People of Michigan v. David Alan Stevens

CourtMichigan Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 28, 2024
Docket365472
StatusUnpublished

This text of People of Michigan v. David Alan Stevens (People of Michigan v. David Alan Stevens) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People of Michigan v. David Alan Stevens, (Mich. Ct. App. 2024).

Opinion

If this opinion indicates that it is “FOR PUBLICATION,” it is subject to revision until final publication in the Michigan Appeals Reports.

STATE OF MICHIGAN

COURT OF APPEALS

PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN, UNPUBLISHED March 28, 2024 Plaintiff-Appellee,

v No. 365472 Lenawee Circuit Court DAVID ALAN STEVENS, LC No. 2017-018596-FC

Defendant-Appellant.

Before: CAVANAGH, P.J., and JANSEN and MALDONADO, JJ.

PER CURIAM.

Following a remand from this Court, defendant was resentenced as a second-offense habitual offender, MCL 769.10, to serve 14 to 75 years’ imprisonment for his conviction of first- degree criminal sexual conduct (CSC-I), MCL 750.520b. Defendant appeals his sentence by right. Defendant’s guidelines range was properly calculated, but because he was improperly sentenced as a second-offense habitual offender, we vacate defendant’s sentence and remand for resentencing.

I. BACKGROUND

This is the second time this case has been before us; a prior panel affirmed defendant’s CSC-I conviction but vacated two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct (CSC-III), MCL 750.520d, as well as defendant’s sentence. See People v Stevens, unpublished per curiam opinion of the Court of Appeals, issued December 26, 2019 (Docket No. 344795). The circumstances giving rise to defendant’s convictions were aptly laid out by the prior panel:

In 2017, defendant’s former stepchildren, MW and SW, disclosed numerous incidents of sexual abuse by defendant. SW testified about several such incidents, including having performed fellatio on defendant in November or December 2012, when she was 13 years old. The 2012 incident formed the basis of the CSC-I charge against defendant. The CSC-III charges arose from another incident that occurred in January or February 2017. With respect to that incident, both MW and SW testified to sexual activities with defendant, which included defendant twice

-1- performing fellatio on MW. Neither MW nor SW reported what had happened with defendant until MW disclosed it to his aunt in April 2017. [Id. at 1.]

This Court vacated defendant’s CSC-III convictions due to ineffective assistance arising from the failure to object to instructional errors. Id. at 5-6. The Court also vacated defendant’s sentence due to the impact that vacating defendant’s CSC-III had on PRV 7 and due to a separate error with the scoring of OV 9. Id. at 9-11. However, the Court rejected challenges to OVs 4, 8, and 10, reasoning that the evidence supported the respective assessments of 10, 15, and 15 points. Id. The case was remanded for resentencing. Id. at 11.

II. STANDARDS OF REVIEW

The trial court’s factual findings are reviewed for clear error and must be supported by a preponderance of the evidence. People v Sours, 315 Mich App 346, 348; 890 NW2d 401 (2016). “A sentencing court may consider all record evidence before it when calculating the guidelines, including, but not limited to, the contents of a presentence investigation report, admissions made by a defendant during a plea proceeding, or testimony taken at a preliminary examination or trial.” People v Johnson, 298 Mich App 128, 131; 826 NW2d 170 (2012) (quotation marks and citation omitted). “Whether the facts, as found, are adequate to satisfy the scoring conditions prescribed by statute, i.e., the application of the facts to the law, is a question of statutory interpretation, which an appellate court reviews de novo.” Id. (quotation marks and citation omitted). Questions of statutory interpretation are reviewed de novo. People v Babcock, 469 Mich 247, 253; 666 NW2d 231 (2003). III. GUIDELINES

Defendant argues that he is entitled to resentencing because his guidelines range was not properly calculated. We disagree.

