In Re the Personal Restraint of Davis

977 P.2d 630, 95 Wash. App. 917
CourtCourt of Appeals of Washington
DecidedMay 28, 1999
Docket43900-6-I
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 977 P.2d 630 (In Re the Personal Restraint of Davis) 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 the Personal Restraint of Davis, 977 P.2d 630, 95 Wash. App. 917 (Wash. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinions

[919]*919Kennedy, C.J.

— In his personal restraint petition, Brent Allen Davis contends that his two convictions for possession of marijuana with intent to manufacture violate the Double Jeopardy Clauses of the state and federal constitutions under our Supreme Court’s decision in State v. Adel, 136 Wn.2d 629, 965 P.2d 1072 (1998). But a defendant can be convicted multiple times for possessing marijuana with intent to manufacture if the defendant had multiple grow operations that “are sufficiently differentiated by time, location, or intended purpose.” Rashad v. Burt, 108 F.3d 677, 681 (6th Cir. 1997), cert. denied, 522 U.S. 1075 (1998): Because Davis had two separate and distinct marijuana grow operations at two separate and distinct locations, Davis’s two convictions for possession of marijuana with intent to manufacture do not violate double jeopardy. Accordingly, Davis’s personal restraint petition is denied.1

STATEMENT OF FACTS

On January 21, 1992, King County Police executed a search warrant on Davis’s residence. The police found approximately 90 marijuana plants, and equipment used to grow and cultivate marijuana. They also found documents indicating that Davis was renting two other residences with Redmond and Issaquah addresses. The police then obtained warrants to search the second and third residences.

At the second location, the police found approximately 80 marijuana plants and grow equipment. At the third location, the police found approximately 200 marijuana plants, several pounds of dried marijuana, and more grow equipment. After the State dismissed the charges based on the contraband found at the first location, Davis pleaded guilty to two counts of possession with intent to manufacture.

At sentencing, Davis argued that the two counts should be treated the “same criminal conduct” for sentencing [920]*920purposes, because he had the single objective of making money by growing marijuana at the two locations. The sentencing court disagreed and found that Davis was conducting “ ‘two different marijuana grow operations.’ ” State v. Davis, No. 31813-6-I, slip op. at 4 (Wash. Ct. App. July 18, 1994) (quoting the sentencing court’s oral findings).2 The court then assigned an offender score of three for each count and sentenced Davis to concurrent terms of twelve months.

Davis appealed to this court, arguing that the trial court erred in finding that the two counts were not the “same criminal conduct” for purposes of calculating his offender score. This court affirmed his sentence on July 19, 1994. On October 15, 1998, our Supreme Court decided State v. Adel, 136 Wn.2d 629. On December 10, 1998, Davis filed this personal restraint petition.

DISCUSSION

“To obtain relief in this personal restraint petition, the defendant must show he was actually and substantially prejudiced either by a violation of his constitutional rights or by a fundamental error of law.” In re Personal Restraint of Benn, 134 Wn.2d 868, 884, 952 P.2d 116 (1998). Davis contends that his two convictions for possession of marijuana with intent to manufacture violate the Double Jeopardy Clauses of the state and federal constitutions under our Supreme Court’s decision in State v. Adel, 136 Wn.2d 629. Because Davis’s argument implicates double jeopardy and a recent clarification of the law, we will consider his collateral attack on the convictions even though more than one year has passed since his direct appeal was rejected. See RCW 10.73.100.

In State v. Adel, the defendant was convicted of two [921]*921counts of simple possession of marijuana. Adel, 136 Wn.2d at 631. One charge was based on 0.1 grams of marijuana that the police found in Adel’s car, which was parked directly outside Adel’s convenience store. Id. The other charge was based on 0.2 grams of marijuana that the police found inside Adel’s store. Id. Adel appealed his convictions, contending that convicting him twice for simple possession violated double jeopardy under the facts of his case.

On review, our Supreme Court concluded that the proper inquiry for considering double jeopardy challenges where the defendant is convicted of violating the same statute multiple times “is what ‘unit of prosecution’ has the Legislature intended as the punishable act under the specific criminal statute.” Id. at 634. “The first step in the unit of prosecution inquiry is to analyze the criminal statute.” Id. at 635. “If the Legislature has failed to denote the unit of prosecution in a criminal statute, the United States Supreme Court has declared the ambiguity should be construed in favor of lenity.” Id. at 634-35 (citing Bell v. United States, 349 U.S. 81, 84, 75 S. Ct. 620, 99 L. Ed. 905 (1955)). “This in no wise implies that language used in criminal statutes should not he read with the saving grace of common sense with which other enactments, not cast in technical language, are to be read.” Bell, 349 U.S. at 83.

In deciding “whether the Legislature intended to punish a person multiple times for simple possession based upon the drug being stashed in multiple places,” the Adel court emphasized that the Legislature focused on the amount of drugs that the defendant possessed in drafting the simple possession statute:

One way of construing legislative intent regarding the unit of prosecution for a simple possession crime is to refer to the 40 gram cutoff between a misdemeanor and a felony. See RCW 69.50.401(e). The Legislature has indicated the desire to punish possession of over 40 grams of marijuana as a more serious crime. In doing so, the Legislature focused solely on the quantity of the drug, and did not reference the spatial or temporal aspects of possession. Indeed, if officers had found 21 [922]*922grams in Adel’s store, and 21 grams in his car, prosecutors most certainly would have attempted to aggregate the two stashes and charge Adel with felony possession.

Adel, 136 Wn.2d at 635-36. In addition, the Adel court expressed concern that if location were the determinative factor in simple possession cases, prosecutors would multiply charges where all the drugs were in the defendant’s dominion and control but were held in more than one place on the defendant’s person, e.g., a sock, pant pocket, and a purse. Id. at 636. Therefore, the Adel court concluded that the Legislature intended quantity, not location, to define the unit of prosecution in simple possession cases: “We find the unit of prosecution in RCW 69.50.401(e) is possessing 40 grams of marijuana or less, regardless of where or in how many locations the drug is kept.” Id. at 637.

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In re the Personal Restraint of Davis
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In Re Davis
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State v. Nolan
988 P.2d 473 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 1999)
State v. Acrey
988 P.2d 17 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 1999)
In Re the Personal Restraint of Davis
977 P.2d 630 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 1999)

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