In Re Personal Restraint of Scott

202 P.3d 985
CourtCourt of Appeals of Washington
DecidedMarch 10, 2009
Docket34686-9-II
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 202 P.3d 985 (In Re Personal Restraint of Scott) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Personal Restraint of Scott, 202 P.3d 985 (Wash. Ct. App. 2009).

Opinion

202 P.3d 985 (2009)

In the Matter of PERSONAL RESTRAINT OF Joshua Dean SCOTT, Petitioner.

No. 34686-9-II.

Court of Appeals of Washington, Division 2.

March 10, 2009.

*986 Suzanne Lee Elliott, Attorney at Law, Seattle, WA, for Petitioner.

Michelle Hyer, Pierce County Prosecutor, Tacoma, WA, for Respondent.

QUINN-BRINTNALL, J.

¶ 1 Joshua D. Scott seeks relief from personal restraint after the sentencing court imposed two 60-month consecutive firearm enhancements on two counts of first degree robbery and one 36-month firearm enhancement on one count of first degree possession of stolen property. In the amended information, the State notified Scott of its intention to invoke the firearm sentence enhancement provisions of former RCW 9.94A.310 (1999). But it submitted deadly weapon special verdict forms to the jury rather than firearm enhancement special verdict forms. The jury returned the special verdict forms, finding that Scott was armed with a deadly weapon during the commission of the charged offenses. When Scott was sentenced, the law allowed the judge, rather than the jury, to enter a finding that the deadly weapon at issue was a firearm, but the sentencing court did not do so. Accordingly, the record does not support the firearm enhancement provisions of Scott's judgment and the sentence enhancement portion of Scott's judgment and sentence is invalid on its face. We grant the petition and remand with directions to correct Scott's judgment *987 and sentence by imposing deadly weapon enhancements in place of the firearm enhancements.

FACTS

¶ 2 On September 16, 2000, Scott and Douglas James-Anderson parked a stolen Chevrolet Blazer in front of Cascade Custom Jewelers, entered the store, threatened to kill two employees with a rifle, and tied the employees' hands behind their backs.[1] Scott and James-Anderson stole about $80,000 worth of goods, including jewelry, diamonds, cash, three guns, and a wallet from a store employee's pocket. The police arrested Scott and James-Anderson shortly after they left the jewelry store, recovering two rifles and four pistols from the Blazer. Scott confessed.

¶ 3 The State charged Scott by amended information with two counts of first degree robbery (counts I and II), first degree unlawful possession of a firearm (count IV), first degree possession of stolen property (count V), two counts of possession of a stolen firearm (counts VI and VII), and two counts of firearm theft (counts VIII and IX). As relevant here, the amended information included the following sentencing enhancements for first degree robbery (counts I and II):

[T]he defendant or an accomplice was armed with a deadly weapon or displayed what appeared to be a firearm or other deadly weapon, to-wit: a rifle, that being a firearm as defined in [former] RCW 9.41.010 [1997], and invoking the provisions of [former] RCW 9.94A.310 and adding additional time to the presumptive sentence as provided in [former] RCW 9.94A.370 [1999].

Suppl. Br. of Resp't, App. B. The information for count V also charged that Scott possessed

stolen property other than a firearm, to-wit: a 1990 Chevrolet Blazer, of a value in excess of $1,500.00, belonging to Esperanza Mattos, with intent to appropriate said property to the use of any person other than the true owner or person entitled thereto, that being a firearm as defined in [former] RCW 9.41.010, and invoking the provisions of [former] RCW 9.94A.310 and adding additional time to the presumptive sentence as provided in [former] RCW 9.94A.370.

Suppl. Br. of Resp't, App. B.

¶ 4 The trial court instructed the jury on deadly weapon sentencing enhancements, but it did not instruct the jury on firearm enhancements.

¶ 5 The jury entered guilty verdicts on counts I, II, IV, V, VI, and VII and not guilty verdicts on counts VIII and IX. The jury also returned special verdicts for the sentencing enhancements, finding that Scott was "armed with a deadly weapon" when he committed first degree robbery (counts I and II) and first degree possession of stolen property (count V).

¶ 6 The sentencing court wrote on Scott's judgment and sentence, "as charged in the Amended Information[, a] special verdict/finding for use of firearm was returned on Count(s) I, II, V RCW 9.94A.602, .510." Suppl. Br. of Resp't, App. A (emphasis added). The sentencing court imposed two 60-month firearm sentencing enhancements on counts I and II and a 36-month firearm enhancement on count V, each to run consecutively.

¶ 7 Scott filed a direct appeal with this court, arguing in part that count V of the amended information did not give him adequate notice of a firearm enhancement because it omitted the critical words "and in the commission thereof the defendant was armed with a firearm, to wit: a rifle." James-Anderson, 116 Wash.App. 1053, 2003 WL 1986423, at *9. We applied the Kjorsvik[2] test for post-verdict challenges to the sufficiency of an information and held that the information was sufficient to notify Scott of a firearm enhancement. James-Anderson, *988 116 Wash.App. 1053, 2003 WL 1986423, at *10. We also reversed Scott's convictions for possession of stolen firearms (counts VI and VII) because the evidence was insufficient to support the element that Scott knew the firearms in the Blazer were stolen. James-Anderson, 116 Wash.App. 1053, 2003 WL 1986423, at *10.

¶ 8 Scott was resentenced on April 9, 2004, and did not appeal that judgment and sentence. He filed this personal restraint petition (PRP) over two years later, on April 11, 2006.

ANALYSIS

PRP Standards

¶ 9 As a threshold matter, we note that a personal restraint petitioner may not renew an issue that was raised and rejected on direct appeal unless the interests of justice require relitigation of that issue. In re Pers. Restraint of Taylor, 105 Wash.2d 683, 688, 717 P.2d 755 (1986). On direct appeal, Scott argued that count V of the amended information did not give him adequate notice of a firearm enhancement because it omitted the critical words "and in the commission thereof the defendant was armed with a firearm, to wit: a rifle." James-Anderson, 116 Wash.App. 1053, 2003 WL 1986423, at *9. We held that the information was sufficient to charge a firearm enhancement. James-Anderson, 116 Wash.App. 1053, 2003 WL 1986423, at *10. We did not decide the issue before us here, whether the judgment and sentence misstated the jury's verdict.

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Related

In Re the Personal Restraint of Scott
271 P.3d 218 (Washington Supreme Court, 2012)
State v. Hartzell
221 P.3d 928 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 2009)
In Re Personal Restraint of Rivera
218 P.3d 638 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 2009)
In re the Personal Restraint of Rivera
152 Wash. App. 794 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 2009)

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202 P.3d 985, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-personal-restraint-of-scott-washctapp-2009.