Robert Gene Jones v. State of Mississippi

146 So. 3d 1006, 2014 Miss. App. LEXIS 475, 2014 WL 4413368
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedSeptember 9, 2014
Docket2012-CP-01795-COA
StatusPublished

This text of 146 So. 3d 1006 (Robert Gene Jones v. State of Mississippi) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Robert Gene Jones v. State of Mississippi, 146 So. 3d 1006, 2014 Miss. App. LEXIS 475, 2014 WL 4413368 (Mich. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

ROBERTS, J.,

for the Court:

¶ 1. Robert Gene Jones appeals the Pontotoc County Circuit Court’s summary *1007 dismissal of his motion for post-conviction relief (PCR). On appeal, he asks this Court to determine whether the circuit court erred in dismissing his PCR motion that requested a clarification of his sentence and a determination of whether there was a sufficient factual basis for the circuit court to accept his guilty plea. We detect no error; therefore, we affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶ 2. In June 2006, Jones was indicted for possession of cocaine with the intent to distribute, felony eluding a law-enforcement officer, and felony child endangerment. Jones appeared before the circuit court on July 28, 2010, to enter guilty pleas to all three counts. The circuit court questioned Jones on whether his pleas were voluntarily and freely given, whether he understood the charges and the minimum and maximum sentences for each charge, and whether he understood the constitutional rights he was waiving by pleading guilty. Jones confirmed that he did understand. The circuit court then read Jones each count contained in the indictment. After each count was read, Jones stated that he was pleading guilty. Jones also acknowledged that his plea was freely and voluntarily given, and he was satisfied with his attorney’s representation.

¶ 3. In exchange for his agreement to the plea bargain, the State agreed to dismiss the habitual-offender status charged in his indictment, and the circuit court granted the amendment deleting his habitual-offender status. Additionally, the State made the following recommendation as to Jones’s sentence: for possession of cocaine with the intent to distribute, twenty years with ten years suspended, five years of post-release supervision, and a $5,000 fine with $4,000 suspended; for eluding a law-enforcement officer, five years; and for child endangerment, five years.

¶ 4. The circuit court accepted the State’s recommendations, and Jones was ordered to serve the above sentences concurrently in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. The circuit court stated that all of Jones’s sentences were to run concurrently with the other sentences imposed “and with [the] sentences previously imposed in Franklin County, Texas.”

¶ 5. Jones filed a PCR motion on September 13, 2012, to clarify his sentence and/or to vacate and set aside his guilty pleas due to a lack of a factual basis. The circuit court summarily denied Jones’s PCR motion, and Jones now appeals. He raises two issues for review:

I. [Whether] the [circuit] court ... erred in denying [Jones’s PCR motion] to clarify sentences.
II. [Whether] the [circuit] court ... erred in denying [Jones’s PCR motion] to vacate and set aside [Jones’s] guilty plea[s], due to [a] lack of factual basis.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶ 6. “A trial court’s dismissal of a motion for post-conviction relief is reviewed by this Court under an abuse of discretion standard and will only be disturbed in cases ‘where the trial court’s decision was clearly erroneous.’ ... The appropriate standard of review for questions of law, however, is de novo.” Crosby v. State, 16 So.3d 74, 77-78 (¶ 5) (Miss.Ct. App.2009) (quoting Moore v. State, 985 So.2d 365, 368 (¶9) (Miss.Ct.App.2008)).

ANALYSIS

I. SENTENCE CLARIFICATION

¶7. Jones first argues that his sentencing order fails to give him credit *1008 for time he had previously served while he was in prison in Texas; thus, he is entitled to have his sentence clarified via a PCR motion. According to Jones, he should receive a credit for four years, two months, and twenty-eight days he served in Texas on unrelated charges before he entered his guilty plea in Mississippi.

¶ 8. Although the record is limited in this case, it appears that Jones may be confused about concurrent sentences. The record shows that Jones committed three felonies on October 27, 2004, while in Franklin, Texas. Two were felony possession of controlled substances, and the other was felony evading arrest. It is unclear if Jones was on bond or a fugitive when he committed the crimes on February 8, 2006, in Pontotoc County, Mississippi. After his arrest for his Mississippi crimes, he was returned to Franklin, Texas, where he was sentenced for the 2004 Texas crimes he committed. The record is silent on whether Jones was extradited or waived extradition to Texas. He served close to four years in the custody of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) before he was “released from TDCJ custody on [April 20, 2010,] on parole[.]” The record is also silent regarding whether Mississippi placed a detainer on Jones while he was in Texas custody. We note it appears highly unlikely a detainer was lodged against Jones while in Texas custody, since the record does reflect Texas released Jones on “parole” to return to Oxford, Lafayette County, Mississippi, and the plea colloquy indicates Jones spent a short period of time at liberty in Lafayette County from April 22, 2010, until May 19, 2010, before he was re-arrested on a capias and returned to the Pontotoc County jail on the still-pending indictment in this case. While serving his sentence in Texas, Jones was indicted in Mississippi on June 10, 2006, as a habitual offender, for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, felony eluding a law-enforcement officer, and child endangerment. The violent-habitual-offender status was based on four prior felony convictions before the Lafayette County Circuit Court for two uttering forgeries, possession of cocaine with intent, and simple assault on a law-enforcement officer. Following his release from the TDCJ, Jones returned to Mississippi, where he then pled guilty to the charges.

¶ 9. As best as we can ascertain from the record, it appears Jones had completed his Texas sentence when he pled in Ponto-toc County. His concurrent sentences he received in Mississippi are concurrent from the day of his sentencing forward. Jones is entitled to pretrial jail credit for the time he served in the Pontotoc County jail on the three charges he pled to in this case, but he is not entitled to pretrial jail credit for the time he previously served on his unrelated Texas felony convictions. 1

¶ 10. Further, while it is true that the circuit court ordered that Jones’s sentences in the current case be run concurrently with each other and with Jones’s sentences in Franklin, Texas, there is absolutely no mention in the record by Jones’s counsel, the assistant district attorney, or the trial judge that the plea agreement provided that Jones would receive credit on his Mississippi sentences for any time he previously served in Texas. Any such discussion is conspicuously absent. Jones’s sentencing order reflects what was *1009 announced as his sentence at his guilty-plea hearing, and we must conclude the circuit court was not clearly erroneous in summarily dismissing Jones’s PCR motion.

¶ 11. Therefore, we find this issue to be without merit.

II. FACTUAL BASIS

¶ 12.

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Related

Crosby v. State
16 So. 3d 74 (Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2009)
Moore v. State
985 So. 2d 365 (Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2008)
Williams v. State
110 So. 3d 840 (Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2013)

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Bluebook (online)
146 So. 3d 1006, 2014 Miss. App. LEXIS 475, 2014 WL 4413368, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/robert-gene-jones-v-state-of-mississippi-missctapp-2014.