Shaw v. State

125 S.W.3d 918, 2004 Mo. App. LEXIS 135, 2004 WL 189869
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 3, 2004
DocketNo. WD 62734
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 125 S.W.3d 918 (Shaw v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Shaw v. State, 125 S.W.3d 918, 2004 Mo. App. LEXIS 135, 2004 WL 189869 (Mo. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

JOSEPH M. ELLIS, Chief Judge.

Joseph Shaw appeals from the denial of his Rule 24.035 motion for post-conviction relief without an evidentiary hearing.

On July 28, 2000, Appellant was charged by indictment with one count of felony tampering in the first degree, § 569.080.1(2).1 On January 29, 2001, pursuant to a plea agreement with the State, Appellant appeared and entered a plea of guilty to a reduced charge of attempted tampering in the first degree. Under the terms of the plea agreement, the State agreed to reduce the charge to attempted tampering and agreed not to oppose Appellant’s request that his sentence be served concurrently with a sentence he was already serving for another tampering conviction.

At the sentencing hearing on March 14, 2001, Appellant’s attorney asked the court to consider allowing Appellant to be placed in the long-term drug treatment program in accordance with the recommendation of the office of probation and parole contained in his pre-sentence investigation report. In order for Appellant to be eligible for the program, Appellant’s counsel requested that the Court sentence him to the maximum sentence of five years in the Missouri Department of Corrections. The plea court then sentenced Appellant to a term of five years imprisonment to be served consecutively with any other sentences he was currently serving and ordered him placed in the long term substance abuse treatment program pursuant to § 217.362.

On April 20, 2001, Appellant filed a pro se motion for post-conviction relief under Rule 24.035. An amended motion was filed by appointed counsel on August 20, 2001. In the amended motion, Appellant claimed that plea counsel was ineffective for (1) failing to timely file a motion to withdraw his plea and dissuading Appellant from filing such a motion and (2) failing to provide Appellant with transcripts of the depositions taken of the witnesses in the case after Appellant had requested copies of those transcripts. Appellant also claimed that the plea court violated his right to due process by sentencing him to long-term drug treatment pursuant to § 217.362 without having first [920]*920contacted the Department of Corrections to determine whether he was eligible for the program as provided for in § 217.362.2.

On March 12, 2003, the motion court denied Appellant’s motion without an evi-dentiary hearing. The motion court found that the record clearly and unequivocally refuted all of the allegations contained in Appellant’s motion. The court further found that Appellant “was not misled or induced to plead guilty by fraud, mistake, misapprehension, fear, coercion, or promises” and that Appellant had pled guilty knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily.

In his sole point on appeal, Appellant claims that the motion court’s findings did not sufficiently address his claim that counsel was ineffective for failing to provide him with copies of the deposition transcripts and his claim that the plea court violated his right to due process by sentencing him to long-term drug treatment pursuant to § 217.362.2 Appellant contends that the findings contained in the judgment were not sufficient to allow for meaningful appellate review of those two claims and thereby denied him due process of law.

Because Appellant has not raised on appeal any claim that the motion court’s denial of the motion was erroneous on the merits, “our review is confined to whether the motion court’s findings of fact and conclusions of law were sufficient.” Pickard v. State, 82 S.W.3d 230, 231 (Mo.App. S.D.2002). Rule 24.035(j) provides that “[t]he court shall issue findings of fact and conclusions of law on all issues presented, whether or not a hearing is held.” “ ‘There is no precise formula to which findings of fact and conclusions of law must conform.’ ” State v. Taylor, 929 S.W.2d 209, 223 (Mo. banc 1996) (quoting Conway v. State, 883 S.W.2d 517, 517 (Mo. App. E.D.1994)). “The motion court’s findings and conclusions need only be sufficient to adequately allow the appellate court to review the movant’s contentions and determine whether the findings and conclusions were clearly erroneous.” Holloway v. State, 989 S.W.2d 216, 223 (Mo. App. W.D.1999), overruled on other grounds by State v. Withrow, 8 S.W.3d 75 (Mo. banc 1999).

“Failure of the motion court’s finding of fact and conclusions of law to specifically refer to the allegations which are refuted by the record does not necessarily result in error.” Id. “ ‘Generalized findings are sufficient if they enable the appellate court to meaningfully review the movant’s contentions.’ ” Taylor, 929 S.W.2d at 224 (quoting Conway, 883 S.W.2d at 517). “Meaningful appellate review is premised upon sufficiently specific findings of fact and conclusions of law that are responsive to movant’s claims.” Ezell v. State, 9 S.W.3d 616, 619 (Mo.App. E.D.1999).

We first consider Appellant’s contention that the trial court’s findings and conclusions failed to sufficiently address his claim that counsel was ineffective for failing to provide him with transcripts of the depositions taken in the case prior to the plea hearing. In his motion, Appellant asserted that he had repeatedly asked counsel to provide him with copies of those transcripts, but that he did not receive copies of the transcripts until March 7, 2001, after he had already entered his plea.

This claim was more than sufficiently addressed by the motion court’s findings of [921]*921fact and conclusions of law. Prior to finding that Appellant’s claim was clearly refuted by the record, the motion court noted that Appellant had testified at the plea hearing that he had no complaints regarding the assistance provided to him by counsel and that counsel had done everything that he had asked him to and had not done anything that Appellant had told him not to do. The court further noted that Appellant testified that he thought his attorney had been effective and competent in his representation of Appellant. The testimony referenced by the motion court refuted Appellant’s claim that plea counsel had failed to provide him with requested copies of deposition transcripts. The plea court’s findings were clearly sufficient to allow for meaningful appellate review.

We next turn to Appellant’s remaining post-conviction claim. In his post-conviction motion, Appellant argued that the plea court had violated his right to due process in “sentencing” him to long-term treatment without properly complying with the provisions of § 217.362. Section 217.362.2 provides:

Prior to sentencing, any judge considering an offender for this [drug treatment] program shall notify the department [of corrections]. The potential candidate for the program shall be screened by the department to determine eligibility. The department shall, by regulation, establish eligibility criteria and inform the court of such criteria. The department shall notify the court as to the offender’s eligibility and availability of space in the program....

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Bluebook (online)
125 S.W.3d 918, 2004 Mo. App. LEXIS 135, 2004 WL 189869, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/shaw-v-state-moctapp-2004.