IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE HAKEEM M. EVANS, Defendant-Below, Appellant ID. No. 1705000032 (N) STATE OF DELAWARE, Plaintiff-Below, Appellee. < Nee Nee Ne Ne Nee” Nee” eee” “ee” “ee ee” ee” ee” Submitted: January 17, 2019 Decided: April 30, 2019 Corrected: June 5, 2019 OPINION Upon Appeal from the Court of Common Pleas of the State of Delaware in and for New Castle County, REVERSED. Benjamin S. Gifford, IV, Esquire, The Law Office of Benjamin S. Gifford, IV, Wilmington, Delaware, for Appellant, Hakeem M. Evans. Julia C. Mayer, Esquire, Deputy Attorney General, Department of Justice, Wilmington, Delaware, for Appellee, the State of Delaware. WALLACE, J. J. INTRODUCTION “The more you look at ‘common knowledge’, the more you realise that it is more likely to be common than it is to be knowledge.”’ Since the adoption of our criminal impersonation statute, Delaware practitioners and jurists assumed that the State need only prove that one gave a false name to be convicted. The Court here must, for the first time, confront that precise assumption. That examination reveals that no matter what was once believed to be in the font of common Delaware criminal law knowledge, one cannot criminally impersonate a wholly fictitious person; the State must prove as an element of that statutory offense that a false name given is one belonging to “a human being who has been born and is alive.” Hakeem M. Evans appeals his conviction for misdemeanor criminal impersonation. Evans’ only contention on appeal is that, at his Court of Common Pleas trial, the State failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he “mpersonate[d] another person” when he verbally gave the police a name that was not his own. The Court must conclude here that he is right. And because there was insufficient evidence to support Evans’ conviction of misdemeanor criminal impersonation, it must bb REVERSED. Idries Shah, Reflections 140 (7" ed. 1991). 2 DEL. CODE ANN. tit. 11, § 907(1) (2016) (“A person is guilty of criminal impersonation when the person . . . “[iJmpersonates another person . . .”); id. at § 222(21) (“‘Person’ means a human being who has been born and is alive”). -|- Il. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND Just before midnight on April 30, 2017, New Castle County Police Officer Christopher Nikituk was dispatched to Stonebridge Boulevard in New Castle, Delaware, for a loud music complaint. Officer Nikituk found the reported vehicle and spoke to its two male occupants. One of the two was the Appellant Hakeem M. Evans. Officer Nikituk asked each man for his name, date of birth, phone number, and address. After some back-and-forth, Evans told the officer that his name was “Nasir Evans.” Evans also provided a date of birth and phone number. Officer Nikituk searched the Delaware Criminal Justice Information System (“DELJIS”), but found no records for that name and date of birth. Officer Nikituk asked Evans to identify himself once more. This time Evans told the officer that his name was “Johnny ...
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