State of Washington v. Michael Duke Coombes

191 Wash. App. 241
CourtCourt of Appeals of Washington
DecidedNovember 10, 2015
Docket32806-6-III; 32903-8-III
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 191 Wash. App. 241 (State of Washington v. Michael Duke Coombes) 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. Michael Duke Coombes, 191 Wash. App. 241 (Wash. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

Lawrence-Berrey, J.

¶1 — After withdrawing his guilty plea, Michael Coombes was convicted of first degree murder while armed with a firearm. Mr. Coombes appeals, contending (1) the trial court erred in imposing a 36-month term of community custody, (2) the trial court erred by imposing a community custody condition prohibiting Mr. Coombes from having any association or contact with gang members or their associates, and (3) the judgment and sentence improperly omitted the jury’s finding that Mr. Coombes used a firearm in the commission of the first degree murder. In his consolidated personal restraint petition (PRP), Mr. Coombes contends that the sentencing court erred in including a conviction for unlawful possession of a firearm in its calculation of his offender score.

¶2 We affirm Mr. Coombes’s conviction and dismiss his PRP. We remand for the trial court to (1) correct the community custody term to be consistent with the law in effect in 2007, (2) conduct a hearing to consider the gang association prohibition, and (3) include in the judgment and sentence the jury’s finding that Mr. Coombes used a firearm in the commission of the first degree murder.

*246 FACTS

¶3 In September 2007, the State charged Michael Duke Coombes with first degree murder while armed with a firearm and first degree unlawful possession of a firearm. In June 2008, Mr. Coombes pleaded guilty to first degree murder without a weapon enhancement and to first degree unlawful possession of a firearm. In the plea statement, the State made the following recommendation:

(g) ... 300 months in prison, credit for time served, dismiss weapon enhancement. Dismiss Intimidation of Witness charge, 08-1-00556-0, plead to Unlawful Possession of a Firearm charge on a different day, $500.00 crime victims compensation assessment, $200.00 court costs, $100.00 DNA [deoxyribonucleic acid] collection fee, restitution, 24-48 months community custody.

Clerk’s Papers (CP) at 13, 21. On June 16, 2008, the trial court entered a judgment and sentence as to the first degree murder charge and a separate judgment and sentence as to the unlawful possession of a firearm charge.

¶4 In April 2009, Mr. Coombes filed a motion for writ of habeas corpus in superior court, alleging his plea was invalid. The superior court transferred the writ to this court for consideration as a PRP. In an unpublished opinion filed January 27, 2011, 1 this court granted Mr. Coombes’s PRP and remanded the case back to the trial court to allow him to withdraw his guilty plea because he was not informed that early release credits were unavailable during the first 240 months of his first degree murder sentence. Mr. Coombes then withdrew his guilty plea, and the case was set for a jury trial.

¶5 Before trial, Mr. Coombes moved in limine to exclude any mention of his alleged gang affiliation. In response, the *247 State stipulated that it would not elicit testimony from its law enforcement witnesses regarding any gang affiliation but that it wanted to reserve the right to raise gang-related evidence for purposes of impeachment of witnesses related to the witness intimidation charge.

¶6 At trial, the State called April Atkinson to testify for purposes of the witness intimidation charge. During her testimony, the State asked Ms. Atkinson whether she recalled Mr. Coombes saying, “ 1 got Cryps [sic], Blood, mafia, whatever gangs you can think of after [witness Jamie Hall], so [Ms. Hall] better watch her back.’ ” Report of Proceedings (RP) at 420. Ms. Atkinson replied that she did not remember Mr. Coombes making the statement. The State later called Detective Theresa Ferguson to testify regarding her investigation. Detective Ferguson testified that Ms. Atkinson had told her that Mr. Coombes made the above-quoted threat concerning Ms. Hall. Detective Ferguson also testified that Ms. Atkinson had told her that Mr. Coombes believed certain people had “ratted him out.” RP at 586.

¶7 The State called Detective Timothy Madsen to testify for purposes of the first degree murder charge. Detective Madsen testified that Mr. Coombes made the following pretrial statements to him about the murder victim:

Q And what did Mr. Coombes tell you next about Mr. Nichols?
A He told us that Mr. Nichols, whom he described as Red, had been arguing with Mr. Coombes’ nephew, Chris. . . .
During the argument between Chris and Red, or Mr. Nichols, Chris had hit Mr. Nichols in the head after throwing an empty beer can at him.
Q What did Mr. Coombes say happened after that?
A He told us that Red, or Mr. Nichols, had walked over to Mr. Coombes and stated, quote, “You keep that fucker away from me or I’ll stab him.”
Q Stab who?
*248 A And he was referring to his—that Red was telling Mr. Coombes to keep Chris, Mr. Coombes’ nephew, away from Red, or Mr. Nichols.
Q What did he say next?
A Mr. Coombes told us that at one point, Red had threatened Mr. Coombes by saying he knew some gypsy jokers that would take care of them, and then he told us he—
MR. COMPTON: Objection. Your Honor, can we approach on this?
THE COURT: Yes.
(BENCH CONFERENCE HELD.)
MR. COMPTON: My objection is the next words out of the detective’s mouth is going to be about Mr. Coombes’ gang affiliation, which he claims to have some Aryan connection.
THE COURT: Is this going to be part of his statements as threats, but not the detective did not write any statements that he—
MR. TREECE: I’m sorry, Your Honor. I thought we went over this in the [CrR] 3.5. This is after he had been [read his Miranda 2 rights].
THE COURT: Right, but when we specifically talked about gang affiliation, I didn’t hear the statement come out at the [CrR] 3.5 hearing this was the specific statement. So I would [sustain the objection] because we ruled on that [during the motions in limine].

RP at 603-04.

¶8 At the end of trial, the jury found Mr. Coombes guilty of first degree murder while armed with a firearm and of tampering with a witness but not guilty of intimidating a witness. Mr. Coombes appealed the convictions for first degree murder and tampering with a witness. In an unpublished opinion filed June 18, 2013, 3 this court affirmed the conviction for first degree murder and reversed and re *249 manded the tampering with a witness conviction because of an erroneous jury instruction.

¶9 On remand, the trial court resentenced Mr.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
191 Wash. App. 241, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-of-washington-v-michael-duke-coombes-washctapp-2015.