Lancaster v. Stubblefield

985 S.W.2d 854, 1998 Mo. App. LEXIS 2176, 1998 WL 846844
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 8, 1998
Docket74064
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 985 S.W.2d 854 (Lancaster v. Stubblefield) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lancaster v. Stubblefield, 985 S.W.2d 854, 1998 Mo. App. LEXIS 2176, 1998 WL 846844 (Mo. Ct. App. 1998).

Opinion

LAWRENCE G. CRAHAN, Judge.

Craig R. Lancaster (“Inmate”) appeals the entry of summary judgment in favor of Gene Stubblefield, the Superintendent of the Missouri Eastern Correctional Center (“Warden”), and Paul Morrison, District Attorney for Johnson County, Kansas (“Prosecutor”), in Inmate’s declaratory judgment action seeking to have detainers lodged against him by Prosecutor declared unlawful. We affirm.

Inmate pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated robbery in Kansas and was on bond pending a presentence investigation when he was arrested in Missouri for robbery. In exchange for Inmate’s guilty pleas, Prosecutor promised to “take no position on the Court, running the sentences concurrently] or eonsecutive[ly] with the Missouri sentences.... ” Inmate was sentenced to thirty years on the Missouri robbery counts and delivered to the Missouri Department of Corrections. He was unable to attend the sentencing in Kansas because he was in prison in Missouri. As a result, he was never sentenced for the three Kansas counts of aggravated robbery to which he had pleaded guilty.

While Inmate was imprisoned in Missouri, Prosecutor filed a detainer against Inmate with the Missouri Department of Corrections. Inmate requested disposition of all the Kansas charges and detainers outstanding against him and the detainer was withdrawn. However, a few years later Prosecutor lodged another detainer against him for the same Kansas charges. Inmate learned of the detainer two years after it was filed. Warden informed Inmate that upon completion of the Missouri sentences he will be sent back to Kansas for sentencing.

Inmate brought this action seeking a declaration that respondents’ actions violate the Interstate Agreement on Detainers Act (“IAD”) and the Missouri and United States Constitutions. He also sought an injunction to restrain respondents from further violations of the IAD. The trial court ruled that the IAD does not apply to a person who has already pleaded guilty and is merely awaiting sentencing and granted summary judgment to Warden and Prosecutor._

Inmate contends the trial court erred in concluding that the IAD does not apply in this case. The IAD, codified at section 217.490 RSMo.1994, 1 requires disposition of detainers within 180 days of a request for final disposition. Inmate argues that Prosecutor’s refusal to bring him to trial within 180 days of his request for final disposition violates section 217.490, article III. We disagree.

The IAD is a congressionally sanctioned interstate compact subject to federal construction. Carchman v. Nash, 473 U.S. 716, 719, 105 S.Ct. 3401, 87 L.Ed.2d 516 (1985). It permits a prisoner in one jurisdiction to seek disposition of detainers filed against him by another jurisdiction. Section 219.490. The IAD “is designed to encourage the expeditious and orderly disposition of charges outstanding against a prisoner and determination of the proper status of any and all detainers based on untried indictments, informations, or complaints.” United States v. Mauro, 436 U.S. 340, 343, 98 S.Ct. 1834, 1839, 56 L.Ed.2d 329 (1978).

The trial court’s ruling that the IAD does not apply to this case is supported by the majority of cases that have applied the *856 IAD. In this ease, the detainers were lodged for the purpose of sentencing Inmate after he finishes serving his Missouri prison term; they are sentencing detainers. The detain-ers were filed because Inmate missed his sentencing date, after having already pleaded guilty to and been convicted of the Kansas charges. “Nearly all jurisdictions that have considered whether the IAD applies to sentencing detainers have concluded that it does not.” State v. Burkett, 179 Ariz. 109, 876 P.2d 1144, 1146 (Ariz.App.1993). The following cases have held that the IAD does not apply to sentencing detainers: Bogue v. Fennelly, 705 So.2d 575 (Fla.App.1997); State v. Grzelak, 573 N.W.2d 538 (Wis.App.1997); Moody v. Corsentino, 843 P.2d 1355 (Colo.1993); State v. Barefield, 110 Wash.2d 728, 756 P.2d 731, 733-34 (1988); State v. Barnes, 14 Ohio App.3d 351, 471 N.E.2d 514 (Ohio 1984); State v. Leyva, 906 P.2d 910 (Utah App.1995); State v. Lewis, 422 N.W.2d 768 (Minn.App.1988); People v. Barnes, 287 N.W.2d 282 (Mich.App.1979); State v. Sparks, 104 N.M. 62, 716 P.2d 253 (1986). A minority of cases have held that the IAD applies to sentencing detainers. See Hall v. State, 678 F.Supp. 858 (N.D.Fla.1987), Juarez-Casares v. United States, 496 F.2d 190 (5th Cir.1974) and Tinghitella v. State, 718 F.2d 308 (9th Cir.1983).

The reasoning followed by the majority of cases is more persuasive. Article III(l) of the IAD provides that a prisoner “shall be brought to trial within one hundred eighty days after he shall have caused to be delivered to the prosecuting officer and the appropriate court of the prosecuting officer’s jurisdiction written notice of his place of imprisonment and his request for a final disposition to be made of the indictment, information or complaint....” Section 217.490 (emphasis added). Inmate cannot be brought to trial on these charges because he has already pleaded guilty to them and been convicted. All that remains is his sentencing. Having been convicted of a crime as a result of his guilty plea, there is no pending indictment, information or complaint sufficient to trigger the IAD.

Moreover, section 217.490 only applies to prisoners incarcerated in another jurisdiction who are subject to detainers originating in Missouri. State ex rel. Suitor v. Stremel, 968 S.W.2d 221, 1998 WL 213661 (Mo.App.1998), citing State ex rel. Clark v. Long, 870 S.W.2d 932, 936 (Mo.App.1994). See also Dillard v. State, 931 S.W.2d 157, 166 (Mo.App.1996). Since Inmate is imprisoned in Missouri and the detainers do not originate in Missouri, section 217.490 does not apply to him.

Inmate further argues that Prosecutor breached his plea agreement with Inmate.

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Bluebook (online)
985 S.W.2d 854, 1998 Mo. App. LEXIS 2176, 1998 WL 846844, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lancaster-v-stubblefield-moctapp-1998.