State v. Bell

899 P.2d 1000, 258 Kan. 123, 1995 Kan. LEXIS 97
CourtSupreme Court of Kansas
DecidedJuly 14, 1995
DocketNo. 71,875
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 899 P.2d 1000 (State v. Bell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Bell, 899 P.2d 1000, 258 Kan. 123, 1995 Kan. LEXIS 97 (kan 1995).

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Allegrucci, J.;

Michael J. Bell appeals his convictions of attempted criminal trespass, a class C misdemeanor, and stalking, a class B misdemeanor. He was sentenced to three months’ incarceration for the stalking conviction and one month’s incarceration for the attempted criminal trespass conviction, with the terms to run consecutively. The Court of Appeals reversed and remanded for jury trial on the ground that where potential imprisonment exceeds six months, the right to jury trial can be waived only by defendant personally after he or she has been advised of the right. State v. Bell, 20 Kan. App. 2d 193, 884 P.2d 1164 (1994). This court granted the State’s petition for review.

The facts are set out in the opinion of the Court of Appeals and are undisputed. Defendant was charged with one count of attempted criminal trespass, in violation of K.S.A. 1993 Supp. 21-3301 and K.S.A. 1993 Supp. 21-3721(a)(1)(B), and one count of [124]*124stalking, in violation of K.S.A. 1993 Supp. 21-3438. At arraignment in December 1993, he pled not guilty.

On February 22, 1994, defendant’s case was transferred to another division of the district court for trial setting. On March 11, 1994, the case was set for trial to begin on April 11. Also on March 11, defendant filed a written request for a jury trial. The district court concluded that the request was not timely and denied the request. On April 11, defendant was tried by tire district court judge and found guilty on both counts.

On April 15, defendant filed a notice of appeal. On May 5, he was sentenced to jail custody for three months on the stalking conviction and for a consecutive period of one month on the attempted criminal trespass conviction. “The defendant has apparently served the sentence.” 20 Kan. App. 2d at 194.

The single issue raised by defendant in the Court of Appeals was whether his request for jury trial was timely under K.S.A. 1993 Supp. 22-3404. The statute provides in pertinent part: “(1) The trial of misdemeanor and traffic offense cases shall be to the court unless a jury trial is requested in writing by the defendant not later than seven days after first notice of trial assignment is given to the defendant or such defendant’s counsel.” The Court of Appeals stated:

“The trial court found that he received ‘first notice of trial assignment’ on February 22, 1994, the day the case was transferred to Division I. According to the trial court’s interpretation, March 3, 1994, was the last day that a timely request could be made. Therefore, the defendant’s request for a jury trial on March 11, 1994, was untimely.” 20 Kan. App. 2d at 196.

The Court of Appeals agreed with the reasoning of the trial court, as far as it went. The Court of Appeals’ opinion then took the following turn:

“While we find the court was correct in its analysis of the ‘trial assignment’ language, we see another facial error of constitutional proportions in the denial of a jury trial.
“Under State v. Irving, 216 Kan. 588, 533 P.2d 1225 (1975), and a recent Court of Appeals decision relying on Irving, State v. Jones, 19 Kan. App. 2d 982, 879 P.2d 1141 (1994), a defendant charged with a misdemeanor or traffic offense, Where the potential imprisonment excéeds six months, has a right to a jury trial, regardless of whether it is requested within seven days after notification of a trial [125]*125assignment. In order to waive the right to a jury trial under these circumstances, the defendant must first be advised by the court of his or her right to a jury trial, and the defendant must personally waive that right in writing or in open court.
“We are aware that trial judges at arraignment or other appropriate times will sometimes inform the defendant that a sentence of greater than six months will not be given if the defendant is found guilty of a misdemeanor. This removes the potential of a sentence greater than six months. The record before us does not reflect this was done. If the record is otherwise, it might affect this decision. However, based on the record before us, the defendant faced a potential sentence of six months on the stalking count and an additional month on the attempted criminal trespass count. Under these facts, even though the eventual sentence was less than six months, he was entitled to the protections of Irving. Since he did not receive them, we must reverse and remand for jury trial.” 20 Kan. App. 2d at 201-02.

The State’s petition for review of the decision of the Court of Appeals focused exclusively on the constitutional right to trial by jury, as do the supplemental briefs filed by defendant and the State in this court. Supreme Court Rule 8.03(g)(1) (1994 Kan. Ct. R. Annot. 47) provides in pertinent part:

“[T]he issues before the Supreme Court include all issues properly before the Court of Appeals that the petition for review or cross-petition allege were decided erroneously by the Court of Appeals. In civil cases, the Supreme Court may, but need not, consider other issues that were presented to the Court of Appeals and that the parties have preserved for review.”

Defendant neither responded to the State’s single-issue petition for review nor filed a cross-petition and did not raise the statutory interpretation issue in his supplemental brief; therefore, it is considered abandoned. For that reason, the Court of Appeals’ rationale and finding with regard to the statutory interpretation is not disputed and is controlling in the appeal.

The single issue raised by the State in its petition for review is whether a defendant charged with two misdemeanors which carry aggregated penalties potentially exceeding six months’ imprisonment is entitled to a trial by jury. The Court of Appeals based its decision on State v. Irving, 216 Kan. 588, 533 P.2d 1225 (1975), and State v. Jones, 19 Kan. App. 2d 982, 879 P.2d 1141 (1994), both of which involved a single offense which carried a potential penalty exceeding six months’ imprisonment. The Court of Appeals [126]*126simply assumed the answer to the basic question whether penalties for multiple petty offenses should be aggregated for the purpose of determining the right to a jury trial. The parties’ supplemental briefs are directed solely to this issue.

The question we must first answer is whether the Court of Appeals erred in considering this issue sua sponte. In State v. Puckett, 230 Kan. 596, 640 P.2d 1198 (1982), we noted that the question had previously been before this court on several occasions.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
899 P.2d 1000, 258 Kan. 123, 1995 Kan. LEXIS 97, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-bell-kan-1995.