State v. Brown

1999 NMSC 004, 974 P.2d 136, 126 N.M. 642
CourtNew Mexico Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 6, 1999
Docket25193
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 1999 NMSC 004 (State v. Brown) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Brown, 1999 NMSC 004, 974 P.2d 136, 126 N.M. 642 (N.M. 1999).

Opinion

OPINION

BACA, Justice.

{1} Defendant Harry Brown appeals the district court’s order denying his motion for reconsideration of his sentence. On certification from the Court of Appeals, we consider the following issues: 1) whether Brown’s motion for reconsideration is a matter for which only the Supreme Court has jurisdiction; 2) whether Brown’s sentence to the Curry County Detention Center (jail) rather than the Department of Corrections (prison or corrections facility) was legal; 3) whether Brown was entitled to have the time he served on probation credited as time served on parole; 4) whether the language in the amended judgment and sentencing order was ambiguous; and 5) whether the district court properly enhanced Brown’s confinement. Because this ease raises issues of substantial public interest involving statutory interpretation and jurisdiction, the Court of Appeals certified the ease to this Court for our review pursuant to NMSA 1978, § 34-5-14(0 (1972) and Rule 12-606 NMRA 1998. After careful review, we affirm the district court’s order denying Brown’s motion.

I.

{2} On December 5, 1995, Brown pled guilty to a felon-in-possession-of-a-firearm charge. Brown was also subject to an enhanced sentence as a habitual offender. The prosecutor used a prior robbery conviction to support the firearm charge and a prior forgery conviction to support sentencing enhancement as a habitual offender. At the dispositional hearing, the prosecutor mentioned that Brown also had a prior felony conviction for possession of cocaine but never submitted the conviction either to prove the firearm charge or to enhance Brown’s sentence.

{3} The plea agreement provided that the court sentence Brown to one year incarceration as a habitual offender, and eighteen months for the firearm charge. The plea agreement also provided that the court suspend all but one day of the eighteen-month firearm sentence. The one remaining day of incarceration for the firearm sentence was to run concurrently with the last day of the habitual offender sentence. Under the terms of the plea agreement, the court would place Brown on supervised probation for the remaining eighteen months of the firearm sentence. According to the plea agreement, Brown was to be incarcerated in jail rather than prison.

{4} The judgment and sentence followed the plea agreement’s terms but authorized Brown “to request consideration” for presentence, post-judgment and post-sentence good time credit. However, according to the terms of the judgment and sentence, the court sentenced Brown to eighteen months for the firearm charge in prison, which the court suspended, with the remaining suspended sentence in jail. The court then filed an amended judgment and sentence that recommended work release.

{5} After serving one year in jail for the habitual offender charge, Brown was released and placed on probation for the remaining eighteen months of the suspended firearm sentence. On May 14, 1996, Brown’s probation officer notified the court t}iat Brown had violated several conditions of his probation and the State filed a motion to revoke Brown’s probation. Brown then moved to vacate his original sentence, asserting that the court lacked jurisdiction to impose the original sentence because it was more than the law authorized. Brown also moved for the court to credit him for time he had served on the habitual offender sentence. The court denied Brown’s motion, revoked his probation and ordered him to serve eighteen months in prison for the firearm sentence and one year supervised parole less the time credited from April 15, 1996 to February 15, 1997, for the time he spent on probation, and from February 15, 1997 until his delivery to prison after sentencing. Had he not violated his probation, Brown’s probation would have ended on October 14, ,1997. Brown later appealed to the Court of Appeals, which affirmed the probation revocation.

{6} Brown next filed a motion for reconsideration of his sentence with the district court, again contending that his sentence was improper. The district court denied the motion. Brown filed another appeal with the Court of Appeals, which certified the case to this Court for our review.

II.

{7} As a threshold issue, we first consider whether Brown’s motion for reconsideration of sentence challenges his sentence’s legality, a matter over which only the Supreme Court has jurisdiction. In the Court of Appeals, the State argued that the court should dismiss this appeal because Brown challenges his sentence’s legality under Rule 5-802 NMRA 1998, a matter where only the Supreme Court has jurisdiction. See Rules 5-801 (A) and 5-802 NMRA 1998. We agree that the Supreme Court has exclusive jurisdiction over this matter. It is undisputed that Brown is challenging the legality of his sentence. Thus, the Court of Appeals properly certified the matter to this Court for our review rather than dismissing the appeal. See NMSA 1978, § 34-5-10 (1998) (stating that “no matter on appeal in the supreme court or the court of appeals should be dismissed for the reason that it should have been docketed in the other court”). Now properly before this Court, we review the matter accordingly.

A.

{8} Because this case involves issues concerning the district court’s interpretation and application of the sentencing law, it is subject to de novo review. See State v. Rowell, 121 N.M. 111, 114, 908 P.2d 1379, 1382 (1995) (stating that “[ijnterpretation of a statute is an issue of law”) (citing State v. Romero, 119 N.M. 195, 197, 889 P.2d 230, 232 (Ct.App.1994); see also State v. Roman, 1998-NMCA-132, ¶ 8, 125 N.M. 688, 964 P.2d 852 (stating that the trial court’s interpretation and application of the law are subject to a de novo review).

B.

{9} We first address the issue of whether Brown’s sentence to jail rather than prison was legal. Brown argues that under NMSA 1978, § 31-20-2 (1993), if a defendant receives a sentence of a year or more, the court must sentence the defendant to prison, not to jail. Brown further argues, relying on the Court of Appeals’ opinion in State v. Ruiz, 109 N.M. 437, 439, 786 P.2d 51, 53 (Ct.App.1989), that in determining whether a sentence exceeds one year, the court must calculate the sentence before crediting for pre-sentence confinement. Thus, Brown argues that even if crediting him for his presentence confinement reduced the actual time he served to less than a full year, it did not have any effect on the fact that his sentence was for a year. Accordingly, Brown argues that the court should have sentenced him to prison rather than to jail. We disagree.

{10} Pursuant to NMSA 1978 § 33-2-19, which the Legislature enacted one year after Ruiz, “[a]ll persons convicted of any crime where the punishment is imprisonment for a term of one year or more, after accounting for any period of the sentence being suspended or deferred and any credit for presentence confinement, shall be imprisoned in a corrections facility 1 unless otherwise provided by law, and judgments must be issued accordingly.” NMSA 1978, § 33-2-19 (1990).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1999 NMSC 004, 974 P.2d 136, 126 N.M. 642, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-brown-nm-1999.