State v. Alarcon
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State v. Alarcon
Opinion of the Court
*643In this case we consider what it means to "leave[ ] a primary address" under Minnesota's predatory-offender registration statute, which makes an offender's knowing failure to register a felony offense.
Alarcon appealed, and the court of appeals affirmed, concluding that sufficient evidence sustained his conviction. We hold that to convict a defendant of knowingly failing to register when a predatory offender "leaves a primary address and does not have a new primary address,"
FACTS
Respondent the State of Minnesota charged Alarcon with knowingly failing to register as a predatory offender under Minnesota Statutes section 243.166, subdivision 5(a). The probable cause portion of the criminal complaint alleged that Alarcon "did not report to the arresting officer, his probation officer, or other law enforcement officer his change of primary address despite the statutory requirement to do so within 24 hours of the loss of primary address on April 3rd, [2015]." At a jury trial, the following evidence was presented.
Alarcon was required to comply with the predatory-offender registration requirements because in August 2014, he was convicted of soliciting a child to engage in sexual conduct. See
About 4 months later, on December 15, 2014, Alarcon moved to a motel in Albert Lea. He registered the motel's address as his "primary address." Two weeks later, he updated his information to specify the room number in which he was living, and he signed another "duty to register" form. Alarcon's living arrangement with the motel was not governed by a written lease agreement. Rather, he orally agreed to pay the motel in advance for his stay-first, on a monthly basis, but then on a weekly basis and sometimes on a daily basis. At the time of the alleged offense, Alarcon was paying in advance on a weekly basis.
Alarcon paid his rent using a credit card from a relative for nearly 4 months without incident. But on April 3, 2015, when *644the motel attempted to charge Alarcon for the upcoming week, the credit charge was declined. Alarcon was not at the motel that day but his personal belongings were in his room, unpacked. Because of the declined charge, the motel manager placed a "boot" on the doorknob that prevented Alarcon from re-entering the room and a note on the door about the lapsed payment. According to the manager's trial testimony, the note read, "Mr. Alarcon, your rental [sic] is due today at 11 a.m. It was not paid due to a declined credit card. We have secured your room, and to gain access to the room and your property, payment must be made." The manager did not have any other contact information for Alarcon, so was unable to reach him. After waiting 24 hours, the manager instructed his staff to pack Alarcon's belongings and place them in storage so that the room could be rented to another customer.
Three days later, on April 6, 2015, Alarcon was arrested in Albert Lea during a traffic stop on unrelated charges. Apparently, the police discovered that Alarcon was a registered predatory offender upon his booking into jail. The next morning, the jail updated his registered primary address to reflect that he was "currently housed at the Freeborn County jail as of April 7, 2015."
Alarcon's probation officer testified that Alarcon did not notify her that he had left his primary address at the motel on April 3, 2015, did not discuss any plans to change his primary address, and did not contact her at all during the 3-day period between April 3 and April 6, 2015. The motel manager also testified that Alarcon did not contact him during that 3-day period. The manager testified that "at some point" after April 6, 2015, Alarcon called to arrange to pick up his belongings from the motel, estimating that Alarcon retrieved his belongings a couple weeks later.
A jury found Alarcon guilty of knowingly failing to register as a predatory offender. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
We granted Alarcon's petition for further review in part, agreeing to consider whether the State's evidence was sufficient to support his failure-to-register conviction.
ANALYSIS
Under Minnesota's predatory-offender registration statute, an offender must "register" with an assigned corrections officer or, in certain circumstances, a local law enforcement authority.
*645
The specific registration requirement at issue involves an offender who leaves a primary address. When an offender "leaves a primary address and does not have a new primary address," the offender must "register with the law enforcement authority that has jurisdiction in the area where the person is staying within 24 hours of the time the person no longer has a primary address."
An offender who "knowingly violates any of [the] provisions" of the predatory-offender registration statute is guilty of a felony.
Alarcon was convicted of knowingly violating Minnesota Statutes section 234.166, subdivision 3a(a), by failing to report, within 24 hours, that he left his primary address at the motel on April 3, 2015, without having a new primary address. He argues that the State did not prove that his duty to register was triggered because it failed to prove that he actually left his primary address at the motel or that he knew that his living arrangement was terminated by the motel for lack of payment. According to Alarcon, his conviction must be reversed because the State's evidence was circumstantial and open to reasonable inferences inconsistent with guilt. See State v. Al-Naseer ,
When the sufficiency of the State's evidence is challenged on appeal, we ask whether the evidence, when viewed in the light most favorable to the conviction, was sufficient to permit a finder of fact to conclude that the defendant was guilty of the charged offense. State v. Olhausen ,
I.
