State v. Taylor
State v. Taylor
Opinion of the Court
*461Defendant appeals a judgment of conviction for, among other offenses, three counts of coercion (Counts 1 to 3), ORS 163.275, and one count of felony assault in the fourth-degree constituting domestic violence (Count 5), ORS 163.160(3). The trial court sentenced defendant to 36 months' imprisonment on each of Counts 1 to 3 under 7-A on the sentencing guidelines grid block to be served concurrently, and 30 months' imprisonment on Count 5 under 6-A on the sentencing guidelines grid block to be served consecutively to Counts 1 to 3. On appeal, defendant assigns error to the trial court's calculation of his criminal history score on Count 5. Defendant contends that the trial court "erred when it found that Count 5 arose in a separate criminal episode and refused to apply the 'shift-to-I' rule when imposing a consecutive sentence on Count 5."
*940For the reasons that follow, we conclude that the record does not support the trial court's conclusion that Counts 1 to 3 were separate from Count 5 for purposes of applying the "shift-to-I" rule. We therefore remand for resentencing and otherwise affirm.
"The question of whether events constitute a single criminal episode is a question of law ***." State v. Burns ,
At the time that defendant committed the crimes in this case, he was on supervision and had previously been convicted for prior acts of domestic violence against the victim. As a result of that supervision, he was prohibited from having contact with the victim and prohibited from drinking alcohol. Additionally, at the time that he committed the crimes in this case, defendant had active warrants for his arrest.
*462Notwithstanding the prohibitions on his conduct due to his supervision, on the evening of August 13, 2015, defendant and the victim were drinking together in the victim's apartment. Also present in the apartment was the victim's two or three-month-old infant, H. At some point after 1:00 a.m. on August 14, 2015, defendant fell asleep.
After defendant fell asleep, the victim went into the bathroom. Shortly thereafter, defendant woke up and went into the bathroom as well. Defendant grabbed the victim with one hand in the throat and jaw area, which cut off her breathing. Defendant then lifted the victim off the toilet by her throat, carried her out of the bathroom to the living room-a distance of 15 to 25 feet-and threw her on a couch. The time between when defendant lifted the victim off the toilet and when he threw her on the couch was approximately 10 to 15 seconds. Defendant then struck the victim while she was on the couch.
The victim attempted to leave the apartment and got as far as the porch before defendant intercepted her, grabbed her and brought her back into the apartment. Shortly thereafter, H woke up. The victim picked H up, and while she was holding H, defendant grabbed the victim by the neck and pushed her against a wall.
The victim then called 9-1-1 on her cell phone. Defendant, aware that the victim was calling the police, advanced on the victim. Defendant's demeanor, coupled with the fact that he was moving toward the victim, "convinced [the victim] that if she didn't terminate the call quickly that there could be an escalation of the physical *** violence that had already occurred." The victim ended the call "after providing police with only the address of the residence." Defendant then grabbed the victim's phone and broke it into three pieces. After that, he grabbed the victim again and pushed her onto the couch.
The victim attempted to leave the apartment for a second time. She made it to a neighbor's door, where defendant "caught up with her, grabbed her again *** [in] a bear hug hold[,] and dragged her back to the porch of her residence." Shortly after that, police arrived in response to the *463terminated 9-1-1 call. Defendant, who had reentered the apartment at some point, did not come out of the apartment for between 30 seconds to a minute. He was then taken into custody.
Defendant was indicted for multiple crimes, including, as relevant to this appeal, three counts of coercion (Counts 1 to 3), ORS 163.275, one count of felony assault in the fourth-degree (Count 5), ORS 163.160(3), and one count of felony strangulation (Count 7), ORS 163.187. After a bench trial, the trial court found defendant guilty of those crimes. The trial court explained when pronouncing its verdict that the first act of coercion, Count 1, "related to the first time that [defendant] took [the victim] back into the house," when he "physically grabbed her back into the residence." The second act of coercion, Count 2, related to "the event involving the breaking of the cellphone." The trial court noted that it did not "find the *941breaking of the cellphone itself to be the coercive act," but that it was "part of a series of acts that support coercion," including that "when [the victim] was making the call the defendant *** came at her with what she testified *** was a look on his face that indicated to her that if she didn't stop the call that the situation could escalate," and that by grabbing and breaking the phone he indicated "by his physical acts that any further attempt to call 9-1-1 would be met with similar aggression." The third act of coercion, Count 3, occurred when "defendant grabbed [the victim, and] dragged her again back into her porch area" the "second time that [she] attempted to leave the residence." The trial court explained that for both Count 1 and Count 3 it considered defendant's conduct to be coercion not only because he grabbed the victim, but also because defendant was "larger *** and significantly stronger" than the victim and because of "previous encounters with [defendant]" where "something had occurred that had left bruising on [the victim] from [defendant]."
The trial court explained that defendant committed felony assault in the fourth degree, Count 5, and felony strangulation, Count 7, when he "cut off [the victim's airway] for what appears to be [10] to 15 seconds." The state requested that the trial court clarify whether its findings of *464guilt on Count 5 and Count 7 related to the same or separate incidents of strangulation. The court replied,
"[a]t this point I don't find on the two strangulations that there was [a]significant break in the activity to make it two separate incidences. It appears that it occurred over a relatively short period of time and so I do find that *** the conduct regarding removing [the victim] from the bathroom by her throat and putting her against the wall by her throat constitute an uninterrupted criminal episode."
