Salazar v. State
Salazar v. State
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court,
The issue in this case is whether a habitation inherently provides notice that entry is forbidden. We hold that it does.
I. Background
Realtor Linda Pohlmeier owned the residence at 2506 South Bivins, in Amarillo. Although no one lived in the residence, Pohlmeier was in the process of remodeling it for resale. On January 29, 2007, Pohlmeier locked the doors and windows of the residence, except for one window which lacked a lock, and left the house. At 6:50 p.m., the Amarillo police dispatcher alerted officers that an anonymous caller had reported an ongoing burglary at the residence. Three officers were dispatched to the scene and saw the appellant leave the back door of the house and run away from them after they called out to him. They soon caught him. One of the officers returned to the residence and found various household items and supplies — including a light fixture, a ceiling fan, halogen work lamps, three boxes of children’s clothes, a box of mortar, and an air intake vent — stacked neatly in the alley, just behind the backyard fence. Pohlmeier identified the items as having been inside the house, except for the boxes of clothing which she did not own.
The appellant was indicted for burglary of a habitation. The indictment read that the appellant “did then and there intentionally or knowingly enter a habitation without the effective consent of Linda Pohlmeier, the owner of the habitation and attempted to commit or committed theft of property.” At trial, the appellant requested a charge on the lesser-included offense of criminal trespass. The trial court refused. The jury found the appellant guilty of burglary of a habitation. He was sentenced to seven years in prison.
On appeal, the appellant argued that the trial court erred when it denied him the instruction on the lesser-included offense of criminal trespass. The Court of Appeals rejected the appellant’s claim, holding that “the elements or facts necessary to convict one of criminal trespass were missing from the charge of burglary as modified by the indictment at bar.”
The Court of Appeals based its holding on this court’s decision in Hall v. State,
Two months later, the Court of Appeals reheard the appellant’s case, this time with the appellant claiming that because his entry was into a “habitation,” then that entry was inherently forbidden. This inherent prohibition, he argued, automatically established the notice that criminal trespass requires. Again, the Court of Appeals affirmed. It said that “the question should be decided on a case-by-case basis, and that simply describing the structure as a ‘habitation’ does not ipso facto suffice.”
In this court, the appellant now argues that in Moreno v. State,
II. Discussion of Law
A. Statutes
Burglary, according to Section 30.02(a) of the Penal Code, is committed when a person, “without the effective consent of the owner,
“(1) enters a habitation, or a building (or any portion of a building) not then open to the public, with intent to commit a felony, theft, or an assault; or
“(2) remains concealed, with intent to commit a felony, theft, or an assault, in a building or habitation; or
“(3) enters a building or habitation and does commits or attempts to commit a felony, theft, or an assault.”
Criminal trespass is committed by a person who “enters or remains on or in property, including an aircraft or other vehicle, of another without effective consent, or [who] enters or remains in a building of another without effective consent and he:
“(1) had notice that the entry was forbidden; or
“(2) received notice to depart but failed to do so.”8
For purposes of the criminal-trespass statute, “ ‘Notice’ means: (A) oral or written communication ..., (B) fencing or other enclosure obviously designed to exclude intruders ..., (C) a sign or signs posted or at the entry to the building, reasonably likely to come to the attention of intruders, indicating that entry is forbidden,” or other types of markings or crops on property.
B. “Habitation”
There is a hierarchy of properties that carry distinct levels of forbidden entry. In this case, we can look at this hierarchy in three levels: unimproved land, buildings, and habitations. The first, unimproved land, may simply be an open field with nothing more than a fence sur
The next body of property is the “building,” which also confers some explicit notice of forbidden entry. According to the Penal Code, a “building” is defined as “any enclosed structure intended for use or occupation as a habitation or for some purpose of trade, manufacture, ornament, or use.”
The third in the hierarchy of properties carries the highest threshold for privacy: the “habitation.” A “habitation” is defined by the Penal Code as “a structure or vehicle that is adapted for the overnight accommodation of persons, and includes: (A) each separately secured or occupied portion of the structure or vehicle; and (B) each structure appurtenant to or connected with the structure or vehicle.”
Because of its nature, a “habitation” carries a higher right of privacy. In fact, most “habitations” are not open to the public. We learn through common experience and societal norms that it is essential to seek permission to enter a habitation, rather than to enter it without permission. Request for entry may be made by nonverbal communication (such as a knock on the door) as well as by verbal communication. If a habitation did not inherently give notice that entry is forbidden, then there would be no need to include a doorbell, knocker, or even a lock in a home.
This inherent quality of a habitation’s notice that entry was forbidden was relied on by the drafters of the Penal Code. A Practice Commentary to the Code was prepared by two attorneys; one was the staff director of the Texas Penal Code Revision Project, and the other was a staff lawyer for the Project who assisted the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence during the passage of the Penal Code Bill in 1973.
It is as true for the burglary offense as for the trespass offense that a habitation inherently gives notice that entry is forbidden.
III. Application
In this case, the Court of Appeals did correctly identify Hall as the controlling standard for assessing lesser-included offenses.
Additionally, at the rehearing, the Court of Appeals focused its discussion of Moreno and its progeny, Jackson and Giissam v. State, 2007 WL 2405122, 2007 Tex.App. LEXIS 6843 (Tex.App.—Fort Worth Aug. 24, 2007), vacated 267 S.W.3d 39 (Tex. Cr. App. 2008). on the element, “enclosed structure,” as a defining characteristic of a “habitation.”
