Byrd v. State

520 S.W.2d 611, 1975 Mo. App. LEXIS 2231
Missouri Court of Appeals·Decided March 3, 1975·No. No. KCD 27246·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

PRITCHARD, Chief Judge.

On June 4, 1973, appellant entered a plea of guilty to a charge of robbery in the first degree before the Honorable Frank D. Connett, Judge of Division Three of the Fifth Judicial Circuit of Missouri. Sentencing was deferred pending the receipt of a presentence investigation report. On July 18, 1973, the matter of sentencing, and the consideration of appellant’s request for parole, came on for hearing. Thereafter, the court sentenced appellant to 20 years imprisonment in the Department of Corrections.

On October 17, 1973, appellant filed a pro se motion to vacate, set aside or correct his conviction and sentence under Rule 27.26, V.A.M.R. After appointment as appellant’s counsel, the Public Defender filed an amended petition under Rule 27.26. The latter petition alleged that (1) appellant pleaded guilty without a full understanding of the consequence of the plea; that he did not understand that the judge [613] was the sole authority in rendering the judgment (and that the court’s record affirmatively shows this to be true) ; that (2) his attorney was ineffective in failing to bring to the attention of the court at the time of the plea the fact that he was instrumental in foiling a jailbreak; nor did his attorney bring that fact to the attention of the investigating parole and probation officer during the time the presentence investigation was being made.

Judge Connett disqualified himself from hearing the motion under Rule 27.26, and it was transferred to the Honorable Fred E. Schoenlaub, Judge of Division Two of the circuit. After hearing evidence, the motion was overruled. By Point I, appellant says the court erred in failing to make findings of fact and conclusions of law on all issues, namely the second allegation in the pro se motion that his sentence was unconstitutional and violative of due process of law because on one of the “priors” (previous offenses) the court considered in imposing sentence movant did not have counsel, nor did he intelligently waive counsel on that prior conviction. The matter of appellant’s previous offenses first came up at the time his guilty plea was entered on June 4, 1973. He was asked by the court whether he had ever been in trouble with the law before, and his answer was “Quite a bit.” He had never had a jury trial, but had been in the penitentiaries of Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa, having pleaded guilty every time. At the time of sentencing, the court stated it had considered the presentence investigation report, in which appellant stated to Mr. Whitman (the probation and parole officer), that he had been previously convicted. Evidence was heard concerning appellant’s acts in thwarting a jailbreak. The court advised appellant that because of his history his first inclination was to give him a life sentence, but that because he had pleaded guilty he next determined to sentence him to 40 years imprisonment. However, because of appellant’s assistance to the sheriff, and in preventing someone from getting hurt in the jailbreak incident, the court decided to cut the latter figure in half, and appellant was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment and probation was denied.

Appellant’s pro se motion alleges that he had three prior convictions. As noted, he admitted to three separate imprisonments in the Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska penitentiaries. He alleges that it was only one of these convictions that he was without counsel — that of Nebraska, which was a 2 year sentence for breaking and entering in 1949. Yet, despite that allegation, appellant’s testimony on the hearing of his motion under Rule 27.26 was equivocal as to whether he had counsel on the 1949 conviction: “Q. Can you recall whether or not you had counsel when you were charged with, I believe you termed it a crime of breaking and entering in the state of Nebraska back in 1949? A. I am quite sure I didn’t. Q. Is it possible the court, at the time you were charged in Nebraska, appointed counsel for you to represent you? A. It might be, I don’t know. Q. You are not sure you didn’t have counsel? A. No, I am not really.”

Certainly, the matter of appellant’s previous commitments to the penitentiaries of Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska, were before the court by reason of appellant’s statement to the court that those incarcerations were the result of convictions under guilty pleas. The question is whether court impermissibly gave “explicit attention” to those convictions in sentencing appellant. See United States v. Tucker, 404 U.S. 443, 92 S.Ct. 589, 30 L.Ed.2d 592 (1972). In the present Rule 27.26 proceedings the burden was upon appellant to show that he was without counsel on those convictions. No documentary evidence was presented in the hearing that would even suggest that appellant had no counsel on the Missouri and Iowa convictions, nor even as to the Nebraska conviction referred to in appellant’s testimony. Considering appellant’s equivocal testimony as to [614] whether he had counsel on the Nebraska conviction, the evidence is insufficient to support any conclusive determination that the Nebraska conviction was constitutionally invalid. From a reading of the record this issue is capable of being determined by this court without a remand for an additional finding thereon, which appellant contends should be done. Bradley v. State, 494 S.W.2d 45, 49 (Mo.1973), where it was said, ‘‘While the findings and conclusions are no model and entirely omit any consideration of the issue of discriminatorily harsh punishment they are sufficient on the central issue — whether the plea of guilty was entered voluntarily, knowingly and understanding^ — and we have been able to determine the other issues without further remand for additional findings.” The trial court’s general overruling of the motion is sufficiently apparent in the record to provide a basis for appellate review of the allegation of appellant’s pro se motion. Smith v. State, 513 S.W.2d 407, 412 (Mo. banc 1974). See also Hogshooter v. State, 514 S.W.2d 109 (Mo.App.1974). Appellant’s Point I, raising the contention, is overruled.

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Byrd v. State, 520 S.W.2d 611, 1975 Mo. App. LEXIS 2231 (Mo. Ct. App. 1975).

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