Evans v. State

28 S.W.3d 434, 2000 Mo. App. LEXIS 1318, 2000 WL 1231068
Missouri Court of Appeals·Decided August 31, 2000·No. Nos. 22814, 23261·Published·Cited by 6 cases

Opinion

JAMES K. PREWITT, Judge.

Appellant appeals from denials of his post-conviction motions filed under Rule 24.035. Those appeals have been consolidated. Appellant’s counsel in Appeal No. 23261 describes this case as having “a long and tortured procedural history.” No one involved disagrees.

Appellant entered pleas of guilty to murder in the second degree (§ 565.021.1, RSMo 1994) and armed criminal action (§ 571.015, RSMo 1994), before Circuit Judge Anthony Heckemeyer, in the Circuit Court of Scott County on June 22, 1995.1

At the plea hearing, Appellant was represented by Anne Kiske, Assistant Public Defender, who was “standing in” for his attorney, Gary Robbins. As part of a preliminary examination by the court, the judge inquired as to any existence of a plea bargain, and Mrs. Kiske and Mrs. Baker-Neel, the prosecuting attorney, both stated that the only agreement was that the sentences run concurrently.

Also contained in the transcript of the plea hearing is the following discussion regarding the “possibility” that, pursuant to § 558.019.3, Appellant would be required to serve eighty-five percent of any sentence imposed:

MRS. KISKE: Judge, in this case, I would like to have the record reflect that Gordon does understand that he falls under the new sentencing guide lines, that there is a possibility that he will be doing eighty-five percent of whatever sentence you give him.
[436] THE COURT: Let the record reflect his attorney advises him of that in open court.

Pursuant to a written Petition To Enter Plea of Guilty, the prosecutor agreed to recommend “any sentence given for the murder second to run concurrently with the armed criminal action.” Also contained in the Petition was a provision that the prosecutor would “not recommend a sentence in this case.”

On July 27,1995, Appellant appeared for sentencing before Judge Heckemeyer. Before the court was Appellant’s pre-sen-tence investigation, and when asked by the judge whether it contained anything inaccurate, unfair or unreasonable, Appellant responded, “No, sir.” The victim’s parents were also present at the sentencing hearing and addressed the court and Appellant. Counsel for Appellant proposed a twenty-year sentence, calculating that Appellant would be required to serve at least seventeen years before he would be eligible for release, as opposed to 25.5 years on either a thirty-year or life sentence.

After Appellant expressed his remorse, the prosecutor made her recommendation, stating, “I think that this is exactly the kind of case that you should sentence the defendant to two life sentences.” Noting that there did not appear to be “any difference between the two” (30 years or life), the court sentenced Appellant to concurrent life sentences for Count I (second degree murder) and Count II (armed criminal action).

On October 30, 1995, Appellant filed a pro se post-conviction motion challenging the validity of his guilty plea. An amended Rule 24.035 motion was filed by appointed counsel on February 1, 1996, requesting an evidentiary hearing. Therein, Appellant alleged that the state failed to comply with the plea bargain and that his understanding regarding sentencing recommendations and counsel’s readiness and advice concerning the plea agreement were deficient.

Appellant was present and testified at the evidentiary hearing held September 3, 1996, before the Honorable David A. Do-lan. Kent Denzel of the public defender’s office represented Appellant. Appellant stated that originally his understanding of the plea agreement was that sentences would run concurrently; there would be no sentence recommendation; “the charge of [first] degree murder would be dropped to [second] degree, and the armed criminal action would be dismissed.” On the day of the plea hearing, the prosecutor refused to dismiss the charge for aimed criminal action, and a recess was called.

Appellant testified that the prosecutor claimed she had never agreed to drop the armed criminal action charge, but said if they could find anything in Mr. Robbins’ file indicating she had agreed to such a provision, she would uphold it. They could find nothing at that time, although Appellant testified that he found the note later for Mr. Robbins. When the Appellant was returned to the proceeding, certain changes had been made to the original document eliminating any mention of a dismissal of the charge for armed criminal action and replacing the same with a recommendation for a sentence under the murder in the second degree charge to run concurrently with any sentence for armed criminal action.

Appellant further stated that he would not have entered a guilty plea had he known the prosecutor would recommend a . sentence, but that he would have proceeded to trial. Other complaints of ineffective assistance of counsel to which Appellant testified included, ffrst, that he was not advised that it was mandatory he serve eighty-five percent of his sentence for second-degree murder before he would be eligible for parole, only that it was a possibility, and, second, that counsel never discussed defending the charges — the only advice he received was to accept a plea bargain.

The Honorable Anthony Heckemeyer testified at the September 3rd hearing re[437] garding his first impression upon reading the pre-sentencing report prior to the sentencing hearing. He stated it had been his practice for some fifteen years that after reading the pre-sentence investigation and prior to any proceedings, he would indicate on the front of the report the sentence he would hand down. He further testified that, although he had no independent recollection of Appellant, he had some recollection of counsel’s discussion regarding Appellant’s sentence, wherein counsel presented to the court his calculations regarding the length of time Appellant would serve for a specific sentence:

An attorney put a - a time - a - a year factor to a life sentence and no one had ever done that before me. I think Gary Robbins was the attorney. And Gary put - put the argument in a strange way to me and I don’t remember - I may - I may state - because I didn’t read it, I just glanced. But Gary said if you will give him life instead of the 30 years we calculate - and he gave me a figure - I can’t remember exactly what it was now. He said I think it will be a lesser sentence. And I said all right. I have 30 years which I thought was the sentenced2]

Judge Heckemeyer also stated that he had never enhanced a sentence based on what a prosecutor had argued, but that he may have reduced some sentences “when a prosecutor [was] not as persuasive,” or “if a defense attorney [made] a persuasive argument.”

When asked whether it would “be inconsistent with the term of an open plea for the State to be allowed to make a recommendation in the case,” the judge responded, “Did they make a recommendation or did they respond to my question?” He proceeded to explain: “If you’re in my courtroom and I ask you a direct question I suspect you would respond. Now, if the State made a statement, that’s one thing, but my practice is to ask ...”

The record reveals that the prosecutor’s recommendation came after the Appellant had addressed the victim’s family and the judge had asked, “Any other matters to be brought before the court before sentencing?”

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

Evans v. State, 28 S.W.3d 434, 2000 Mo. App. LEXIS 1318, 2000 WL 1231068 (Mo. Ct. App. 2000).

28 S.W.3d 434 (Evans v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

State of Missouri v. Semaj Harris
Missouri Court of Appeals, 2022
State of Missouri v. Randy G. Teter
Missouri Court of Appeals, 2021
Evans v. State
134 S.W.3d 725 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2004)