In its discussion of the three aforementioned cases, the Court of Appeals immediately distinguished them based on the element of “enclosed structure,” by stating that “one could reasonably deduce that the structure at issue was built in a way that prevented those standing outside from entering.”
A. Hall and Moreno
In Hall, this Court clarified the test to be used for lesser-included offenses, selecting the pleadings approach as the requisite test.
Upon issuing Hall, this court overruled several of its cases, including Moreno, which had followed varying standards for assessing lesser-included offenses.
IV. Conclusion
Because a habitation implicitly gives notice that entry is forbidden, in this case it would not be necessary to explicitly include in the indictment for burglary of a habitation an allegation that the appellant had notice that his entry was forbidden. To do so would be redundant. Thus, the Court eri'ed at the first step of the Hall analysis in determining whether the appellant was entitled to a lesser-included-offense charge and then further erred in interpreting a “habitation” as not inherently providing notice that entry is forbidden. Because we hold today that a “habitation” does imply notice of forbidden entry, we reverse the Court of Appeals’ judgment and remand to the Court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
. Salazar v. State, 259 S.W.3d 232, 234 (Tex.App.-Amarillo May 28, 2008).
. Salazar, 259 S.W.3d, at 234.
. 225 S.W.3d 524 (Tex.Cr.App. 2007).
. Salazar, 259 S.W.3d, at 233.
. Hall, 225 S.W.3d, at 535.
. Salazar v. State, 259 S.W.3d 232, 235 (Tex.App.-Amarillo July 1, 2008).
. Moreno v. State, 702 S.W.2d 636, 640 n. 7 (Tex.Cr.App. 1986); see also Jackson v. State, 3 S.W.3d 58, 62 (Tex.App.-Dallas 1999). This court has overruled Moreno's method of eval-ualing a lesser-included-offense. Hall, 225 S.W.3d, at 531 n. 30. We have not addressed Moreno’s discussion ofhabitation.
. Penal Code § 30.05(a).
. Penal Code § 30.05(b)(2).
. Mitchell v. State, 807 S.W.2d 740, 742, n. 3 (Tex.Cr.App. 1991).
. Penal Code § 30.01(2).
. Penal Code § 30.01(1).
. Id.
. Blankenship v. State, 780 S.W.2d 198, 209-10 (Tex.Cr.App. 1989) ("The determination whether a burglarized place is a ‘building’ or 'habitation' will be overturned on appeal only if the appellant can show that no reasonable trier of fact could have found the place to have been a habitation under the criteria above.”).
. Id. (It should be noted that while "[a]ll of these factors are relevant; none are essential or necessarily dispositive.”).
. This statement does not presume that homes without doorbells, knockers, or locks are not habitations. Rather, we employ these terms by illustrative use as examples that aid in depicting the inherent notice that entry is forbidden in habitations. A habitation might include one, several, or none of these items, and perhaps might include others not mentioned in this opinion.
. Preface, 3 Vernon’s Texas Codes Annotated — Penal Code, at III (1974).
. Id., Practice Commentary to § 30.05, at 258 (emphasis added).
. Hall, 225 S.W.3d, at 535-36. (The Court must ask whether "an offense is a lesser-included offense of the alleged offense ... by comparing the elements of the offense as they are alleged in the indictment or information with the elements of the potential lesser-included offense.").
. Moreno, 702 S.W.2d, at 636; Jackson, 3 S.W.3d, at 58.
. Hall, 225 S.W.3d, at 535.
. Salazar, 259 S.W.3d, at 235.
. Penal Code § 30.01(2).
. St. Julian v. State, 874 S.W.2d 669, 670 (Tex.Cr.App. 1994), citing Penal Code § 30.01(1)(B).
. Penal Code 30.01(1).
. Salazar, 259 S.W.3d, at 235.
. Hall, 225 S.W.3d, at 535-36.
. Salazar, 259 S.W.3d, at 235.
. Hall, 225 S.W.3d, at 535. Prior to Hall, courts had used four different analyses for providing lesser-included-offense charges: the "strict-statutory," "cognate-pleadings," “cognate-evidence," and "inherently related” approaches. Id., at 525.
. Hall, 225 S.W.3d, at 535-36.
. Id., at 536.
. Id.
. Id., at 536, citing Code Crim. Proc. art. 37.09(1).
. Hall, 225 S.W.3d, at 524.
. Moreno, 702 S.W.2d, at 640, n. 7; see also Jaclcson, 3 S.W.3d, at 62.
Concurring Opinion
filed a concurring opinion.
The Court holds that a habitation inherently provides notice that entry is forbidden. I agree, but not for all of the reasons relied upon by the Court. Section 30.05(b)(2)(B) defines “notice” to include an “enclosure obviously designed to ex-elude intruders.” Habitations are enclosures and, by their nature, they are obviously designed to exclude intruders, so I would resolve this case simply by reference to the statutory definition of “notice.”
But the Court also relies upon common experience and societal norms to reach its conclusion. We instituted a bright-line rule in Hall,
With these comments, I concur in the Court’s judgment.
. 225 S.W.3d 524 (Tex.Crim.App. 2007).
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- Joe Christian SALAZAR, Appellant v. the STATE of Texas
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