Castro v. DIST. COURT OF TENTH JUDICIAL DIST.

656 P.2d 1283
CourtSupreme Court of Colorado
DecidedDecember 20, 1982
Docket82SA412
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 656 P.2d 1283 (Castro v. DIST. COURT OF TENTH JUDICIAL DIST.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Castro v. DIST. COURT OF TENTH JUDICIAL DIST., 656 P.2d 1283 (Colo. 1982).

Opinion

656 P.2d 1283 (1982)

Bernard C. CASTRO, Jr., Petitioner,
v.
The DISTRICT COURT OF the TENTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT and the Honorable Richard D. Robb, One of the Judges Thereof, Respondents.

No. 82SA412.

Supreme Court of Colorado, En Banc.

December 20, 1982.
Rehearing Denied January 31, 1983.

David F. Vela, Colorado State Public Defender, Alex J. Martinez, Deputy State Public Defender, Pueblo, for petitioner.

G.F. Sandstrom, Dist. Atty., Patrick J. Delaney, Deputy Dist. Atty., Pueblo, for respondents.

DUBOFSKY, Justice.

The petitioner Bernard C. Castro, Jr. brought this original proceeding under C.A.R. 21 seeking relief in the nature of mandamus. We issued a rule to show cause why the respondent district court of the Tenth Judicial District had not exceeded its jurisdiction in ordering that the petitioner's sentence to county jail exclude credit for time spent in pre-sentence confinement. Because we conclude that it was within the respondent court's discretion whether to credit time spent in pre-sentence confinement when the petitioner was sentenced to county jail, we discharge the rule.

Castro was arrested on November 20, 1981, and held in the Pueblo county jail until he was charged by information with second degree murder on December 3, 1981. He did not post bond, and on July 16, 1982, a jury found him guilty of criminally negligent homicide, a class 1 misdemeanor, under section 18-3-105, C.R.S.1973 (1978 Repl. Vol. 8). At the sentencing hearing on August 30, 1982, counsel for Castro requested that the mittimus reflect 284 days of pre-sentence confinement. The respondent court considered the background of the defendant and the facts and circumstances of the offense and imposed the maximum sentence of 24 months for a class 1 misdemeanor, ordered the defendant to serve the sentence in the Pueblo county jail, and directed that the defendant not be given credit for the time from November 20, 1981 until August 30, 1982 spent in pre-sentence incarceration. The judge indicated that had he sentenced Castro to a correctional facility under the supervision of the Department of Corrections he would have made a finding of the amount of pre-sentence confinement to which Castro was entitled. However, he noted that there is no statutory requirement that a person sentenced to a county jail be credited with pre-sentence confinement and no requirement that the sheriff deduct the time spent in pre-sentence confinement from an inmate's sentence.

Castro contends that the respondent court exceeded its jurisdiction by refusing to follow section 16-11-306, C.R.S.1973 (1978 Repl.Vol. 8) (1982 Supp.) requiring the sentencing court to make a finding of the amount of pre-sentence confinement to which he was entitled and including the finding in the mittimus directing the sheriff *1284 to convey him to the county jail.[1] We disagree. Section 16-11-306 does not mandate a sentencing judge to credit a defendant with time spent in pre-sentence confinement when the sentence is to a county jail.

Section 16-11-306 provides:

A person who is confined prior to the imposition of sentence is entitled to credit against the term of his sentence for the entire period of such confinement. At the time of sentencing, the court shall make a finding of the amount of presentence confinement to which the offender is entitled and shall include such finding in the mittimus. Such period of confinement shall be deducted from the sentence by the department of corrections.