When interpreting the meaning of the phrase "leaves a primary address" in Minnesota Statutes section 243.166, subdivision 3a(a), we seek to "ascertain and effectuate" the Legislature's intent.
A statute is ambiguous when it is "subject to more than one reasonable interpretation." State v. Fleck ,
As detailed above, the statute makes it a felony offense to "knowingly" fail to abide by the registration requirements.
The verb "leave" in the phrase "leaves a primary address" can be interpreted in more than one way that is consistent with the dictionary meaning of the word "leave." For example, "leave" can mean a temporary departure from a place. See The American Heritage Dictionary 1000 (5th ed. 2011) (defining "leave" as "to go out of or away from"); Leave , Black's Law Dictionary (10th ed. 2014) (defining "leave" as "[t]o depart; voluntarily go away; quit (a place)"). One might leave home for 5 minutes to speak to a neighbor, or for an hour to get groceries, or for a week to go on vacation.
"Leave" can also denote a more indefinite or permanent departure, however. See The American Heritage Dictionary , supra at 1001 (defining "leave" as "to abandon or forsake: leave home "); Leave , Black's Law Dictionary , supra (defining "leave" as "[t]o depart willfully with the intent not to return"). Examples of "leaving" in this sense include an employee who leaves her job for a new opportunity or an immigrant who leaves her home country with no expectation that she will see it again. Obviously, someone who leaves her house to get groceries did not leave her home in the same sense that the immigrant has left her home. Consequently, we must look beyond the dictionary to ascertain what the Legislature meant by the phrase "leaves a primary address."
Other provisions in section 243.166 provide an answer. First and foremost, the phrase "leaves a primary address" in subdivision 3a(a) is immediately followed by the qualifying phrase "and does not have a new primary address. "
*647This language suggests that the Legislature intended the word "leaves" to mean more than a temporary departure. The phrase "a new primary address" implies the existence of a former primary address that no longer applies. Moreover, an offender who has a primary address, but leaves it temporarily, cannot be said to "no longer ha[ve] a primary address" if that address remains the place where the offender "lives under a formal or informal agreement."
Second, the statute's distinction between a "primary address" and a "secondary address" confirms our understanding that only a definitive change in an offender's primary living arrangement triggers the duty to register. In contrast to an offender's "primary address," a "secondary address" is "the mailing address of any place where the [offender] regularly or occasionally stays overnight when not staying at a person's primary address."
By placing secondary addresses within the ambit of the statute, the Legislature understood that an offender, like any other person, will occasionally spend time elsewhere and that doing so does not vitiate the primary living arrangement. If we presume, as we must, that the Legislature intended an offender's secondary address to be different than his primary address, we cannot conclude that the offender "leaves" his primary address, and triggers the registration requirements, every time that he leaves the primary address temporarily. See Allan v. R.D. Offutt Co. ,
Taking subdivision 3a(a) in the context of section 243.166 as a whole, we conclude that an offender's registration requirement under subdivision 3a(a) is not triggered by every departure from the primary address. Instead, we hold that "leaves a primary address" plainly and unambiguously means that an offender's living arrangement at the primary address has come to an end.
II.
