State Ex Rel. Light v. Sheffield

768 S.W.2d 590, 1989 Mo. App. LEXIS 322, 1989 WL 20133
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 9, 1989
Docket15963
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 768 S.W.2d 590 (State Ex Rel. Light v. Sheffield) 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
State Ex Rel. Light v. Sheffield, 768 S.W.2d 590, 1989 Mo. App. LEXIS 322, 1989 WL 20133 (Mo. Ct. App. 1989).

Opinion

GREENE, Judge.

Relator, Ann Elizabeth Light, a/k/a Ann Elizabeth Dodds, seeks a writ of prohibition from this court commanding respondent, Honorable Mary W. Sheffield, Associate Judge of the 25th Judicial Circuit of Missouri, to cease probation revocation proceedings, and to discharge Light from probation the judge had granted in a Phelps County case in which Light had entered pleas of guilty to criminal charges of pos *591 sessing marijuana and cocaine. Based on the allegations of Light’s petition, we issued a preliminary order in prohibition directing respondent to take no further action in the case until further order of this court. After full review, we have determined that the preliminary writ was improvidently issued, and order it quashed.

The facts are as follows. On May 10, 1984, Light entered pleas of guilty to felony charges of possession of marijuana and cocaine. Following the receipt of a presen-tence investigation, respondent, on June 13, 1984, suspended imposition of sentence on the charges, and placed Light on supervised probation for a term of three years, subject to certain written conditions, such as not associating with known felons. On September 2, 1986, respondent, after reviewing several violation reports stating that Light was not obeying conditions of her probation, revoked the probation granted on June 13, 1984, and sentenced her to five years’ imprisonment on the marijuana charge and three years’ imprisonment on the cocaine charge with the sentences to run concurrently. Respondent stayed the execution of the sentences, and again placed Light on probation for a period of one year subject to the same type of conditions that were specified for the first probation. On April 22, 1987, following the filing of another violation report, respondent found that Light had violated the terms of her probation but, instead of revoking probation and ordering Light to serve her sentences, again stayed execution of the sentences and ordered that Light be placed on probation for a term of two years under supervised conditions. On July 11, 1988, another parole violation report was filed, following which respondent ordered Light to show cause why her probation should not be revoked and execution of the sentences ordered.

Light’s attorney then filed a motion to quash the show cause order, which motion contended that Light was coerced into waiving her right to a preliminary probation hearing and, that absent a voluntary waiver of such right, respondent had no jurisdiction to proceed with a revocation hearing. It also alleged that Light’s probationary period expired by law on April 22, 1987, and that respondent had no jurisdiction to continue Light on probation after that time. Respondent overruled the motion to quash, holding that her jurisdiction to terminate Light’s probation did not end on April 22, 1987, and that Light’s waiver of her right to a probation revocation preliminary hearing was not coerced. Respondent announced her intention to schedule a hearing to determine whether Light’s probation should be revoked. The petition for a writ of prohibition followed.

In her brief in support of the contentions raised in her petition for the writ, Light first argues that a sentencing court may not extend a period of probation more than once, citing § 559.036.2, RSMo 1986, and that respondent’s order of April 22, 1986 amounted to a second extension of probation which the judge was not empowered to grant by reason of the statutory limitation. Light’s position on this issue is as follows:

Petitioner’s probation and Respón-dante [sic] jurisdiction to revoke said probation ended on April 22, 1987 when Respondant [sic] Judge Sheffield revoked and reinstated Ms. Light’s probation and thereby illegally extended Ms. Light’s probation a second time in violation of Section 559.036.2 RSMo.1986. (Relator’s Exhibit A). The three year period of probation first imposed on June 13, 1984 was scheduled to end on June 12, 1987. Respondant [sic] Judge Sheffield ordered the one authorized extension of probation on September 2,1986 ordering the period of probation to end on September 2,1987. When Petitioner admitted on April 22, 1987 that she had violated her probation (Exhibit A, p. 5), Respondant [sic] Court’s available options were limited by statute. Under such situation, Section 559.036.3 limits a Court to (1) continue the probationer on existing conditions, with or without modifying or enlarging the conditions or extending the term, or (2) if such continuation, modification, enlargement or extension is not appropriate revoke probation and order that any sentence previously imposed be executed. In the case at bar, continuation and modi *592 fication of probation may have been appropriate, but the ordered extension was not appropriate because of the express language of Section 559.036.
There are arguably two interpretations of the sentencing court’s April 22, 1987 docket entry. The most literal interpretation is that the Respondant [sic] Court did not merely continue and modify the probation, but actually terminated the one year probation period ordered on September 2, 1986 (Exhibit A, p. 3) before reinstating Ms. Light’s probation for two additional years (Exhibit A, p. 5). Under this interpretation, the Respon-dant [sic] Court’s jurisdiction ended with the April 22, 1987 termination of probation, State v. Bachman, 675 S.W.2d 41, 47-48 (Mo.App.1984) since the Court was barred from further extending the probation under Section 559.036.2. .
A more liberal interpretation of the April 22, 1987 docket entry may indicate that Respondant [sic] Court did not terminate the one year probationary term that was imposed on September 2, 1986 but added a two year extension. Under such interpretation, Relator’s probation nonetheless ended on September 2, 1987 since Section 559.036.2 prohibited an extension beyond the second extended date and an extension without jurisdiction is a nullity as is any Court action without jurisdiction. See, State v. Brooks, 507 S.W.2d 375 (Mo.1974). Under such interpretation, the Honorable Judge Sheffield is still without jurisdiction to revoke Ms. Light’s probation since the current alleged violation occurred [sic] after the fixed period of probation had ended (whether it be April or September of 1987) and formal revocation proceedings on the current alleged violation were not initiated prior to September 2, 1987. State ex rel. Carlton v. Haynes, 552 S.W.2d 710, 714 (Mo. Banc 1977).

The problem with this argument is the premise that respondent’s order of September 2, 1986 amounted to an extension of the three-year probationary period granted in respondent’s order of June 13, 1984. It was not.

At the time Light entered her pleas of guilty to the drug charges, several sentencing alternatives were available to the trial court. It could have sentenced Light to a term of imprisonment as authorized by Chapter 558, RSMo, or pronounced sentence and suspended its execution, placing Light on probation, or, as the trial court did, suspend imposition of the sentence, with or without placing Light on probation. § 557.011.2, RSMo 1978.

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Bluebook (online)
768 S.W.2d 590, 1989 Mo. App. LEXIS 322, 1989 WL 20133, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-light-v-sheffield-moctapp-1989.