Criminal defendants are entitled to a sentence that is based on accurate information and accurate scoring of the sentencing guidelines. People v McGraw, 484 Mich 120, 131; 771 NW2d 655 (2009). Sentencing courts must determine the applicable minimum sentence range under the sentencing guidelines and take such calculations into account when imposing a sentence; however, the guidelines are advisory only and not mandatory. People v Lockridge, 498 Mich 358; 870 NW2d 502 (2015). A defendant is entitled to resentencing if there is a scoring error that alters the defendant’s recommended minimum sentence range under the guidelines. People v Francisco, 474 Mich 82, 89; 711 NW2d 44 (2006). A defendant is not entitled to resentencing if a scoring error does not alter the defendant’s guidelines range. Id. at 89 n 8.

A. PRV 2

We decline to review the court’s decision to assess 5 points for PRV 7 because the requested reduction would not impact defendant’s guidelines range. As noted, a guidelines reduction only entitles a defendant to resentencing if it reduces the guidelines range. Defendant was assessed 5 points for PRV 2 and 2 points for PRV 5, resulting in a total PRV score of 7. This resulted in defendant being placed in PRV level B. See MCL 777.62. Had 0 points been assessed for PRV 2, as defendant asserts should have, this would result in a total PRV score of 2, and a PRV

-2- score of 2 would likewise place defendant in PRV level B. Because defendant was placed in the correct PRV level regardless of how PRV 2 was assessed, there is no need to address this argument.

B. OVS 4 AND 8

The doctrine of the law of the case bars us from reviewing the court’s assessment of 10 and 15 points for OVs 4 and 8, respectively. “The law-of-the-case doctrine provides that an appellate court’s decision regarding a particular issue is binding on courts of equal or subordinate jurisdiction during subsequent proceedings in the same case.” People v Owens, 338 Mich App 101, 120; 979 NW2d 345 (2021) (quotation marks and citation omitted). In the prior appeal this Court provided detailed analyses of OVs 4 and 8 before concluding that the evidence supported the court’s scoring of these variables. Stevens, unpub op at 9-10. Pursuant to the doctrine of the law of the case, we are bound by the prior panel’s decision with respect to those issues. Owens, 338 Mich App at 120.

C. OV 13

Defendant argues that the trial court erred by assessing 25 points for OV 13 and that 0 points should have been assessed instead. We disagree.

OV 13 “is continuing pattern of criminal behavior.” MCL 777.43(1). It is appropriate to assess 25 points for OV 13 if “[t]he offense was part of a pattern of felonious criminal activity involving 3 or more crimes against a person.” MCL 777.43(1)(c). “For determining the appropriate points under this variable, all crimes within a 5-year period, including the sentencing offense, shall be counted regardless of whether the offense resulted in a conviction.” MCL 777.43(2)(a). The sentencing offense and the two vacated counts of CSC-III served as the basis for the court’s assessment of 25 points for this variable.

Defendant argues that the evidence did not support the trial court’s finding that the two counts of CSC-III occurred within five years of the CSC-I conviction for which defendant was sentenced. According to defendant, the two CSC-IIIs were committed in 2017 while “the sentencing offense occurred before Christmas when [SW] was in the seventh grade, which would place it sometime in December of 2011.” However, the testimony at trial established that the facts giving rise to the CSC-I conviction occurred late in 2012, not 2011. SW testified that it happened when she was in 7th grade, after her November 5th birthday but before Christmas. Having established that it occurred in November or December of 7th grade, SW and the prosecutor worked backward to ascertain the year the crime was committed:

Q.

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Related

People v. McGraw
771 N.W.2d 655 (Michigan Supreme Court, 2009)
People v. Francisco
711 N.W.2d 44 (Michigan Supreme Court, 2006)
People v. Babcock
666 N.W.2d 231 (Michigan Supreme Court, 2003)
Port Huron Area School District v. Port Huron Education Ass'n
393 N.W.2d 811 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1986)
People v. Lockridge
870 N.W.2d 502 (Michigan Supreme Court, 2015)
People v Sours
890 N.W.2d 401 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 2016)
People v. Quintanilla
571 N.W.2d 228 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1997)
People v. Johnson
826 N.W.2d 170 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 2012)
People v. Mitchell
835 N.W.2d 615 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 2013)

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People of Michigan v. David Alan Stevens, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-of-michigan-v-david-alan-stevens-michctapp-2024.