With the statutory term defined, we next consider Alarcon's claim that the State failed to present sufficient evidence to sustain his conviction. The felony offense of failing to register requires that the offender "know that he is violating the statute when the violation occurs." Mikulak ,
When the sufficiency of the evidence to support a criminal conviction is challenged on appeal, we review the record "to determine whether the evidence, when viewed in the light most favorable to the conviction, is sufficient to allow the jurors to reach their verdict." Olhausen ,
Here, the State attempted to prove by circumstantial evidence that Alarcon knew that his living arrangement at the motel had ended. Circumstantial evidence review involves two steps. First, we must "identify the circumstances proved." Al-Naseer ,
Second, we "examine independently the reasonableness of all inferences that might be drawn from the circumstances proved." Id. at 473-74 (citation omitted) (internal quotation marks omitted). "We give no deference to the jury's choice between reasonable inferences at this second step." State v. Harris ,
The State proved the following circumstances regarding Alarcon and his primary address. On December 15, 2014, Alarcon moved to a motel in Albert Lea. He registered the motel's address as his "primary address." Two weeks later, he updated his information to state the number of the room in which he was living, and he signed another "duty to register" form. Alarcon had an oral agreement to pay in advance for his stay at the motel. He paid his rent using a relative's credit card for nearly 4 months without incident. On April 3, 2015, Alarcon was paying the motel in advance for a 1-week stay. When the motel attempted to charge Alarcon on that date for the upcoming week, however, the credit charge was declined. Alarcon was not at the motel that day, but his personal belongings were in his room, unpacked. The motel manager placed a "boot" on the doorknob that prevented Alarcon from re-entering the room; he also left a note on the door about the declined payment. The manager did not have any contact with Alarcon that day. After waiting 24 hours, the manager instructed his staff to pack Alarcon's belongings and place them in storage so the room could be rented to another customer. On April 6, 2015, Alarcon was riding in L.H.'s car with L.H. and another friend when the car was stopped *649by the police.
The circumstances proved, when viewed as a whole, allow a reasonable inference that Alarcon did not know that his living arrangement had been terminated during the 3-day period between April 3 and April 6, 2015. It is reasonable to infer that Alarcon was unaware of the declined charge given that he had been successfully using the credit card to make timely payments for 4 months. Alarcon was not in his room when the motel manager put the boot on the doorknob, and no evidence suggests that he saw the boot. Nor did any evidence suggest that Alarcon saw the note left by the motel manager on the door. That Alarcon's belongings were in the motel room, unpacked, when his payment was declined supports a conclusion that Alarcon did not intend for his stay at the motel to end and did not know that the payment had been declined.
According to the motel manager's testimony, the manager did not speak with Alarcon until sometime after April 6, 2015-at least two days after the motel staff removed Alarcon's belongings from the room. Consequently, the evidence leaves open the reasonable possibility that Alarcon had no knowledge that his living arrangement at the motel had ended until after his arrest on the evening of April 6, 2015. The circumstances proved by the State, therefore, do not eliminate the reasonable inference that Alarcon did not know that he was in violation of the registration statute when the violation occurred. As explained above, this inference is inconsistent with a finding of guilt. See Mikulak ,
The additional facts relied upon by the dissent concerning L.H. do not change our conclusion. The dissent argues that the inference that Alarcon did not know that his living arrangement ended is unreasonable because L.H. lived in the same motel as Alarcon, they "hung out almost every day," and Alarcon picked L.H. up at the motel on the day of the traffic stop.
CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, we reverse the court of appeals and remand to the district court to vacate Alarcon's conviction for knowingly failing to register as a predatory offender.
Reversed.
Dissenting, McKeig, J.
DISSENT
Alarcon was also tried and convicted of unlawful possession of a firearm,
The term "offender" refers to any person who must comply with the registration requirements in the predatory-offender registration statute. See generally
Offenders must also provide:
(2) all of the person's secondary addresses in Minnesota, including all addresses used for residential or recreational purposes; (3) the addresses of all Minnesota property owned, leased, or rented by the person; (4) the addresses of all locations where the person is employed; (5) the addresses of all schools where the person is enrolled; and (6) the year, model, make, license plate number, and color of all motor vehicles owned or regularly driven by the person.
But, "[i]f the mailing address is different from the actual location of the dwelling, primary address also includes the physical location of the dwelling described with as much specificity as possible."
L.H. testified at trial that she was currently Alarcon's girlfriend. She also testified, however, that back in April 2015, when the traffic stop occurred, she was not in a relationship with him. L.H. testified that she lived at the same motel as Alarcon, that they were friends, and that they had been spending time together "almost every day." According to a video of the traffic stop that the State presented at trial, L.H. told the police that Alarcon and the other friend had borrowed L.H.'s car on April 6, and had picked her up at the motel later that day. At trial, however, L.H. testified to a different sequence of events, stating that she, Alarcon, and the friend began their drive on April 6 at a third friend's house. Notably, during L.H.'s trial testimony, the State did not ask about Alarcon's whereabouts during the 3-day period at issue here or his knowledge concerning the status of his motel room.
As noted above, L.H.'s trial testimony contradicted this last assertion; she testified that she picked up Alarcon and his friend at a third friend's house, and not at the motel.
