LaPenotiere v. State
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LaPenotiere v. State
Opinion of the Court
Appellant Edward John LaPenotiere, Jr., was charged with second-degree sale of a controlled substance for selling heroin and Vicodin in a "school zone." Under Minnesota Statutes section 152.01, subdivision 14a(2) (2016), a "school zone" includes "the area surrounding school property ... to a distance of 300 feet or one city block, whichever distance is greater, beyond the *353school property." At trial, the State introduced a map and testimony demonstrating that the drug sale had occurred at LaPenotiere's home, which is located on a city block that is diagonal, or kitty-corner, to school property. The jury found LaPenotiere guilty as charged. LaPenotiere subsequently filed a petition for postconviction relief, arguing that the State had failed to prove that the sale occurred within 300 feet of school property. The postconviction court denied the petition, and the court of appeals affirmed. Because a "school zone" includes the entire area of a city block that is kitty-corner to school property, when the land surrounding school property is organized in a city-block system, we affirm.
FACTS
The State of Minnesota charged LaPenotiere in 2013 with second-degree sale of a controlled substance in a school zone. See
At trial, the State presented evidence that LaPenotiere sold heroin and Vicodin out of his home and that LaPenotiere's home was within a school zone. The location of the Little Falls school property and LaPenotiere's home is depicted in Diagram 1 below.
*354Diagram 1
LaPenotiere's home is located on the northeast corner of a rectangular city block; his block, in turn, is kitty-corner
The State offered evidence to establish the location of the school and the site of the sale. The State's evidence included an aerial satellite map, which was marked Exhibit 4, and testimony from a police deputy who identified Exhibit 4 as "a map of the Little Falls school area" and "a fair and accurate representation of where the school is and where the defendant's home is." Given the evidence showing that LaPenotiere's home was on a city block kitty-corner to the school property, the State did not present any evidence about whether the home was within 300 feet of the school property.
The jury found LaPenotiere guilty of selling a controlled substance in a school zone, and the court imposed a presumptive sentence.
*355In 2016, LaPenotiere filed a timely petition for postconviction relief, claiming that the State had failed to prove that the drug sale occurred in a school zone. LaPenotiere argued that the evidence showing that his block was kitty-corner to school property was insufficient because the one-city-block method of proving the school-zone element applies only to blocks with a side facing the school property. According to LaPenotiere, this result is compelled by our decision in State v. Carufel ,
In Carufel , the issue before us was whether the drug sale had occurred within a "park zone," defined by statute to include "the area within 300 feet or one city block, whichever distance is greater, of the park boundary."
LaPenotiere reads our analysis in Carufel as limiting the term "one city block," as used in the statutory definition of a park zone, to include blocks with a side facing the park boundary and to exclude kitty-corner blocks. According to LaPenotiere, the same limitation should be placed on the term "one city block" in the statutory definition of a school zone because the same term was at issue in Carufel . LaPenotiere therefore argued to the postconviction court that when a drug sale occurs on a block without a side facing the school property (e.g., a kitty-corner block), the State must prove that the sale occurred within 300 feet of the school property. Because the record did not contain any evidence that LaPenotiere's home was within 300 feet of the school property, he claimed that the State had presented insufficient evidence to support his conviction.
The postconviction court denied LaPenotiere's petition, explaining that LaPenotiere misread our holding in Carufel . According to the postconviction court, the phrase "directly adjacent" actually includes kitty-corner blocks, so the entire area of LaPenotiere's block is included in the school zone.
On appeal, LaPenotiere renewed these same arguments. The court of appeals affirmed. Lapenotiere v. State ,
*356to school property.
After acknowledging the distance-versus-area issue that was discussed in Carufel , the court did not resolve the measurement issue because LaPenotiere's "home [was] both within the one-block distance measurement from the school property and within the city block area measurement."
We granted LaPenotiere's petition for review.
*357ANALYSIS
I.
The question before us is whether the State introduced sufficient evidence to establish that the drug sale at LaPenotiere's home occurred in a "school zone." But this question is, at its core, a question of statutory interpretation: Does a "school zone," as defined by Minnesota Statutes section 152.01, subdivision 14a, include the entire area of a city block situated kitty-corner to school property? See State v. Henderson ,
The goal of all statutory interpretation is to "ascertain and effectuate" the Legislature's intent.
