Marvin Kenneth Shue v. State

2016 WY 15, 367 P.3d 645, 2016 Wyo. LEXIS 15, 2016 WL 369492
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 1, 2016
DocketS-15-0187
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 2016 WY 15 (Marvin Kenneth Shue v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Marvin Kenneth Shue v. State, 2016 WY 15, 367 P.3d 645, 2016 Wyo. LEXIS 15, 2016 WL 369492 (Wyo. 2016).

Opinion

FORGEY, District Judge.

[¶ 1] Marvin Shue (hereinafter "Shue") filed a motion in the district court that can be read as both a motion to withdraw his guilty plea and a motion to reduce his sentence. The district court denied Shue's request to withdraw his guilty plea and concluded that it lacked jurisdiction to contemplate a sentence reduction. Shue now appeals the district court's decision, We find that the dis *646 trict court did not have jurisdiction to rule on Shue's motion and that we, as a result, do not have jurisdiction to consider Shue's appeal.

ISSUE

RJ 21 Shue did not include a statement of the issue on appeal in his appellate brief. The State phi ases the issue as follows:

Under Rule 35(b) of the Wyommg Rules of Criminal Procedure, a defendant may file a motion. to reduce his sentence within one year. after the entry of any order upholding a conviction. A defendant may move to withdraw his guilty plea until the conclusion of an appeal. Shue's motion for sentence reduction asking to withdraw his plea was filed after the deadlines to re- , quest such relief expired. Did the district . court properly dismiss Shue's motion? . .

FACTS

[¶ 3] In 2010, Shue was charged with two counts of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor and five counts of second-degree sexual abuse of a minor. The parties entered into a plea agreement by which Shue would plead guilty to one count of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor and the State would dismiss the remaining six charges. They further agreed to jointly recommend that the district court impose a twelve to twenty-two year prison sentence, and that this sentencing recommendation was not binding on the district court. Shue pled guilty on March 10, 2011 to one count of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor pursuant to the plea agreement. Shortly thereafter, Shue's trial counsel contacted the victim's mother

and offered a $15,000 inducement (couched as "future restitution") in exchange for the mother's agreement to recommend to the Court that [Shue] receive a suspended sentence and no prison time. The offer was conditioned on the mother successfully persuading. the District Attorney to go along with the no-incarceratiqon recommendation, One of the stipulated hearing exhibits ... is a recorded conversation in which [trial counsel] tells the mother, "The agreement would have to be that the DA goes along with this, So it would be you and the DA agreeing to recommend a suspended sentence. If the DA won't do that, then it's really worthless for [Shue] to even try to do this, okay?" ... [Trial counsel] knew that he could not offer money to the victim's family as that would be a clear ethical violation.) 1

On May 26, 2011, the district court sentenced Shue to serve twelve to twenty-two years in prison, consistent with the plea agreement. A written "Judgment and Sentence" was filed June 2, 2011.

[¢41 Shue appealed his conviction to this Court. Shue's appellate counsel ultimately filed a brief pursuant to Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738, 87 S.Ct. 1396, 18 L.Ed.2d 493 (1967), stating that Shue "felt coerced in accepting the plea deal" and "believed he received ineffective assistance of counsel because of the allegations that his trial counsel ... improperly proposed to give money to the victim's family in exchange for their cooperation in providing any victim statement and at the Sentencing Hearing." - After eval-vating the legal merits of these claims, Shue's appellate counsel concluded that there were "no appealable issues"-the record supported that Shue had knowingly and voluntarily entered his guilty plea and his trial counsel's conduct did not prejudice Shue because the district court had sentenced him in accordance with the plea agreement. This Court notified Shue that his conviction would be affirmed unless he filed "a brief that persuaded this Court that the captioned appeal is not wholly frivolous" on or before May 11, 2012. Shue v. State, 2012 WY 73, ¶¶ 1-2, 277 P.3d 117, 117 (Wyo.2012). Shue did not file "a brief or other pleading within the time allotted," so this Court affirmed his convietion and sentence. Id. This Court's mandate "affirming the judgment of the district court" was filed in the district court June 18, 2012. 2

*647 [¶ 5] On December 80, 2014, Shue filed a Motion for Sentence Modification or Reduetion Under Newly Discovered Evidence and a New Feder{al] Ruling" claiming that his guilty plea was involuntary and that his trial counsel was ineffective due to the aforementioned misconduct. The motion was based on what Shue describes as "newly discovered evidence" in the form of this Court's 2012 decision to discipline Shue's trial counsel, the documentation accompanying that decision, and an October 15, 2014 federal ruling that granted [Shae] ineffective assustance of counsel." He asked the district court to reinstate his right to a trial and to "modify his sentence from 1st degree sexual abuse of a minor to 3rd degree sexual abuse and [a] no less [than] 5 year and no more [than] 10 year sentence." The district court viewed the motion as both a motion to withdraw Shue's guilty plea pursuant to W.R.Cz.P. 32(0d), ahd to reduce Shue's sentence pursuant to 35(b). The district court denied the request to withdraw Shub's guilty plea because Shue had not established "newly discovered evidence resultlng in manifest injustice," and found that it did not have jurisdiction to consider a sentence reduction because Shue's motion was "untimely." Shue appealed the district court's decigion to this Court.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

[T6] Subject matter Junsdlctlon is the authority to hear and decide cases of the general class to which the proceedmgs in question belong. This Court has stated:

It is fundamental, if not axiomatic, that, before a court can render any decision or order having any effect in any case or matter, it must have subject matter jurisdiction. Jurisdiction is essential to the exercise of judicial power. Unless the court has jurisdiction, it lacks any authority to proceed, and any decision, judgment, or other order is, as a matter of law, utterly void and of no effect for any purpose. Subject matter jurisdiction, like jurisdiction over the person, is not a subject of judicial discretion.... Subject matter jurisdiction either exists or it does not and, before proceeding to a disposition on the merits, a court should be satisfied that it does have the requisite jurisdiction.

Terex Corp. v. Hough, 2002 WY 112, ¶ 5, 50 P.3d 317, 320 (Wyo.2002). "Whether a court has subject matter jurisdiction is a question of law, reviewed de novo." Eckdahl v. State, 2011 WY 152, ¶ 16 264 P.3d 22 27 (Wyo.2011).

DISCUSSION

~ [T7]. The district court correctly recognized that Shue's December 80, 2014 motion can be read to request relief that implicates both W.R.Cr.P. 82(d) (motion to withdraw a guilty plea) and W.R.Cr.P. 85(b) (motion to reduce a sentence). There are time limits for filing these motions. W.R,Cr.P. 32(d) provides as follows:

If a motion for withdrawal of a plea of guilty ... is made before sentence is im-.

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Bluebook (online)
2016 WY 15, 367 P.3d 645, 2016 Wyo. LEXIS 15, 2016 WL 369492, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/marvin-kenneth-shue-v-state-wyo-2016.