Price v. State

21 P.3d 1021, 28 Kan. App. 2d 854, 2001 Kan. App. LEXIS 290
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kansas
DecidedApril 13, 2001
Docket84,844
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 21 P.3d 1021 (Price v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Price v. State, 21 P.3d 1021, 28 Kan. App. 2d 854, 2001 Kan. App. LEXIS 290 (kanctapp 2001).

Opinion

GREEN, J.:

Clifford D. Price appeals the summary denial of his K.S.A. 60-1507 motion for retroactive sentence conversion under the Kansas Sentencing Guidelines Act (KSGA), K.S.A. 21-4701 et seq. Price claims he is eligible for conversion of his aggravated burglary sentence because he had completed his sentence for rape. We disagree and affirm.

In 1973, Price was convicted of aggravated burglary and rape. He was sentenced, under the statutes in effect at the time, to 5 to 20 years for each conviction, to be served consecutively. The Department of Corrections (DOC) aggregated his sentences to a term *855 of 10 to 40 years. Price began serving his sentence on January 27, 1973.

Price was conditionally released from prison on January 27, 1993, after serving 20 years of his sentence. On August 4, 1994, Price was returned to prison for technical violations of his conditional release.

Under K.S.A. 21-4724, the DOC reviewed Price’s records and notified him that the severity level of his rape conviction made him ineligible for retroactive application of the sentencing guidelines for conversion of his aggravated burglary sentence.

Price moved under K.S.A. 60-1507 for conversion of his sentence, claiming he had served the maximum 20-year sentence for his rape conviction and, therefore, the rape conviction should not be counted against him in determining his eligibility for conversion of the sentence for aggravated burglary. Price’s claim was summarily denied by the trial court without appointment of counsel or a hearing.

The sole issue on appeal is whether the trial court erred in refusing to grant a hearing on Price’s 60-1507 motion based on the determination that he is ineligible for conversion under the KSGA. Our standard of review is whether the trial court abused its discretion in denying the hearing. Estes v. State, 221 Kan. 412, 414, 559 P.2d 392 (1977). An evidentiary hearing on a K.S.A. 60-1507 motion is not required if the motion and the files and records of the case conclusively show that the movant is not entitled to relief. K.S.A. 60-1507(b). The burden is on the movant to allege facts sufficient to warrant a hearing on the motion. State v. Jackson, 255 Kan. 455, 463, 874 P.2d 1138 (1994). If no substantial issues of fact are presented by the motion, the district court is not required to appoint counsel or hold a hearing. Rhone v. State, 211 Kan. 206, 208, 505 P.2d 673 (1973).

It is undisputed that Price served 20 years of his sentence by the time the DOC considered whether he was eligible for conversion under the KSGA. However, the DOC treated Price’s convictions as aggregated and, because Price had not exhausted the aggregated time, the DOC determined he was still serving time on *856 the rape charge. This determination made Price ineligible for conversion.

K.S.A. 21-4724 allows for limited retroactive application of the KSGA to individuals who committed crimes prior to July 1, 1993. Section (b)(2) of the statute provides in part as follows: “[Offenders on . . . conditional release . . . for crimes classified in subsection (b)(1) committed prior to July 1,1993, who have such . . . conditional release . . . revoked shall have their sentences modified according to the provisions specified in the Kansas sentencing guidelines act.” The offenses eligible for conversion are those “classified in a presumptive nonimprisonment grid block on either sentencing grid, in grid blocks 5-H, 5-1 or 6-G of the non-drug grid or in grid blocks 3-H or 3-1 of the drug grid.” K.S.A. 21-4724(b)(1).

Retroactive application of the KSGA was summarized in State v. Lunsford, 257 Kan. 508, Syl. ¶ 3, 894 P.2d 200 (1995), as follows: “A prisoner’s eligibility for retroactive sentence conversion based on the severity level of the crime is determined as of July 1, 1993, and if a prisoner is not eligible for sentence conversion on that date, subsequent events other than a reversal or new sentence imposed as a result of an appeal will not make the prisoner eligible for sentence conversion.”

On July 1, 1993, rape was classified as a severity level 2 person felony and aggravated burglary was a severity level 5 person felony. K.S.A. 1993 Supp. 21-3502(c); K.S.A. 1993 Supp. 21-3716. Price asserts that he was on conditional release for his aggravated burglary conviction on July 1, 1993, and because aggravated burglary was a severity level 5 offense, he is eligible for conversion. Even though aggravated burglary was a severity level 5 offense, Price’s criminal history score must be an H or I for him to be eligible for conversion of the aggravated burglary conviction. See K.S.A. 21-4724(b)(1).

An examination of the record from Price’s underlying criminal case indicates that he was previously convicted of possession of stolen mail, forgery and uttering a U.S. Treasury check, and assault on a federal prison guard. The record does not contain certified journal entries for these convictions. Instead, the convictions were *857 merely alleged in a motion to impose the Habitual Criminal Act. Nevertheless, if this information is accurate, then Price’s criminal history score would be higher than H, making him ineligible for conversion of his aggravated burglary sentence. However, it is unnecessary to remand the case for a determination of Price’s criminal history score because even if Price’s criminal history score is an H or I, he is ineligible for conversion.

Price contends that his first 20 years of imprisonment were for his rape conviction. To support this argument, Price cites the parole board’s rationale for denying him conditional release. During the first 20 years of his sentence, the parole board denied Price conditional release based on the serious and violent nature of the crime. Price relies on this language as evidence the DOC considered him to be serving the sentence for rape during the first 20 years of his sentence.

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Bluebook (online)
21 P.3d 1021, 28 Kan. App. 2d 854, 2001 Kan. App. LEXIS 290, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/price-v-state-kanctapp-2001.