When determining whether a statute is ambiguous, we give words and phrases their ordinary meaning. State v. Prigge ,
With these principles in mind, we examine the language of Minnesota Statutes section 152.01, subdivision 14a. It provides, in relevant part:
"School zone" means:
(1) any property owned, leased, or controlled by a school district or an organization operating a nonpublic school ... [and]
(2) the area surrounding school property as described in clause (1) to a distance of 300 feet or one city block, whichever distance is greater, beyond the school property....
(Emphasis added.)
The parties dispute how the school zone is created when the area surrounding school property is organized in a city-block system
For the reasons that follow, we conclude that when the area surrounding school property is organized in a city-block system, the term "one city block" in section 152.01, subdivision 14a(2), refers to an area, not a distance, and therefore the statute creates a zone that includes the entirety of "first-ring" city blocks.
Statutory "words and phrases are construed ... according to their common and approved usage."
Second, the word "block" can alternatively refer to "a usually rectangular section of a city or town bounded on each side by consecutive streets." The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language 197 (5th ed. 2011) (emphasis added); see also Webster's Third New International Dictionary 235 (2002) (defining a "block" as "a portion of land," as in either "a usually rectangular space ... enclosed usually by streets but sometimes by other bounds" (emphasis added) ). This second meaning focuses on area and is reflected in statements like "he ran around the block" and "she lives on my block." We recognized this ambiguity in Carufel , when we read "the statutory phrase 'one city block' to mean both a distance measurement from the park, and to encompass the entire area of that city block."
*359Because a "block" can reasonably mean either the length of a city block (distance or segment) or the area of such a block (section or space), we conclude that the term "one city block" is ambiguous as applied to LaPenotiere's home.
In 1989, the Legislature enacted Minnesota Statutes section 152.01, subdivision 14a, defining a "school zone," as part of a broader scheme to increase the penalties for drug crimes that occurred near parks and schools. See Act of June 1, 1989, ch. 290, art. 3,
[T]here is a rational connection between the goal of protecting children from drugs and deterring the possession of drugs in a school zone . There is a genuine risk that those involved in illegal drug use, whether selling or merely possessing a controlled substance, could bring the dangers associated with illegal drugs into school zones. For example, abandoned drugs or discarded drug paraphernalia might be found in or around areas of drug use.
Given the mischief to be remedied and the object to be attained by section 152.01, subdivision 14a(2), we conclude that the only reasonable interpretation of the term "one city block" is an area measurement that creates a buffer zone that includes the entirety of all "first-ring" city blocks. Such an interpretation creates a clear and obvious buffer zone around school property in all directions, which helps achieve the Legislature's goal of protecting children from the dangers associated with illegal drugs. Moreover, the notion of "one city block" as an area is practical; prosecutors and defendants alike need not pull out a measuring tape to determine if a particular location is within "one city block" of school property.
By contrast, an interpretation that uses a distance measurement is unreasonable because it limits the school zone to less than, or possibly more than,
*360Applying the distance-based approach, the boundary of the school zone would be an arc that could cut through some of the houses on the block, creating a zone that may cover only one portion of a house while leaving other portions outside the zone. Additionally, interpreting "one city block" as a distance, not an area, presents the issue of which side of a rectangular block (the length or the width) is the "distance of ... one city block," an ambiguity that arises under LaPenotiere's preferred interpretation.
Finally, our conclusion is consistent with the words that the Legislature employed to define the "school zone," which reflect the Legislature's intent to protect children by creating a broad buffer zone. The words that the Legislature chose to use in section 152.01, subdivision 14a, evince its intent to create as expansive a zone as possible. For example, the statute uses the phrase "whichever distance is greater ."
In sum, when the area surrounding school property is organized in a city-block system, the "school zone," as defined by Minnesota Statutes section 152.01, subdivision 14a(2), includes the entire area of a city block that is kitty-corner to the school property.
II.
Having decided that a city block located kitty-corner to school property is included in the school zone when the area surrounding school property is organized in a city-block system, as is the case here, we turn to the question of whether the evidence was sufficient to support LaPenotiere's conviction. "[W]e conduct a painstaking review of the record to determine whether the evidence and reasonable inferences drawn therefrom, viewed in a light most favorable to the verdict, were sufficient to allow the jury to reach its verdict."