This provision appears in part 3 of Article 11 of Chapter 16 concerning sentences to imprisonment in a state correctional facility under the supervision of the Department of Corrections.[2] Although section 16-11-306 does not specifically limit its application to sentences to a correctional facility, the language requiring the Department of Corrections to deduct the pre-sentence confinement from the sentence implies that credit for pre-sentence confinement is mandated only when the sentence is to be served in a state correctional facility. Pueblo county jail is not a correctional facility under the supervision of the Department of Corrections. Sentences to the Pueblo county jail are governed by the requirements in section 17-26-101, et seq., C.R.S.1973 (1978 Repl. Vol. 8) (1982 Supp.). There is nothing in section 17-26-101, et seq. mandating the deduction of the period of pre-sentence confinement from a sentence to a county jail.

Castro, age 19 at the time of his sentence, was eligible for a sentence to a state correctional facility under section 16-11-301(2), C.R.S.1973 (1978 Repl.Vol. 8) (1982 Supp.) which provides that a defendant convicted of a crime which may be punished by imprisonment in a county jail may be sentenced to a correctional facility other than the penitentiary at Canon City if, at the time of sentencing, the defendant is between the ages of 16 and 21 and "if, in the opinion of the court, rehabilitation of the person convicted can best be obtained by such a sentence, and if it also appears to the court that the best interests of the person and of the public and the ends of justice would thereby be served." The respondent court had discretion to sentence Castro to the Pueblo county jail. The court considered Castro's pre-sentence confinement and determined not to give him credit for it under section 16-11-306 because Castro's sentence was to a county jail. The court acted within its discretion in determining that it was not bound by the mandatory credit for pre-sentence confinement in section 16-11-306.[3]

Rule discharged.

*1285 QUINN, J., dissents.

LOHR, J., does not participate.

QUINN, Justice, dissenting:

In denying the petitioner credit for 284 days of presentence confinement against a two year sentence to the county jail, the respondent court construed section 16-11-306, C.R.S.1973 (1978 Repl.Vol. 8, 1982 Supp.), to require credit only in the case of offenders sentenced to a correctional facility supervised by the department of corrections. The petitioner does not claim the respondent court's refusal to grant him credit violates equal protection of the laws, U.S. Const.Amend. XIV; Colo. Const. Art. II, Sec. 25, but instead argues for a statutory construction that requires presentence confinement credit on all sentences, whether to a correctional facility supervised by the department of corrections or to a county jail. I believe the majority's rejection of petitioner's argument and its upholding of the respondent court's denial of credit places upon section 16-11-306 a construction which necessarily implicates equal protection considerations, notwithstanding the failure of the petitioner to raise an equal protection issue. Because I believe the majority's construction cannot be squared with equal protection of the laws, I respectfully dissent.

The majority's construction of section 16-11-306 results in granting a sentencing judge discretion to deny credit for presentence confinement when, as here, the presentence confinement was caused by the petitioner's financial inability to post pretrial bail. Such a construction adds up to a discrimination based upon wealth and is irreconcilable with equal protection of the laws. See, e.g., Matthews v. Dees, 579 F.2d 929 (5th Cir.1978); Johnson v. Prast,

Related

Peo v. Jost
Colorado Court of Appeals, 2024
People v. Smith
2014 CO 10 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 2014)
People v. Smith
312 P.3d 1173 (Colorado Court of Appeals, 2010)
Beecroft v. People
874 P.2d 1041 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1994)
People v. Galvin
835 P.2d 603 (Colorado Court of Appeals, 1992)
People v. Johnson
797 P.2d 1296 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1990)
People v. Johnson
776 P.2d 1141 (Colorado Court of Appeals, 1989)
People v. Garcia
757 P.2d 1110 (Colorado Court of Appeals, 1988)
Santisteven v. Johnson
751 P.2d 621 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1988)
People v. Alderman
720 P.2d 1000 (Colorado Court of Appeals, 1986)
People v. Lachicotte
713 P.2d 408 (Colorado Court of Appeals, 1985)
People v. Freeman
705 P.2d 528 (Colorado Court of Appeals, 1985)
People v. Matheson
671 P.2d 968 (Colorado Court of Appeals, 1983)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
656 P.2d 1283, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/castro-v-dist-court-of-tenth-judicial-dist-colo-1982.