Personal Restraint Petition Of Raymond Mayfield Williams

CourtCourt of Appeals of Washington
DecidedAugust 17, 2021
Docket53879-2
StatusPublished

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Bluebook
Personal Restraint Petition Of Raymond Mayfield Williams, (Wash. Ct. App. 2021).

Opinion

Filed Washington State Court of Appeals Division Two

August 17, 2021

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON

DIVISION II In re the Personal Restraint Petition of: No. 53879-2-II

PUBLISHED OPINION

RAYMOND MAYFIELD WILLIAMS, JR.,

Petitioner.

MAXA, J. – In this personal restraint petition (PRP), Raymond Williams seeks relief from

personal restraint imposed for his 2008 guilty plea to second degree assault. Because this was

his third strike offense under Washington’s Persistent Offender Accountability Act (POAA),

chapter 9.94A RCW, Williams was given a mandatory sentence of life without release.

Under the POAA, a person is classified as a persistent offender pursuant to RCW

9.94A.030(37)1 when he or she has been convicted of a felony that is considered a most serious

offense for the third time after two previous convictions of most serious offenses. Williams was

16 years old when he pled guilty to his first strike offense, first degree burglary. His second

strike offense, also first degree burglary, occurred when he was 23 years old. His third strike

offense occurred when he was 28 years old.

1 The POAA has been amended many times since Williams’s 2008 conviction, but those amendments are not material to this case. Therefore, we cite to the current versions of the relevant statutes. No. 53879-2-II

Williams argues that his PRP meets two different exceptions to the one-year time bar for

PRPs. He claims that (1) RCW 10.73.100(2) applies because the use of a juvenile strike offense

as a predicate offense to impose a life without release sentence under the POAA is

unconstitutional, and (2) RCW 10.73.100(6) applies because State v. Bassett, 192 Wn.2d 67, 428

P.3d 343 (2018), which held that a life without release or parole sentence for a juvenile offender

is unconstitutional, was a significant change in the law that is retroactive and material to his

sentence.

On the merits, Williams argues that the POAA violates the cruel punishment provision of

article I, section 14 of the Washington Constitution because it requires a life without release

sentence even when one of the predicate strike offenses was committed as a juvenile.

We hold that Williams’s PRP claim is untimely and does not meet the exceptions

provided under (1) RCW 10.73.100(2), because Williams challenges only the constitutionality of

the POAA, not the statute under which he was convicted; and (2) RCW 10.73.100(6), because

the holding in Bassett is not material to Williams’s POAA sentence for an offense he committed

when he was an adult. Accordingly, we deny Williams’s PRP.

FACTS

In May 1997, the State charged Williams in juvenile court with first degree burglary for

an incident that occurred in February 1997 when he was 16 years old. Williams waived his right

to a decline hearing and his case was transferred to adult court. Williams ultimately pled guilty

to one count of first degree burglary and one count of custodial assault and was sentenced as an

adult. He was sentenced to 31 months of confinement.

In a declaration attached to his PRP, Williams explained that at the time of his 1997

conviction he was emotionally unstable and had a long history of mental illness, trauma, and

2 No. 53879-2-II

drug addiction. He finished only the sixth grade, had lived in several foster and group homes,

and had been placed in mental health lockdown facilities three times. He also was hospitalized

at least twice for attempted suicides.

Williams stated that he did not understand the consequences of being tried in adult court

when he waived his right to be tried in juvenile court, and neither the court nor his attorney

explained those consequences. He was just desperate to be transferred out of the abusive

juvenile detention facility where he had been confined.

In April 2004, Williams was convicted of first degree burglary for an incident that

occurred in September 2003. He was sentenced to 48 months of confinement. Williams was 23

years old when he committed this offense.

In October 2008, Williams pled guilty to second degree assault under RCW

9A.36.021(1)(c), assault with a deadly weapon. Williams was 28 years old at the time of the

plea and sentencing. Because this was his third strike under the POAA, the superior court

imposed a mandatory sentence of confinement for life without the possibility of release.

Williams did not appeal his conviction or his sentence.

In 2016, Williams filed his first PRP, arguing that the 1997 conviction should not have

counted as a strike offense. In re Pers. Restraint of Williams, No. 49894-4-II, slip op. at *1-2

(Wash. Ct. App. Feb. 26, 2019) (unpublished),

https://www.courts.wa.gov/opinions/pdf/D2%2049894-4-II%20Unpublished%20Opinion.pdf.

He argued that his PRP was not time barred because his sentence was imposed in excess of the

superior court’s jurisdiction and that a significant change in the law had occurred. Id. This court

held that neither exception to the one-year time bar applied and denied his PRP. Id.

3 No. 53879-2-II

Williams filed his second PRP in September 2019, almost 10 years after his judgment

was final. His PRP included his declaration, which showed that he had been rehabilitated to a

significant degree while in prison.

ANALYSIS

A. POAA PROVISIONS

Under RCW 9.94A.570, a person classified as a “persistent offender” must be sentenced

to “total confinement for life without the possibility of release.” RCW 9.94A.030(37) defines

“persistent offender” to include an offender who has been convicted of a “most serious offense”

and who previously has been convicted at least two separate times for most serious offenses.

RCW 9.94A.030(32) defines “most serious offense” as all class A felonies and a number of other

listed felonies, including second degree assault.

RCW 9.94A.030(34) defines “offender” to include only adults and juveniles who have

been convicted in adult court. Therefore, adjudications in juvenile court are not counted as

strikes under the POAA. State v. Moretti, 193 Wn.2d 809, 819, 446 P.3d 609 (2019).

B. PRP TIME BAR

1. Legal Principles

RCW 10.73.090(1) provides that a petitioner generally must file a PRP within one year

after a trial court judgment becomes final. A judgment is final on the date that it is filed with the

clerk of the trial court.

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