State v. Carter

2007 WI App 255, 743 N.W.2d 700, 306 Wis. 2d 450, 2007 Wisc. App. LEXIS 953
CourtCourt of Appeals of Wisconsin
DecidedNovember 1, 2007
Docket2006AP1811-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 2007 WI App 255 (State v. Carter) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Carter, 2007 WI App 255, 743 N.W.2d 700, 306 Wis. 2d 450, 2007 Wisc. App. LEXIS 953 (Wis. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinion

VERGERONT, J.

¶ 1. Patrick Carter appeals the circuit court's order denying him sentence credit for time spent in custody in Illinois as the result of both a Wisconsin fugitive warrant issued in this case and an arrest on Illinois charges. The circuit court imposed a sentence in this case concurrent to the Illinois sentence, which had already been imposed. The circuit court concluded that Carter was not entitled to sentence credit for any time confined in Illinois, but only after he was returned to Wisconsin for the charge in this case.

¶ 2. We conclude that, because Carter was arrested and confined in Illinois under a Wisconsin fugitive warrant issued in this case, he was entitled to *452 sentence credit on this concurrent sentence from the date he was arrested in Illinois until the date he was sentenced on the Illinois charge. We reject the State's argument that, because he was not exclusively in custody on the Wisconsin charge, he was not entitled to sentence credit for the time he was in custody in Illinois. Accordingly, we reverse and remand with directions to the circuit court to grant 227 additional days of sentence credit.

BACKGROUND

¶ 3. The relevant facts are not disputed. A criminal complaint was issued in this case on July 23, 2003; in Milwaukee County Circuit Court. The complaint charged Carter with first-degree recklessly endangering safety in violation of Wis. Stat. § 941.30(1). On the same day, a felony warrant for Carter's arrest was issued, authorizing extradition from any location within the United States.

¶ 4. On December 14, 2003, Carter was taken into custody at the Cook County Jail in Illinois and a "hold" was placed on him for the Wisconsin "fugitive warrant" and for Illinois charges of armed robbery and driving while under the influence (DUI). 1 On December 16, 2003, he was "charged" with the Wisconsin fugitive warrant. He was given a seven-day sentence on the Illinois DUI conviction, which was completed on December 21, 2003. He continued in custody in the Cook County Jail. On March 11, 2004, a Wisconsin governor's *453 warrant was served on him. On October 19, 2004, he was convicted on the Illinois armed robbery charge. On October 20, 2004, the extradition case based on the Wisconsin fugitive warrant was dismissed and that warrant was vacated. Carter remained in the Cook County Jail and on November 2, 2004, was sentenced to fourteen years on the armed robbery charge. On November 5,2004, he was transferred to the Illinois prison system to begin serving his sentence.

¶ 5. On June 1, 2005, Carter made an initial appearance in this case, having been extradited to Wisconsin for this case while still serving the Illinois sentence. On August 30, 2005, he entered a guilty plea to the charge of first-degree reckless endangerment. The court accepted the plea and sentenced him to twelve and one-half years, seven and one-half years of initial confinement and five years of extended supervision, to be served concurrently with the Illinois sentence; the court stated that this sentence could be served in either Illinois or Wisconsin. 2 Carter was given ninety-one days of sentence credit, from June 1, 2005 to August 30, 2005. 3

*454 ¶ 6. Carter filed a postconviction motion seeking sentence credit under Wis. Stat. § 973.155 for 324 days, from December 14, 2003, when he was taken into custody in Illinois on the Wisconsin fugitive warrant as well as on the Illinois charges, until November 2, 2004, when he was sentenced on the Illinois armed robbery charge. 4 The circuit court decided that Carter was not entitled to sentence credit for that period of time, but only from May 26, 2005, when he "was arrested in connection with the Wisconsin charge ..." (according to the Crime Information Bureau Final Disposition Report) to August 30, 2005, when he was sentenced in this case. Because the court used May 26 rather than June 1 as the beginning date, it ordered six more days of sentence credit for a total of ninety-seven days. 5 The court decided that before May 26, 2005, Carter was not in custody "in connection with the course of conduct for which [the Wisconsin] sentence was imposed," as required by § 973.155(l)(a). Based on its reading of State v. Demars, 119 Wis. 2d 19, 349 N.W.2d 708 (Ct. App. 1984), the court rejected Carter's argument that the Wisconsin fugitive warrant and the Wisconsin governor's warrant resulted in custody in Illinois in *455 connection with the course of conduct for which he was sentenced in this case. The court also stated that a defendant is not in custody in connection with the course of conduct for which the sentence is imposed until "his custody is surrendered to that jurisdiction," citing State v. Nyborg, 122 Wis. 2d 765, 768, 364 N.W.2d 553 (Ct. App. 1985).

DISCUSSION

¶ 7. On appeal Carter contends that the circuit court erred in its analysis of Demars and Nyborg and that under State v. Ward, 153 Wis. 2d 743, 745 n.3, 452 N.W.2d 158 (Ct. App. 1989), he is entitled to sentence credit because his Illinois custody was "in connection with" the conduct for which the concurrent Wisconsin sentence was imposed. The State in response does not endorse the circuit court's reading of Demars and Nyborg. Instead, the State argues that we should apply Wis JI — Criminal SM (Special Material) 34A at p.5, 6 which states that a person is entitled to credit when detained in jail in another state "when that detention results exclusively from a Wisconsin warrant or de-tainer." 7 (Emphasis added.)

*456 ¶ 8. The determination of the proper amount of sentence credit requires that we apply Wis. Stat. § 973.155 and existing case law to undisputed facts. This presents a question of law, which we review de novo. State v. Tuescher, 226 Wis. 2d 465, 468, 595 N.W.2d 443 (Ct. App. 1999).

¶ 9. Wisconsin Stat. § 973.155(l)(a) entitles a convicted offender to "credit toward the service of his or her sentence for all days spent in custody in connection with the course of conduct for which sentence was imposed .. . ." 8

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Related

State v. Carter
2010 WI 77 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 2010)
State v. Johnson
2008 WI App 34 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 2008)
Mumm v. Adametz (In Re Adametz)
53 B.R. 299 (W.D. Wisconsin, 1985)

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Bluebook (online)
2007 WI App 255, 743 N.W.2d 700, 306 Wis. 2d 450, 2007 Wisc. App. LEXIS 953, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-carter-wisctapp-2007.