Collier v. State

920 P.2d 265, 1996 Wyo. LEXIS 111, 1996 WL 396576
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 17, 1996
Docket96-37
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 920 P.2d 265 (Collier v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Collier v. State, 920 P.2d 265, 1996 Wyo. LEXIS 111, 1996 WL 396576 (Wyo. 1996).

Opinion

MACY, Justice.

Appellant Bobby Collier appeals from the district court’s order which denied his motion to correct an illegal sentence.

We affirm.

ISSUES

Appellant presents two issues for our review:

ISSUE I
The District Court erred in [o]rdering Appellant to reimburse his Court Ordered Public Defender for his legal services without first determining Appellant’s ability to pay as required by § 7-6-106.
ISSUE II
The District [Court] erred when it changed the Original Judgment and Sentence [p]ursuant to a Motion for Sentence Reduction and ... Motion For Post Conviction Relief, thereby legally eliminating the Court[’]s Original Judgment and Sentence imposing restitution, Crime Victims Compensation Fund, and reimbursement costs of the Public Defender[’]s legal services. Appellant’s Constitutional rights are being violated under both State and Federal Law, in that he is still being compelled to comply with said orders that no longer are valid under the Original Judgment and Sentence.

FACTS

On June 10, 1988, Appellant, who was on parole for a first-degree sexual assault conviction, was driving his truck on a street in Shoshoni when he saw an acquaintance (the victim) of his. Appellant stopped and offered to give the victim a ride, and she got into his truck. The victim was a nineteen-year-old female who was trying to locate her father. Appellant agreed to help the victim find her father, but, instead of doing so, he drove her to a secluded area east of town. He stopped the truck under the pretext of having to go to the bathroom. After exiting his truck, he walked around to the passenger door, opened it, and struck the victim in the face, breaking *266 her nose. He then pulled her out of the truck and sexually assaulted her.

Appellant was charged with first-degree sexual assault, and a public defender was appointed to represent him. Appellant initially pleaded not guilty but later withdrew his plea and pleaded guilty in exchange for the State’s agreement to recommend that he be given a maximum sentence of thirty years rather than the potential life sentence. The district court sentenced Appellant to serve a prison term of not less than twenty years nor more than thirty years and ordered that the sentence was to run consecutively to any sentence which might be reimposed in the event that Appellant’s parole on his prior first-degree sexual assault conviction was revoked. The district court also ordered Appellant to pay $338.65 in restitution to the victim, $50 to the crime victims’ compensation account, and $250 for his public defender’s services.

At a later hearing, the district court reduced Appellant’s sentence for this crime so that his prison term would run concurrently with the prison term which was x’eimposed when his parole was revoked. Appellant subsequently filed a motion to correct an illegal sentence, claiming that his concurrent sentences were being incorrectly managed at the penitentiary. He alleged that his latest twenty- to thirty-year sentence should be deemed to have commenced at the same time as his prior sentence did and that the latest sentence should end upon the expiration of his prior sentence. The district court denied that motion.

Appellant also filed various other motions wherein he attacked the district court’s order which required him to pay $250 for his public defender’s services. The district court denied those motions as well. Appellant appeals to this Court.

DISCUSSION

A. Ability to Pay

Appellant claims that the district court erred in ordering him to pay $250 for his public defender’s services without first determining his ability to pay. Wyo. Stat. § 7-6-106(e) (1995) addresses orders which require defendants to reimburse the State. That section provides in pertinent part:

(c) To the extent that a person receives the services set out in W.S. 7-6-104, and is able to provide some funds toward the costs associated with such services, the presiding court may order the person to reimburse the state for the cost of the services provided. In making such an order, the court shall consider the financial resources of the person and the expenses and services provided....

Section 7-6-106(c).

We have examined this ability-to-pay issue on previous occasions. King v. State, 780 P.2d 943, 957-58 (Wyo.1989); Juarez v. State, 791 P.2d 287, 289 (Wyo.1990); Seaton v. State, 811 P.2d 276, 283-84 (Wyo.1991). In King, the district court ordered the appellant to repay $2,750 to the State for the public defender’s services. 780 P.2d at 957. Although the district court inquired into the appellant’s financial resources, it did so after it had ordered reimbursement when it was determining whether to certify the appellant’s indigency for purposes of providing counsel on appeal. 780 P.2d at 957-58. We held that the district court erred in ordering reimbursement without first'determining the appellant’s ability to pay. 780 P.2d at 957.

We also addressed the issue in Juarez. In that case, the appellant filed an affidavit, requesting that the court appoint an attorney to represent him. 791 P.2d at 287. The affidavit revealed that the appellant was not employed, did not have any money, and did not own a vehicle or property and that neither the appellant’s family nor his fiiends could contribute any money toward his defense. 791 P.2d at 287-88. The appellant listed debts which included $5,000 that he owed to his lawyer and an unknown amount that he owed for child support. 791 P.2d at 288. At his sentencing hearing, the public defender advised the trial court that the appellant worked in the construction industry and earned more per hour than the public defender was earning. Id. The transcript did not contain any other information, discussion, or findings with regard to the appellant’s financial situation. Id. We concluded that the provisions of § 7-6-106(e) required *267 the trial court to make express findings about the factors contained in the statutory-language and that the record failed to show that ihe trial court made findings with respect to the appellant’s ability to pay for his public defender’s services. 791 P.2d at 289.

In Seaton, the record revealed that the appellant was an unemployed, divorced female with a fifteen-year-old son. 811 P.2d at 280. According to the last entry of the record, which post dated the entry of her sentence, the appellant had lost her house and her car, and she had sold most of her furniture to get money to live on. Id. She did not have any real income, and she was trying to get public assistance for subsistence funds. Id. She had unpaid medical expenses as well as other bills and expenses. Id.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Heinemann v. State
413 P.3d 644 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 2018)
Nixon v. State
4 P.3d 864 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 2000)
Lee v. State
2 P.3d 517 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 2000)
James v. State
998 P.2d 389 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 2000)
Mitchell v. State
982 P.2d 717 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 1999)
Rogers v. Rogers
973 P.2d 1118 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 1999)
Ayers v. State
949 P.2d 469 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 1997)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
920 P.2d 265, 1996 Wyo. LEXIS 111, 1996 WL 396576, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/collier-v-state-wyo-1996.