People v. Thornton

890 P.2d 158, 18 Brief Times Rptr. 1292, 1994 Colo. App. LEXIS 201, 1994 WL 368520
CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 14, 1994
DocketNo. 92CA1200
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 890 P.2d 158 (People v. Thornton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Colorado 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 v. Thornton, 890 P.2d 158, 18 Brief Times Rptr. 1292, 1994 Colo. App. LEXIS 201, 1994 WL 368520 (Colo. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinion

Opinion by

Judge PLANK.

Defendant, Wade F. Thornton, appeals a judgment of conviction entered following a trial to the court in which he was found guilty of escape. Specifically, defendant challenges a pretrial order denying his motion to dismiss the charge based on a violation of his right to a speedy trial under the Interstate Agreement on Detainers (IAD). We affirm.

In 1988, while serving concurrent sentences for four felony convictions, defendant failed to return to the community corrections facility in which he was housed. Defendant was charged with one count of escape, and a warrant for his arrest was issued.

Thereafter, in June 1989, defendant was arrested in California on charges unrelated to the Colorado offenses and was sentenced to two years in the California Department of Corrections (CDC) on the California charges. At the time of his arrest in California, defendant was using the name William Elias Chaney.

Shortly after his arrest, the Adams County Sheriffs Department was notified by the FBI that the fingerprints of a prisoner in California known in that state as William Chaney matched the fingerprints of the escaped Colorado prisoner known as Wade Thornton. Accordingly, the warrants clerk in- the Adams County Sheriffs Department contacted officials in California and notified them that Chaney was wanted in Colorado under the name of Wade Thornton. He requested that a hold be placed on the prisoner for the escape charge.

On August 30, 1989, after the defendant had been sentenced in California, the warrants clerk in Adams County again contacted the CDC and requested that a hold or detain-er be placed on the defendant. Officials from the CDC notified defendant of the hold and explained the procedures he needed to follow if he wished to respond to the hold and request a speedy disposition of the charge under the IAD. Defendant was supplied with a form used in California in order to request speedy disposition of the charge under the IAD, which he completed and returned to the prison authorities. In this form he used the name William Chaney.

The form was apparently sent to the district court and the Adams County District Attorney’s Office in early October of 1989. An assistant district attorney then sent a letter to the defendant in California, acknowledging receipt of the California form and noting that the case number used in the form was one assigned to a defendant in Colorado with the name of Wade Thornton.

The district attorney’s letter stated that if the person completing the California form was not Wade Thornton, he did not need to request a speedy trial for the escape charge. It stated further that, if the person in California known as Chaney was Thornton, then the original request for a speedy trial was inadequate and he must complete the appropriate forms pursuant to the Colorado IAD statute in order to request speedy disposition of the charges. A copy of the Colorado statute was enclosed with the letter, and defendant was instructed that the appropriate forms could be obtained from the institutional case manager.

Defendant subsequently testified that, based on the advice of his California case manager that no further action was required on his part, he took no further action in this matter.

Between September of 1989 and February of 1990, the warrants clerk for Adams County communicated with officials in California on several occasions about the status of defendant’s incarceration, and in February of 1990, the Colorado authorities were provided [161]*161with defendant’s sentencing and release date information. In May of 1990, defendant filed, pro se, a motion to dismiss the escape charge, arguing that dismissal was required under the IAD as a result of the failure to bring him to trial within 180 days after his request for speedy disposition of the charge. In June of 1990, defendant filed, at the suggestion of his case manager in California, a set of standardized disposition of detainer forms.

Defendant was released from the CDC the following month and was immediately transported to Adams County to be tried on the escape charge. A pretrial hearing was held on his motion for dismissal of the charge based on the failure to comply with the terms of the IAD. The court subsequently denied the motion, concluding that defendant’s failure to clarify the issue with respect to his name resulted in less than “colorable compliance” with the terms of the IAD and that, accordingly, defendant could not rely on the statute in arguing he was denied his right to a speedy trial. The conviction here at issue followed.

Defendant contends the court erred in denying his motion to dismiss based on the speedy trial provisions of the IAD. He maintains that his request for speedy disposition of the charge substantially complied with the provisions of the IAD. He further argues that because his request for a speedy trial specifically identified the Colorado case number and warrant number of the outstanding charge in Adams County, the authorities were well aware of his identity and he was not required to respond to the district attorney’s letter. We disagree.

Section 24-60-501, C.R.S. (1988 Repl.Yol. 10B), the IAD, contains provisions allowing a defendant to assert his right to a speedy trial when he is confined in another state but facing an outstanding criminal charge in Colorado. Section 24-60-501, Article 111(a), C.R.S. (1988 RepLVol. 10B) requires the prosecution to try a prisoner on the Colorado charge within 180 days after receipt of the prisoner’s request for final disposition of the charge, unless the court having jurisdiction of the matter grants a necessary or reasonable continuance.

The purpose of the IAD is to encourage the expeditious disposition of charges and determine the proper status of detainers based on untried indictments so that uncertainty about a prisoner’s status will be dispelled and rehabilitation and treatment can proceed unhindered. People v. Newton, 764 P.2d 1182 (Colo.1988).

In order to derive benefit from the provisions of the IAD, a prisoner must deliver to the appropriate official of the institution in which he or she is housed a written notice that a final disposition be made of the indictment or complaint pending against him or her in another jurisdiction. It is then the responsibility of the prison official to forward the prisoner’s request for a final disposition to the prosecuting officer and the appropriate court of the prosecuting officer’s jurisdiction. The prisoner’s request must be accompanied by a certificate of the appropriate official having custody of the prisoner stating the term of commitment under which the prisoner is being held, the time already served, the time remaining to be served, the amount of good time earned, and the parole eligibility of the prisoner. Section 24-60-501, Article III, C.R.S. (1988 Repl.Vol.10B).

Once the speedy trial period has been activated by proper notification under the IAD, the burden of compliance is on the district attorney and the court. Failure to bring the prisoner to trial within 180 days will result in dismissal of the pending charge. People v. Newton, supra.

Older cases suggest that strict compliance with the terms of the IAD is mandatory in order to invoke its protections. See People v. Jacobs, 198 Colo. 75, 596 P.2d 1187 (1979); People v. Quintana,

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Related

Johnson v. People
939 P.2d 817 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1997)
People v. Johnson
926 P.2d 126 (Colorado Court of Appeals, 1996)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
890 P.2d 158, 18 Brief Times Rptr. 1292, 1994 Colo. App. LEXIS 201, 1994 WL 368520, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-thornton-coloctapp-1994.