Dissenting Opinion
In cases challenging the sufficiency of the evidence, we do not reverse "if the jury, acting with due regard for the presumption of innocence and for the requirement of proof beyond a reasonable doubt, could reasonably conclude the defendant was proven guilty of the charged offense." State v. Taylor ,
The State did not present any direct evidence that Alarcon personally saw the "boot" on the doorknob of the motel room or the note posted on the door of the motel room that read: "Mr. Alarcon, your rental [sic] is due today at 11 a.m. It was not paid due to declined credit card. We have secured your room, and to gain access to the room and your property, payment must be made." But the absence of direct evidence does not end the analysis because the law does not prefer direct evidence to circumstantial evidence. 10 Minn. Dist. Judges Ass'n, Minnesota Practice-Jury Instruction Guides, Criminal , CRIMJIG 3.05 (6th ed. 2015).
A circumstantial-evidence review involves two steps. First, the appellate court must "identify the circumstances proved." State v. Al-Naseer ,
On December 15, 2014, Alarcon moved to a motel in Albert Lea. He registered the motel's address as his "primary address." Alarcon rented the motel room by the week and agreed to pay his rent in advance. As part of the agreement, Alarcon gave the motel manager a relative's credit card number, which the manager used to "run the credit card payment" each week. Between December 2014 and April 2015, Alarcon paid his rent without incident. In April 2015, Alarcon and his friend L.H., who lived in a room at the same motel, were spending time together "almost every day."
At 11 a.m. on April 3, 2015, the manager ran the credit card number and payment was declined. Alarcon was not "on the property at that time," but his personal belongings were in his room, unpacked. The manager placed a "boot" on the doorknob that prevented Alarcon from re-entering his room; he also left a note on the door that read: "Mr. Alarcon, your rental [sic] is due today at 11 a.m. It was not paid due to declined credit card. We have secured your room, and to gain access to the room and your property, payment must be made." The manager did not have any contact with Alarcon that day. After waiting 24 hours, the manager instructed his staff to pack up Alarcon's belongings and place them in storage so the room could be rented to another customer.
On April 6, 2015, L.H. lent Alarcon her car. Later that day, Alarcon picked her up at the motel.
Having identified the circumstances proved, the next step in a circumstantial-evidence review is to determine whether circumstances proved, when viewed as a whole, are consistent with a reasonable inference that the accused is guilty and inconsistent with any rational hypothesis except that of guilt. Al-Naseer ,
Moreover, even if the circumstances proved supported the court's analysis of the second step of circumstantial-evidence review, I do not agree with the court's focus on knowledge of the actions of third parties in this case. Knowledge of third-party action is not decisive of whether a person knows his living arrangement at his primary address has ended. In my view, a person can know that his living arrangement at his primary address has ended even if he is completely unaware of third-party actions that end the arrangement.
The facts here illustrate that point. Even ignoring the actions of the motel manager, Alarcon's actions provide enough evidence for a jury to reasonably conclude that he abandoned his living arrangement at the motel on or about April 3, 2015. The length of the rental period is significant in determining whether Alarcon's three-and-a-half-day absence from the motel room demonstrates that he abandoned his living arrangement at the motel. If the rental period had been a month or a year, the probative value of a three-and-a-half-day absence would have been minimal. But in this case the three-and-a-half-day absence is highly probative on the issue of whether Alarcon abandoned his living arrangement at the motel because the absence constitutes half of the rental period. Had Alarcon been absent for half of a year-long rental period, one would be hard pressed to argue that the 6-month absence did not support a jury finding that he had abandoned his living arrangement at the motel. But in its decision today, the court announces a broad rule that would effectively preclude such a finding. Under the newly announced rule, if your tenancy is terminated and you do not know that it is terminated, you have not, in fact, left your primary address. The new rule illustrates the old adage "bad facts often make bad law." Dougherty v. State Farm Mut. Ins. Co. ,
For these reasons, I respectfully dissent.
While Alarcon and L.H. were "friends" who "hung out almost every day" in April of 2015, L.H. testified at trial that Alarcon did not become her boyfriend until June of 2015. They were still in a relationship when L.H. testified.
As the majority notes, L.H.'s testimony is inconsistent with Alarcon picking her up at the motel. We view all evidence in a light most favorable to the jury verdict because "the jury is in the best position to weigh the credibility of evidence and thus determine[ ] which witnesses to believe and how much weight to give their testimony." State v. Moore ,
Reference
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- STATE of Minnesota v. Jose ALARCON, Jr.
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