State of Washington v. Charles Walter Weber

CourtCourt of Appeals of Washington
DecidedFebruary 1, 2021
Docket36570-1
StatusUnpublished

This text of State of Washington v. Charles Walter Weber (State of Washington v. Charles Walter Weber) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State of Washington v. Charles Walter Weber, (Wash. Ct. App. 2021).

Opinion

FILED FEBRUARY 1, 2021 In the Office of the Clerk of Court WA State Court of Appeals, Division III

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON DIVISION THREE

STATE OF WASHINGTON, ) ) No. 36570-1-III Respondent, ) ) v. ) ) CHARLES WALTER WEBER, ) UNPUBLISHED OPINION ) Appellant. )

SIDDOWAY, J. — Ten years after his judgment and sentence for a prison assault

became final, and after dismissal of one personal restraint petition as frivolous, Charles

Weber filed a series of motions in the trial court in an effort to obtain a new trial. We

affirm the trial court’s dismissal of the motions.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Prior criminal proceedings

In February 1999, Charles Weber entered a plea of guilty of assault in the second

degree in King County Superior Court and was sentenced to a term of total confinement

of 29 months.

In July 2003, he was found guilty in a jury trial of attempted murder in the second

degree and assault in the first degree, among other charges, again in King County. It was

agreed by the parties that convictions on both the attempted murder and assault charges No. 36570-1-III State v. Weber

violated double jeopardy, so the trial court vacated the conviction for the assault charge.

It was the State’s position that since the assault charge carried the longer standard

sentence range, it was the conviction that should stand. The State sought review of that

issue by the Washington Supreme Court.

A little over a year after he was sentenced for his 2003 crimes, while serving his

time at the Washington State Penitentiary, Mr. Weber was charged with committing a

second degree assault of another inmate. Mr. Weber and the other inmate, Mark Holt,

became involved in a dispute during a prison softball game. The following day, after the

inmates finished eating lunch, Mr. Weber and Mr. Holt fought in Mr. Weber’s cell. As

later summarized by this court:

There was a dispute as to whether Mr. Holt went to Mr. Weber’s cell voluntarily to fight him, or whether Mr. Holt was taken there by force. Mr. Holt insisted that the inmates cornered him in the cell and began beating him. .... . . . At trial, Mr. Weber admitted to fighting with Mr. Holt. He also admitted that he struck the first blows. However, Mr. Weber stated that Mr. Holt had agreed to come to Mr. Weber’s cell to fight and that the two had engaged in mutual combat.

State v. Weber, 137 Wn. App. 852, 855-56, 155 P.3d 947 (2007) (Weber III). Mr. Weber

was found guilty following a jury trial. Because the prison assault was his third most

serious offense, Mr. Weber was sentenced in April 2005 as a persistent offender, to life in

prison without the possibility of parole. After his motion for a new trial was denied, he

appealed.

2 No. 36570-1-III State v. Weber

Two months after the Walla Walla Superior Court imposed the life without parole

sentence for his 2004 prison assault, Division One of this court decided the appeal of Mr.

Weber’s sentence for his 2003 crimes. It agreed with the State in a published decision

that when double jeopardy requires vacating one of two convictions, the conviction with

the shorter standard sentence is the “lesser offense” that should be vacated. State v.

Weber, 127 Wn. App. 879, 888, 112 P.3d 1287 (2005) (Weber I). The Supreme Court

accepted review, and affirmed. State v. Weber, 159 Wn.2d 252, 269, 149 P.3d 646

(2006) (Weber II). In March 2007, the King County Superior Court entered an amended

judgment and sentence that reinstated Mr. Weber’s conviction for first degree assault at

the same time it vacated the conviction for attempted second degree murder.

A month later, this court decided Mr. Weber’s appeal of his conviction for the

prison assault. Mr. Weber had complained in part that he received ineffective assistance

of counsel when his trial lawyer failed to interview two witnesses. One witness, Jermine

Mercado, was a friend and cellmate of victim Holt. In an affidavit offered as support

when Mr. Weber moved for a new trial, Mr. Mercado stated that Mr. Holt had been

untruthful in his account of the assault and had been a willing participant in the fight.

