Lampley v. Municipality of Anchorage

159 P.3d 515, 2007 Alas. App. LEXIS 108, 2007 WL 1300449
CourtCourt of Appeals of Alaska
DecidedMay 4, 2007
DocketNo. A-8994
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 159 P.3d 515 (Lampley v. Municipality of Anchorage) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Alaska primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lampley v. Municipality of Anchorage, 159 P.3d 515, 2007 Alas. App. LEXIS 108, 2007 WL 1300449 (Ala. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinion

OPINION

MANNHEIMER, Judge.

Jimmy A. Lampley was convicted of violating the Anchorage ordinances that prohibit driving under the influence (DUI), refusal to submit to a chemical test, and driving while one's license is suspended or revoked.1 In this appeal, Lampley challenges various aspects of his trial, his sentencing, and his re-sentencing.

As we explain in this opinion, we reject most of Lampley's claims of error. However, we agree with Lampley with respect to two claims. First, Lampley's jury was misin-structed regarding the culpable mental state that the Municipality had to prove to establish the municipal offense of driving with a suspended or revoked license. Second, the district court violated the Alaska Constitution's guarantee against double jeopardy when, at Lampley's second sentencing, the court increased Lampley's time to serve.

For these reasons, we affirm Lampley's convictions for DUI and for breath-test refusal, but we reverse his conviction for driving with a suspended or revoked license. In addition, regardless of whether Lampley is re-tried and re-convieted of this latter crime, the district court must reduce Lampley's sentence so that it does not exceed the composite sentence he originally received.

Underlying facts and proceedings

In the early morning of April 10, 2004, Anchorage Police Sergeant Robert Glen (driving an unmarked police car) found himself stopped behind Lampley at a red light at the corner of Concrete Street and Fifth Avenue. While the light was still red, Lampley spun his tires and made a left turn onto Fifth Avenue. Sergeant Glen followed and caught up with Lampley. Because Lampley was speeding and driving aggressively, Glen turned on his flashing lights and pulled him over. Cilen also summoned a backup officer, and Officer Michael E. Wisel responded.

During their contact with Lampley, both Glen and Wisel observed that Lampley had watery eyes, that his speech was slurred, and [519]*519that he had an odor of alcoholic beverages. Lampley admitted to drinking at several bars, and he also said he was taking medication for back pain.

Wisel administered field sobriety tests to Lampley, and Lampley did poorly on these tests. At this point, Wisel placed Lampley under arrest for driving under the influence.

Wisel drove Lampley to the Fourth Avenue Police Substation for DUI processing. At the substation, Wisel waited for fifteen minutes (the prescribed observation period), and he then notified Lampley that Lampley was required to submit to a breath test. When Wisel asked Lampley if he would submit to the test, Lampley first refused to respond, and then he shook his head to indicate that he would not submit to the test. Based on this conduct, Lampley was charged with breath-test refusal.

At the time of these events, Lampley's driver's license was suspended. Kerry Hen-nings from the Alaska Division of Motor Vehicles testified at trial that Lampley's driver's license had expired on June 10, 1995, and that his license was suspended on September 2, 1999.

The Division of Motor Vehicles mailed a notice of suspension to the address that they had for Lampley in their records, but this notice was returned to them as undeliverable. However, Alaska State Trooper David Her-rell testified at Lampley's trial that, on July 6, 2003, he advised Lampley that his driver's license was suspended.

Lampley took the stand at his trial and testified that he was incarcerated at the Spring Creek Correctional Center when his license was suspended, which would potentially explain why the DMV's written notice of suspension was returned to them. Lamp-ley also denied that Trooper Herrell had ever told him that his license was suspended. Lampley conceded that he had been cited for driving with a suspended license in September of 2003, but he claimed that someone at the Anchorage Municipal Attorney's office told him that this charge was dismissed because he in fact had a valid license.

Nevertheless, on cross-examination, Lamp-ley admitted that he had been convicted of driving with a suspended license in 1992 and again in 1993, and that he had never gone to get a new driver's license since then. Further, Lampley admitted that he did not possess a physical driver's license when he was pulled over by Sergeant Gien on April 10, 2004.

With regard to the other two charges (driving under the influence, and refusal to submit to a breath test), Lampley denied that he had been under the influence and he further denied that he had refused the breath test. Lampley testified that he had been driving normally and that he had only drunk half a beer, several hours before he was pulled over. He claimed that he had trouble performing the field sobriety tests because of his bad back, and he explained that he ran the red light because his passenger pushed the gas pedal. In addition, Lampley testified that he never entered the Fourth Avenue police substation and that he was never offered-and thus, did not refuse-a breath test.

The jury convicted Lampley on all three counts.

Lampley was originally sentenced as a see-ond DUI offender. At that first sentencing, the district court imposed a sentence of 200 days with 170 days suspended (80 days to serve) for the DUI, a consecutive sentence of 200 days with 170 days suspended (80 days to serve) for the breath-test refusal, and a consecutive sentence of 180 days with 150 days suspended (30 days to serve) for driving with a suspended license. All told, Lampley received 90 days to serve.

Later, while this appeal was pending, the Municipality discovered that Lampley had two prior convictions for DUI or breath-test refusal, not just one. This meant that Lamp-ley was subject to a higher mandatory minimum sentence-60 days' imprisonment-on both the DUI and the breath-test refusal charges.2 Accordingly, the Municipality filed a motion asking us to remand Lampley's case to the district court so that his sentence could be corrected. 'We granted that motion.

[520]*520On remand, the district court sentenced Lampley to consecutive sentences of 60 days to serve (200 days with 140 days suspended) on both the DUI and the breath-test refusal convictions. This meant that Lampley's composite time to serve now equaled 150 days. In other words, the district court increased Lampley's time to serve by 60 days.

Lampley's Batson challenge during jury selection

During jury selection, Lampley raised a Batson objection when the municipal prosecutor exercised a peremptory challenge against a Native American juror. In Batson v. Kentucky,3 the United States Supreme Court held that the equal protection clause of the federal constitution bars a prosecutor from challenging a juror on the basis of the juror's race4 This juror stated during voir dire that he had been convicted of DUI three times, and that he was recovering from alcohol and drug abuse. The district court rejected Lampley's Batson objection:

The Court [The explanation that was given to me [by the prosecutor] at the sidebar [conference] was that [this juror] has three prior DUI's, and this is a DUI trial. I think that's a [race-Jneutral explanation. And that's why I'm denying the Batson challenge. . ..

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Related

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450 P.3d 693 (Court of Appeals of Alaska, 2019)
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280 P.3d 582 (Court of Appeals of Alaska, 2012)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
159 P.3d 515, 2007 Alas. App. LEXIS 108, 2007 WL 1300449, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lampley-v-municipality-of-anchorage-alaskactapp-2007.