UNDER THE FACTS, THE ATTEMPTED KIDNAPPING CONVICTION MERGED WITH THE SEXUAL ABUSE AND ASSAULT CONVICTIONS.
The Third Department, in the interest of justice, determined that the attempted kidnapping conviction merged with the sexual abuse and assault convictions:
The merger doctrine bars convictions for kidnapping “based on acts which are so much the part of another substantive crime that the substantive crime could not have been committed without such acts and that independent criminal responsibility may not fairly be attributed to them” … . While application of the doctrine is dependent on the particular facts and circumstances of each case, “a kidnapping is generally deemed to merge with another offense . . . ‘where there is minimal asportation immediately preceding’ the other crime or ‘where the restraint and underlying crime are essentially simultaneous'” … .
Here, the victim’s testimony, as well as the surveillance footage, established that defendant immediately began punching the victim upon opening the door to her vehicle and that, after dragging her roughly 58 feet, he continued to punch the victim while forcibly subjecting her to sexual contact. This brutal encounter lasted between three and four minutes. Under these circumstances, because the conduct underlying the charge of attempted kidnapping in the second degree was simultaneous to, and inseparable from, the conduct underlying the charges of sexual abuse in the first degree and assault in the second degree … , we must apply the doctrine of merger, reverse defendant’s conviction of attempted kidnapping in the second degree and dismiss that count of the indictment … . People v Bautista, 2017 NY Slip Op 01410, 3rd Dept 2-23-17
CRIMINAL LAW (UNDER THE FACTS, THE ATTEMPTED KIDNAPPING CONVICTION MERGED WITH THE SEXUAL ABUSE AND ASSAULT CONVICTIONS)/KIDNAPPING (UNDER THE FACTS, THE ATTEMPTED KIDNAPPING CONVICTION MERGED WITH THE SEXUAL ABUSE AND ASSAULT CONVICTIONS)/MERGER (CRIMINAL LAW, UNDER THE FACTS, THE ATTEMPTED KIDNAPPING CONVICTION MERGED WITH THE SEXUAL ABUSE AND ASSAULT CONVICTIONS)