OLYMPIA – A teen’s burglary conviction for breaking into his mother’s bedroom was overturned Thursday by the state Supreme Court, which found that even though he broke down the door, it can’t be assumed he intended to commit a crime.
Antonio B. Cantu was convicted in Grant County Superior Court of residential burglary after his mother, Noyola Moncada, reported that beer, money and pain pills were missing from her bedroom after Cantu, then 17, came to her home on Feb. 6, 2003. Theft, drug and alcohol charges against him were subsequently dropped.
Cantu, who doesn’t live at the Moses Lake home, testified that he just went to the house to pick up some clothes, but that after playing with his dogs, he ran into his mother’s deadbolt-locked bedroom door and accidentally broke it. He said he only entered his mother’s room to shut the door and did not remove anything.
In an 8-1 ruling written by Justice Tom Chambers, the high court found that while Cantu’s entry into Moncada’s bedroom was unlawful, on the issue of his criminal intent once he was in the bedroom “the trial court improperly placed the burden on Cantu to prove his innocence – instead of the state having to prove his guilt.”
The majority opinion added, “It is the intent to commit a crime, not the actual commission of a crime, which is an element of residential burglary.”
In his dissent, Justice James Johnson said the majority “strikes at fact finders’ ability to reason.”
He wrote that criminal intent is a state of mind, and “intent constitutes an inference to the best explanation in light of the particular facts and our commonsense experience with unlawful entry and burglary.”
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