State v. Torres

Summary

The Montana Supreme Court affirmed Zachariah Torres’s convictions for aggravated assault, burglary, criminal endangerment, and assault on a peace officer. The court held that sufficient evidence supported the aggravated assault and burglary convictions, including corroborated prior inconsistent statements by the victim. The court declined to apply plain-error review to Torres’s unpreserved double-jeopardy challenge.

Holdings

1. The aggravated-assault conviction was supported by sufficient evidence because a reasonable jury could find that Torres purposely or knowingly used physical force, including firing a handgun, in a manner that caused his wife reasonable apprehension of serious bodily injury or death.
2. The burglary conviction was supported by sufficient evidence because the jury could find that Torres knowingly entered and remained unlawfully in Marina's residence with the purpose of committing unlawful restraint.
3. The court declined to exercise plain-error review because Torres did not demonstrate plain error: the criminal-endangerment charge concerned conduct creating a risk to multiple others, including law-enforcement officers and neighbors, whereas the aggravated-assault charge concerned conduct toward his wife.

Questions Presented

1. Whether sufficient evidence supported Torres's aggravated-assault conviction.
2. Whether sufficient evidence supported Torres's burglary conviction.
3. Whether the Montana Supreme Court should exercise plain-error review of Torres's unpreserved claim that his aggravated-assault and criminal-endangerment convictions violated statutory and constitutional double-jeopardy protections.

Disposition

affirmed