As noted above, at defendant's sentencing hearing, the trial court sentenced defendant to 36 months' imprisonment, to be served concurrently, on each of Counts 1 to 3 under 7-A on the sentencing guidelines grid block.
On appeal, defendant argues that the trial court erred when it concluded that the "shift-to-I" rule did not apply when calculating defendant's criminal history score on Count 5. Defendant argues that if the "shift-to-I" rule *465applied in this case, the presumptive sentence for Count 5 would be a "three-year probationary sentence." As we have explained,
"[t]he 'shift-to-I' rule applies when a defendant is sentenced for multiple felonies in the same proceeding. In that event, the defendant's true criminal history score is used in assessing the grid block for imposing sentence on the primary offense (and any other offenses for which sentences will run concurrently). OAR 213-012-0020(2)(a)(A). For additional offenses for which consecutive sentences will be imposed, the court is required to use the criminal history score 'I.' OAR 213-012-0020(2)(a)(B)."
*942State v. Mayes ,
The "shift-to-I" rule applies, however, only "when consecutive sentences are imposed for crimes that arise from a single criminal episode." Orchard v. Mills ,
" 'Criminal episode' means continuous and uninterrupted conduct that establishes at least one offense and is so joined in time, place and circumstances that such conduct is directed to the accomplishment of a single criminal objective."
ORS 131.505(4).
Thus, under ORS 131.505(4), there are two prerequisites for a given course of conduct to constitute a single criminal episode. "First, such conduct must be 'continuous and uninterrupted' ***." State v. Tooley ,
*466On appeal, the state does not dispute that Counts 1 to 3 and Count 5 were part of a continuous and uninterrupted course of conduct. Accordingly, whether the Counts 1 to 3 and Count 5 were part of the same criminal episode turns on whether defendant's conduct in coercing and assaulting the victim was "directed to the accomplishment of a single criminal objective." See ORS 131.505(4).
Our decision in State v. Witherspoon ,
We reversed, holding that, because the menacing and felony assault charges "arose from continuous and uninterrupted conduct by defendant that was joined in time, place, and circumstances," and that "shared a common criminal objective of harassing and injuring the victim through physical and emotional abuse," the "record [did] not support *467the trial court's conclusion" that those charges constituted separate criminal episodes.
Guided by our decision in Witherspoon , we conclude that the record in this case does not support the trial court's conclusion that Counts 1 to 3 were part of a separate criminal episode from Count 5. To the contrary, the record demonstrates that defendant's conduct was similar to that of the defendant in Witherspoon , and that the conduct underlying Counts 1 to 3 and Count 5 in this case, like the conduct underlying the menacing and felony assault convictions in Witherspoon , was directed toward a common criminal objective of "harassing and injuring the victim."
Consideration of the "time, place, and circumstances" also supports our conclusion that defendant had a single, overarching criminal objective. Regarding time, the conduct constituting defendant's crimes in this case occurred over the course of a single night. See Tooley ,
The state argues that Witherspoon is distinguishable because in Witherspoon "the only criminal objective at issue was that of assaulting the victim." The state contends that, in this case, "defendant's acts of coercion served a separate criminal objective-preventing the victim from reporting the abuse, so that defendant could evade apprehension and punishment."
There are two problems with the state's argument. First, that kind of "parsing of defendant's criminal objective *469is inconsistent with the intent of ORS 131.505(4)." State v. Kautz ,
Second, even accepting that defendant developed the additional criminal objective posited by the state, the facts demonstrate that that purported objective furthered his primary, overarching objective, and, thus, was part of the same criminal episode. See Tooley ,
Furthermore, we note that the state argues that defendant's "strong incentive to avoid apprehension by the police"-evidenced by the fact that he "was on supervision at the time of this incident for previously assaulting the victim, he was not supposed to have contact with her, he was not supposed to be drinking alcohol, and had active warrants for his arrest"-suggests he had a separate criminal objective when engaging in the acts constituting coercion. But nearly every person who commits a felony has a strong incentive to avoid apprehension by the police. That incentive does not mean that crimes committed while attempting to avoid apprehension are part of a separate criminal episode where, as here, a defendant's initial criminal objective continues "during the course of all events." Kautz ,
Because the conduct underlying Counts 1 to 3 and Count 5 was directed toward a common criminal objective, we conclude that the record does not support the trial court's conclusion that Counts 1 to 3 were separate from Count 5 for purposes of applying the "shift-to-I" rule.
Remanded for resentencing; otherwise affirmed.
Defendant also assigns error to the trial court's imposition of "$60 as a 'court cost' or fine on one of defendant's convictions." We agree with defendant that that assignment of error has been rendered moot by the trial court's January 4, 2017, amended judgment.
See OAR 213-004-0001 (describing operation of sentencing guidelines grid block); OAR ch. 213, App. 1 (setting out the sentencing guidelines grid block).
Because we hold in favor of defendant on the basis of the statutory test for "criminal episode" in ORS 131.505(4), we do not reach defendant's argument regarding whether the "complete account" test for criminal episode is satisfied. See Burns ,
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.