In a published opinion, this court agreed that Mr. Weber might have received

deficient representation when his trial lawyer failed to interview the witnesses without a

satisfactory explanation. Weber III, 137 Wn. App. at 858. Turning to the actual

prejudice required to demonstrate ineffective assistance of counsel, however, this court

3 No. 36570-1-III State v. Weber

observed that consent—while historically a defense to assault—was now disfavored as a

defense, at least in some contexts. This court held as a matter of first impression that

consent is not a defense to a charge of second degree assault between two incarcerated

persons. Id. at 860. Since Mr. Weber could not demonstrate the prejudice prong of his

ineffective assistance of counsel claim and presented no other error, his conviction was

affirmed. Mr. Weber sought review by the Supreme Court, which was denied. This

court issued its mandate in April 2008.

In a timely personal restraint petition (PRP) filed in November 2008, Mr. Weber

raised a new claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. See Order Dismissing Pers.

Restraint Petition, In re Pers. Restraint of Weber, No. 27530-2-III (Wash. Ct. App. July

2, 2009). With supporting witness affidavits, including an affidavit from Mr. Holt

recanting his trial testimony and asserting that he, rather than Mr. Weber threw the first

punch, Mr. Weber argued that trial counsel failed to warn him of problems presented by

pursuing a trial strategy of consent. The chief judge of this court dismissed the PRP in

July 2009, holding that it was not unreasonable for Mr. Weber’s trial lawyer to defend on

a theory of consent and self-defense. The chief judge observed that “[a]lthough Mr.

Weber admitted he threw the first punch, he claimed that the other inmate charged into

his cell with the intent to fight,” and “landing the first blow might be viewed as a

reasonable way to avoid injury.” Id. at 3. Our chief judge also observed that consent had

traditionally been considered a defense to assault, and Mr. Weber’s trial lawyer

4 No. 36570-1-III State v. Weber

“reasonably relied on traditional consent cases and did not anticipate the ruling in Weber

[III].” Id. at 4. The dismissal order observed that none of Mr. Weber’s supporting

affidavits were helpful to him, because most simply supported the theory of consent

rejected on appeal and Mr. Holt’s new claim that he threw the first punch “contradicts

Mr. Weber’s own testimony and therefore is insufficient to show prejudice.” Id. at 4 n.1.

Mr. Weber sought discretionary review of dismissal of his PRP by the Supreme

Court, whose commissioner denied review in October 2009. Ruling Denying Review, In

re Pers. Restraint of Weber, No. 83398-2 (Wash. Oct. 16, 2009). The commissioner’s

ruling agreed that the affidavits filed by Mr. Weber in support of his PRP were unhelpful

because they merely “support the untenable theory that the victim entered the fray

voluntarily and thus consented to the assault. And the victim recantation is highly

dubious because it contradicts Mr.

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Related

State v. Brand
842 P.2d 470 (Washington Supreme Court, 1992)
State v. Weber
112 P.3d 1287 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 2005)
State v. Weber
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155 P.3d 947 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 2007)
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In Re Personal Restraint Petition of Becker
20 P.3d 409 (Washington Supreme Court, 2001)
State v. Robinson
107 P.3d 90 (Washington Supreme Court, 2005)
State v. Weber
159 Wash. 2d 252 (Washington Supreme Court, 2006)
State v. Crawford
159 Wash. 2d 86 (Washington Supreme Court, 2006)
In re the Personal Restraint of Finstad
301 P.3d 450 (Washington Supreme Court, 2013)
State v. Blazina
344 P.3d 680 (Washington Supreme Court, 2015)
In re the Personal Restraint of Flippo
385 P.3d 128 (Washington Supreme Court, 2016)
State v. Weber
127 Wash. App. 879 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 2005)
State v. Weber
137 Wash. App. 852 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 2007)
In re the Personal Restraint of Benavidez
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