of M.C., that defendant on at least one occasion over the summer of 2006 pulled down M.C.’s panties, placed his face between her legs, and licked her vaginal area when they were living together in a trailer in Gibson, Louisiana. However, the judge was not persuaded that defendant “actually placed his mouth or his tongue on her vagina,” and so acquitted defendant of aggravated rape in violation of
Judge Areeneaux made three other critical determinations in support of his verdict that defendant had committed the crime of aggravated incest. First, he specifically found that the evidence at trial supported a determination that M.C. is the biological daughter of Edward Floyd, the brother of Trina Ardoin, which made M.C. the niece of Trina. Second, because Trina is the sister of Edward Floyd, and the aunt of M.C., Judge Areeneaux found “that ... Mr. Ardoin, the husband of Trina, [is] the uncle of M.C. by marriage.” Third, the evidence also established that defendant was fully aware of the nature of his relationship with M.C. over the | .¡course of the seven years that M.C. lived with him and Trina. Judge Areeneaux thus concluded that the state’s evidence satisfied the definition of aggravated incest in
On appeal, defendant argued that the state’s evidence did not support a finding that Edward Flynn is the biological father of M.C. and that the evidence thus failed to prove the requisite biological, step, or adoptive relationship between offender and victim for purposes of
The court of appeal erred in its analysis. Louisiana divides the crime of incest into two categories. Incest, as a matter of
The doctrine of affinity grew out of the canonical maxim that the husband and wife are one. It is the relationship which arises, in consequence of marriage, between one spouse and the blood relatives of the other. Thus, the husband stands in the same degree of affinity to his wife’s blood relatives as she stands to them by consanguinity, and vice versa.
Thus, the word “niece” describes “[t]he daughter of a person’s brother or sister; sometimes understood to include the daughter of a person’s brother-in-law or sister-in-law.” Black’s Law Dictionary 1143 (9th ed.2009); see also Webster’s Third New International Dictionary 1526 (2002)(defining “niece” as a daughter of one’s brother, sister, brother-in-law or sister-in-law.). Previous versions of Black’s defined the term “uncle” simply as the “brother of one’s father or mother.” See, e.g., Black’s Law Dictionary 1694 (4th ed.1951). More recent versions of Black’s do not define the term but Webster’s Third New International Dictionary 2485 (2002) defines “uncle” as the brother of one’s father or mother or “the husband of one’s aunt.” Thus, assuming that M.C. is the biological daughter of Edward Flynn, then Trina Ardoin, Edward’s sister, is M.C.’s aunt by consanguinity, and defendant, as the husband of Trina and the brother-in-law of Edward, is M.C.’s uncle by affinity.
The First Circuit panel is correct that defendant is not M.C.’s step-uncle by virtue of a consanguine. relationship with Merdine Flynn, Edward Flynn’s wife and M.C.’s stepmother,
i.e.,
he is not the brother of Merdine Flynn and therefore not the step-uncle of her stepdaughter by virtue of Merdine’s marriage to Edward.
Cf. Webster’s New Third International Dictionary
2237 (2002) (when used to denote relation by affinity, “step-” means “related by virtue of remarriage (as of a parent) and not by blood.”). However, as the court of appeal acknowledged, it clearly appears that defendant is M.C.’s uncle by virtue of his marriage to M.C.’s aunt, the sister of his brother-in-law and M.C.’s blood relative. While the provisions of the Criminal Code “cannot be extended by analogy so as to create crimes not provided for,” they “shall be given a genuine construction, according to the fair import of their words, taken in their usual sense, in connection with the context, and with reference to the purpose of the provision.”
Accordingly, we vacate the decision below. Defendant urges this Court to conduct an independent review of the record to resolve (in his favor) the question of whether the state proved that M.C. is, in fact, the biological daughter of Edward Flynn, who did not testify at trial. However, the court of appeal did not address this aspect of his argument and the issue is therefore not properly before us at this time. Therefore, we remand this case to the court of appeal for reconsideration of defendant’s sufficiency claim consistent with the views expressed herein.
Notes
Retired Judge Philip C. Ciaccio, assigned as Justice ad hoc, sitting for Chief Justice Catherine D. Kimball.