Rubi v. Nooth

372 P.3d 601, 278 Or. App. 16, 2016 Ore. App. LEXIS 541
CourtMalheur County Circuit Court, Oregon
DecidedMay 4, 2016
Docket12079579P; A154008
StatusPublished

This text of 372 P.3d 601 (Rubi v. Nooth) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Malheur County Circuit Court, Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rubi v. Nooth, 372 P.3d 601, 278 Or. App. 16, 2016 Ore. App. LEXIS 541 (Or. Super. Ct. 2016).

Opinion

DUNCAN, P. J.

Petitioner appeals a judgment of the post-conviction court, assigning error to the court’s determination that, although petitioner’s trial counsel provided inadequate assistance under Article I, section 11, of the Oregon Constitution, petitioner was not prejudiced by it. Defendant cross-assigns error to the post-conviction court’s determination that petitioner’s trial counsel provided inadequate assistance. We affirm on petitioner’s assignment of error and, accordingly, do not reach defendant’s cross-assignment.

We state the facts consistently with the post-conviction court’s express and implicit factual findings. Montez v. Czerniak, 355 Or 1, 8, 322 P3d 487, adh’d, to as modified on recons, 355 Or 598, 330 P3d 595 (2014). Petitioner was charged by indictment with 11 crimes, including two counts of first-degree kidnapping, after an incident in which he forcibly moved the victim, his wife, from their living room to their bedroom, where he sexually assaulted her. After negotiations, petitioner and the state agreed to a stipulated facts trial with the expectation that the trial court would convict petitioner of eight crimes: two counts of first-degree kidnapping, two counts of coercion, and one count each of first-degree sodomy, first-degree unlawful sexual penetration, fourth-degree assault, and tampering with a witness. The court convicted petitioner of those eight crimes, and the remaining three charges were dismissed.1

The parties’ negotiations contemplated that petitioner would be sentenced to between 166 and 265 months’ incarceration for his crimes, and the sentencing court agreed to impose a sentence in that range. The parties stipulated that “the Court can make all findings necessary that there are either harms that are different from all other harms in each [other] count, or that [each count] constitute [s] acts [that are] separate and distinct for purposes of the court making findings” that would allow imposition of consecutive sentences under ORS 137.123(4) and (5).

At sentencing, petitioner argued for a sentence at the low end of the agreed-upon range, and the prosecutor [18]*18argued for a 265-month sentence. The sentencing court took particular note of petitioner’s two previous convictions for violent sex crimes and pointed out that, in light of the fact that this was petitioner’s third sentencing for felony sex crimes, “it’s a lifetime sentence that you’re supposed to be receiving” under ORS 137.719(1).2 The court stated, “I’m going to sentence you in the [negotiated] range because I agreed to sentence you in the range,” but repeatedly emphasized that “we can’t have more victims.” The court sentenced petitioner to 265 months, the maximum allowed under the parties’ agreement.

Petitioner sought post-conviction relief, asserting, among other things, that his trial counsel had performed inadequately under Article I, section 11, and the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, by failing to recognize that his conduct did not demonstrate the intention to interfere substantially with the victim’s personal liberty under State v. Wolleat, 338 Or 469, 111 P3d 1131 (2005), and, accordingly, could not support convictions for kidnapping. See ORS 163.225(1) (second-degree kidnapping requires “intent to interfere substantially with another’s personal liberty”); ORS 163.235(1) (first-degree kidnapping requires a violation of ORS 163.225 with an additional enumerated purpose). Petitioner alleged that “[t]rial counsel failed before trial or sentencing to recognize that petitioner’s actions were insufficient to constitute kidnapping in the first degree, and to employ that recognition in the negotiations which led to the stipulated facts trial and to the prosecutor’s position at sentencing.” As relevant here, petitioner sought an order “reversing his convictions and sentences for kidnapping in the first degree (counts 1 and 2).”

In their briefing to the post-conviction court, petitioner and defendant disagreed about whether the facts to [19]*19which petitioner and the state had stipulated were distinguishable from the facts in Wolleat and whether petitioner’s trial counsel performed inadequately in failing to raise the issue. Petitioner did not advance a theory of prejudice from counsel’s failure to “recognize that petitioner’s actions were insufficient to constitute kidnapping in the first degree, and to employ that recognition in the negotiations” that led to the stipulated facts trial. That is, petitioner did not articulate a theory regarding what would have been different if counsel had recognized the Wolleat issue, and, accordingly, how counsel’s inadequate performance had had “a tendency to affect” the result of his trial. See Montez, 355 Or at 7 (on appeal from a judgment of a post-conviction court, “‘[fjirst, we must determine whether petitioner demonstrated by a preponderance of the evidence that [his lawyer] failed to exercise reasonable professional skill and judgment’”; “‘[s]econd, if we conclude that petitioner met that burden, we further must determine whether he proved that counsel’s failure had a tendency to affect the result of his trial’” (quoting Lichau v. Baldwin, 333 Or 350, 359, 39 P3d 851 (2002) (second brackets in Montez))); see also Moen v. Peterson, 312 Or 503, 513, 824 P2d 404 (1991) (to prove prejudice, a petitioner who has pleaded no contest must show that he would not have entered that plea if counsel had performed adequately).

At the close of the post-conviction hearing, the post-conviction court orally ruled as follows:

“[I]n my view, the trial attorney was constitutionally ineffective for failing to raise the Wolleat case, failing to argue that the facts as stipulated did not constitute kidnapping in the first degree, and allowing his client, [petitioner], to be convicted of those kidnapping counts without arguing that case.
“The Wolleat case had been decided some time before this case and should have been known by counsel, and should have been raised by counsel. Now, here’s the question I have for you, [petitioner’s attorney], and it is, was he prejudiced?”

The court went on to explain its view on that question:

[20]*20“My view is that [petitioner] should not have been convicted of the two counts of kidnapping in the first degree. On the other hand, the [sentencing] judge clearly stated that given the circumstances of what happened, it was [her] intent to sentence [petitioner] to the maximum period of time possible. They had stipulated to a range between 166 and 265 months. It was clear that the judge was going to sentence him to 265 months. And as I rule back, even if the kidnapping charges were dismissed, there were still enough of the remaining counts that the judge could have sentenced him to 265 months.

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Related

State v. Wolleat
111 P.3d 1131 (Oregon Supreme Court, 2005)
Lichau v. Baldwin
39 P.3d 851 (Oregon Supreme Court, 2002)
Moen v. Peterson
824 P.2d 404 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1991)
Montez v. Czerniak
322 P.3d 487 (Oregon Supreme Court, 2014)
Montez v. Czerniak
330 P.3d 595 (Oregon Supreme Court, 2014)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
372 P.3d 601, 278 Or. App. 16, 2016 Ore. App. LEXIS 541, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rubi-v-nooth-orccmalheur-2016.