*361Loving v. State ,
Although the State did not introduce testimony about precisely how far away LaPenotiere's home was from the school property, the evidence introduced was sufficient for the jury to conclude that the drug sale occurred within a first-ring city block that was kitty-corner to school property. Specifically, the State introduced an aerial map as an exhibit showing LaPenotiere's home on a block plainly situated kitty-corner to the Little Falls school property. The State also elicited testimony from a police deputy, who explained this map to the jury and testified that LaPenotiere's home was "within one block of the school property." Viewed through a lens most favorable to the conviction, we conclude that the evidence was sufficient to prove the school-zone element of second-degree sale of a controlled substance in a school zone.
CONCLUSION
Based on the foregoing analysis, we affirm the decision of the court of appeals.
Affirmed.
THISSEN, J., not having been a member of this court at the time of submission, took no part in the consideration or decision of this case.
CONCURRENCE
We use the colloquial term "kitty-corner" to mean a city block that is located "diagonal" to the school property. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language 293, 971 (5th ed. 2011) (defining "kitty-corner," a variant of "cater-cornered").
The jury also found LaPenotiere guilty of third-degree sale of a controlled substance,
A diagram showing the location of the defendant's home relative to the park can be found at Carufel ,
We agree with the court of appeals' implicit conclusion that kitty-corner blocks are not "directly adjacent" to school property; rather, they "abut" the school's border at a corner or intersection. See Lapenotiere ,
The issues that arise when one tries to apply a distance measurement to a kitty-corner block are not fully reflected in the court of appeals' checkerboard diagram. As the facts of this case illustrate (see Diagram 1), city blocks are rarely neat rows of perfect squares. Instead, they may be rectangular (creating a short and long side of each block, rather than a uniform length of one city block), they may vary in size, and they may be bounded by streets that intersect at non-right angles.
We use the phrase "city-block system" to describe a system that divides land into areas that are usually rectangular and bounded on each side by consecutive streets. A city-block system is often, but not always, characterized by intersections at right angles.
The State appears to use the word "first-ring" to encompass both kitty-corner blocks and directly-adjacent blocks-i.e., all city blocks that abut school property, whether at a corner or along the edge of the block. We use "first-ring" in this same sense.
As part of his argument, LaPenotiere contends that in Carufel , we "cabined the applicability of the 'one city block' measurement to blocks 'directly adjacent to the park.' " We disagree. In Carufel , we simply held that the blocks "directly adjacent" to the park boundary unambiguously fell within the zone created by the term "one city block."
LaPenotiere argues that it is unreasonable to read the phrase "one city block" as an area measurement because it would read the phrase "to a distance of" out of the statute. But as we observed in Carufel , reading the phrase "one city block" as strictly a distance measurement would read the word "area" out of the statute.
The concurrence concludes that "there is only one reasonable interpretation" of the phrase "one city block" because we "already decided" in Carufel that "one city block" includes the entire area of the block. See
The school zone would extend more than a city block when all linear segments of the block were less than 300 feet.
At oral argument, LaPenotiere argued that the hypotenuse or diagonal distance across a rectangular city block could also be the "distance ... of one city block." We reject that interpretation, as well, because we conclude that "one city block" is an area, not a distance.
Because the ambiguity in the term "one city block" is easily resolved after consulting traditional canons of construction, we need not consider the rule of lenity, as LaPenotiere urges. State v. Thonesavanh ,
Our interpretation does not make the 300-feet measurement superfluous. The 300-feet method of measurement still serves as a floor, creating a minimum distance of 300-feet for a school zone, such as when city blocks are shorter than 300 feet in length or width. The 300-feet method would also apply in neighborhoods where there is no grid-like system of blocks surrounding school property.
Concurring Opinion
I agree that the evidence supports LaPenotiere's conviction and would affirm. I write separately because in my view the definition of "school zone,"
Section 152.01's definition of "school zone" is identical in all relevant respects to the "park zone" definition we interpreted in Carufel . The statute defines "school zone" as "the area surrounding school property," and this area includes up to "one city block."
The majority concludes that the statute is ambiguous as applied here because the statute includes concepts of distance and area. And the majority notes that a block could be either a measure of distance or an area. But we have already decided that the term "one city block," as used in another section of this statute "includes the entire area of the block." Carufel ,
Because there is only one reasonable interpretation of the statute, it is not ambiguous in my view. Based on the unambiguous language of the statute, I would affirm.
The majority contends that my conclusion "ignores language in the Carufel opinion plainly stating that a 'block' was both an area and a distance." I disagree. The footnote the majority quotes does not conclude that the statute is ambiguous even though the statute uses concepts of distance and area. See
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Edward John LAPENOTIERE, Jr. v. STATE of Minnesota
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