State v. Alexander

298 P.3d 55, 255 Or. App. 594, 2013 Ore. App. LEXIS 297
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedMarch 13, 2013
Docket090431461; A145833
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 298 P.3d 55 (State v. Alexander) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Alexander, 298 P.3d 55, 255 Or. App. 594, 2013 Ore. App. LEXIS 297 (Or. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

HASELTON, C. J.

Defendant, who was convicted of second-degree burglary, first-degree theft, and second-degree theft, contends on appeal that the trial court erred in imposing an upward durational departure sentence on the burglary conviction. In particular, he argues that, because the state failed to satisfy the notice requirements of ORS 136.765 (2009),1 the trial court was not permitted to impose a departure sentence. As explained below, we agree with defendant, and therefore remand for resentencing.

The pertinent facts are not disputed. In May 2009, defendant was charged by indictment with the offenses on which he was ultimately convicted and sentenced. The indictment did not plead any sentence enhancement facts. The prosecutor made a pretrial offer to defendant concerning the disposition of the charged offenses, which was set out in a written form. That form included a variety of preprinted provisions, including one which read, in part, as follows:

“6. SB-528/Blakely Notice: Pursuant to the rule announced in Blakely v. Washington, the State hereby gives notice that on all counts on all cases addressed bv this PTO it may seek an upward departure which exceeds the maximum presumptive sentence established by the Oregon Sentencing Guidelines. At trial, the State will seek a jury finding on the following factors supporting an upward departure:”

(Italics, boldface, and underscoring in original.) That statement was followed by a list of 17 specific sentence enhancement facts (e.g., “[m]ultiple unrelated victims and/or incidents”; “[deliberate cruelty to victim”; “[v]ulnerable victim(s)”), plus an additional item labeled “[o]ther” with room [596]*596to write in another enhancement fact. Each of those 18 items had next to it a check-box.

On the form given to defendant, the numeric heading “6” was circled. However, none of the boxes was checked, nor was anything written in the “[o]ther” line.

A plea hearing was held in December 2009. The part of defendant’s plea petition indicating his understanding of what the state would be recommending to the court regarding sentencing stated, “Open sentencing.” At the hearing, the prosecutor stated that he intended “to have the Blakely enhancements be part of my argument for sentencing.” Defense counsel remonstrated that

“the State’s Notice of Enhancement Factors was nonexistent. We didn’t get one. What they claim is a Notice of Enhancement Factors is, in fact, not a Notice of Enhancement Factors, because none of the enhancement factors was checked.”

The prosecutor replied that, because the number “6” in the provision quoted above had been circled, the state had provided defendant with sufficient notice that it might seek an upward departure based on any or all enhancement factors notwithstanding the failure to do so by way of checking any of the boxes next to the individually listed factors. The prosecutor further indicated, however, that he would only be seeking sentence enhancement based on four factors on which he had proffered proposed jury instructions.2

The court ruled that the state’s pretrial offer form satisfied the notice requirement of ORS 136.765. Specifically, the court reasoned that, because the numeric heading “6,” preceding the paragraph pertaining to sentence enhancement factors, had been circled, the state had “provid [ed] written notice to the defendant of the enhancement fact and the state’s intention to rely on it.” ORS 136.765(2) (2009). The court then explained to defendant that

“the enhancement facts that they believe would enhance your sentence are four things: That you have been persistently involved in property crimes; that there were multiple victims and incident dates; that you intentionally failed [597]*597to appear while awaiting trial; and that you were involved in an organized criminal operation.”3

Defendant entered a plea of no contest.

At sentencing several months later, the prosecutor indicated that, besides the “multiple victims and incidents” aggravating factor, he wished to have the court consider as an additional aggravating factor defendant’s failure to appear for the originally scheduled sentencing.

The trial court imposed an upward departure sentence on the burglary conviction, based on “a number of factors”:

“The defendant has a horrible criminal history. He has multiple victims throughout his life, unrelated to the current event. He has repeated failures to appear on this case, repeated failures to appear for sentencing.
“He has 17 prior convictions in his lifetime, nine of those for felonies, most of those violent felonies. He has repeated incarcerations that have failed to deter his criminal thinking and his criminal behavior. He has had an abysmal performance on any kind of supervision. He has antisocial personality traits, as borne out in the psychological evaluation, which are characterized by his constant minimization of his actions which he has continued here today.”3 4

Consequently, the court imposed an upward departure sentence of 26 months for the burglary conviction, as well as consecutive presumptive sentences for the other convictions.

On appeal, defendant asserts, first, that, because the state failed to give adequate notice of enhancement factors pursuant to ORS 136.765 (2009), the court erred in imposing any departure sentence. Alternatively, defendant argues that, even if notice was given as to some departure factors, the court, in imposing the upward departure sentence, relied on other factors that were not included in that notice.

[598]*598The state responds that the trial court correctly concluded that the notice was sufficient and that defendant’s remaining argument concerning the actual departure factors relied on by the court was not preserved. We do not reach and resolve the parties’ disputes with respect to defendant’s second argument, because we agree with defendant’s first contention—that is, that the state failed to give the notice of enhancement factors required by ORS 136.765 (2009).

As noted, ORS 136.765(2) (2009) requires the state, in circumstances such as these where no enhancement facts were alleged in the indictment, to provide within a reasonable time “written notice to the defendant of the enhancement fact and the state’s intention to rely on it.” The state contends that it provided notice sufficient to satisfy that requirement in either of two independently sufficient ways. First, the state asserts that the written pretrial offer given to defendant before he entered his plea indicated that the state “may seek” an upward departure sentence based on enhancement factors.

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Related

State v. Blake
331 Or. App. 512 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2024)
State v. Bock (A169480)
485 P.3d 931 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2021)
State v. Kimmons
352 P.3d 68 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2015)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
298 P.3d 55, 255 Or. App. 594, 2013 Ore. App. LEXIS 297, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-alexander-orctapp-2013.