State v. Dixon

CourtCourt of Appeals of Kansas
DecidedApril 28, 2017
Docket115157
StatusUnpublished

This text of State v. Dixon (State v. Dixon) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals 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. Dixon, (kanctapp 2017).

Opinion

NOT DESIGNATED FOR PUBLICATION

No. 115,157

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF KANSAS

STATE OF KANSAS, Appellee,

v.

BRIAN DIXON, Appellant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Appeal from Johnson District Court; THOMAS KELLY RYAN, judge. Opinion filed April 28, 2017. Sentence vacated and case remanded with directions.

Kai Tate Mann, of Kansas Appellate Defender Office, for appellant.

Shawn E. Minihan, assistant district attorney, Stephen M. Howe, district attorney, and Derek Schmidt, attorney general, for appellee.

Before GREEN, P.J., STANDRIDGE and GARDNER, JJ.

Per Curiam: Brian Dixon appeals the district court's classification of his 2000 Missouri burglary conviction as a person felony for purposes of scoring his criminal history. We find the district court's classification violated Dixon's constitutional rights under Descamps v. United States, 570 U.S. __, 133 S. Ct. 2276, 186 L. Ed. 2d 438 (2013), and Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S. Ct. 2348, 147 L. Ed. 2d 435 (2000), as applied by our state in State v. Dickey, 301 Kan. 1018, 350 P.3d 1054 (2015). Accordingly, we vacate the sentence imposed and remand to the district court for resentencing.

1 FACTS

On August 19, 2015, Dixon pled guilty to aggravated escape from custody, a severity level 8 nonperson felony. A presentence investigation (PSI) report prepared before sentencing indicated that Dixon's criminal history score was C based in part on a prior 2000 second-degree burglary conviction in Missouri, which was classified as a person felony. Dixon filed a motion for durational departure.

Dixon also filed an objection to his criminal history score. Dixon claimed his 2000 Missouri burglary conviction should have been classified as a nonperson felony under Dickey because the Missouri statute of conviction was not limited to the burglary of a dwelling, which is required under the Kansas statute for the crime to be classified as a person offense. The State responded to this objection by submitting to the court copies of several documents pertaining to Dixon's prior Missouri burglary conviction, including the complaint, affidavit of probable cause, indictment, and journal entry of Dixon's guilty plea. The State argued that the documents confirmed Dixon burglarized a residence and therefore the conviction was a person felony under the comparable Kansas statue.

A sentencing hearing was held on October 30, 2015. After hearing argument from counsel on the Dixon's objection to criminal history, the district court continued sentencing and invited additional briefing on the issue of the proper classification of Dixon's prior Missouri burglary conviction. Dixon filed a supplemental brief. The district court again heard argument from counsel on the issue at Dixon's November 3, 2015, sentencing hearing. The court ultimately overruled Dixon's objection to his criminal history score. The court found it was proper to look at the State's proffered documents and, after doing so, concluded that Dixon's prior Missouri burglary conviction was of an inhabitable structure, "which aligns with and is akin to the burglary of a dwelling under Kansas law." The court granted Dixon's dispositional departure and sentenced him to 9 months' incarceration.

2 ANALYSIS

Dixon's only contention on appeal is that the district court erred in classifying his 2000 Missouri burglary conviction as a person offense. Whether a district court properly classified a defendant's prior burglary conviction as a person crime for purposes of scoring criminal history is a question of law over which an appellate court has unlimited review. See State v. Luarks, 302 Kan. 972, 976, 360 P.3d 418 (2015); State v. Taylor, 299 Kan. 5, 8, 319 P.3d 1256 (2014). We begin our analysis with the revised Kansas Sentencing Guidelines Act (KSGA), K.S.A. 2016 Supp. 21-6801 et seq., which sets forth the procedure for classifying prior convictions to score criminal history.

K.S.A. 2016 Supp. 21-6811(e) governs the classification of prior out-of-state convictions like the one here. Under that subsection, the court first must determine whether the prior conviction is a misdemeanor or a felony based on the law of the state where the defendant was convicted. K.S.A. 2016 Supp. 21-6811(e)(2). In this case, the sentencing court properly classified Dixon's prior conviction as a felony for purposes of scoring criminal history because Missouri treated the prior conviction as a felony. See Mo. Rev. Stat. § 569.170 (2000). Next, the court must determine whether to classify the prior out-of-state conviction as a person or nonperson offense. The court makes this determination by looking to see whether Kansas had a comparable offense at the time the defendant committed the current crime of conviction. K.S.A. 2016 Supp. 21-6811(e)(3); State v. Keel, 302 Kan. 560, 590, 357 P.3d 251 (2015), cert. denied 136 S. Ct. 865 (2016). If there is no comparable offense in Kansas at the time the defendant committed the current crime of conviction, the out-of-state conviction is classified as a nonperson offense. K.S.A. 2016 Supp. 21-6811(e)(3). If Kansas does have a comparable offense at the time the defendant committed the current crime of conviction, the court must refer to that comparable offense in Kansas in deciding whether to classify the prior out-of-state conviction as a person or nonperson offense. K.S.A. 2016 Supp. 21-6811(e)(3).

3 To determine whether a Kansas statute is comparable to an out-of-state conviction, "'the offenses need only be comparable, not identical.'" State v. Williams, 299 Kan. 870, 873, 326 P.3d 1070 (2014) (quoting State v. Vandervort, 276 Kan. 164, 179, 72 P.3d 925 [2003], overruled on other grounds by State v. Dickey, 301 Kan. 1018, 1032, 350 P.3d 1054 [2015]). Instead of identical, a comparable crime is one that is "'similar in nature and cover[s] a similar type of criminal conduct.'" State v. Riolo, 50 Kan. App. 2d 351, 353, 330 P.3d 1120 (2014) (quoting State v. Barajas, 43 Kan. App. 2d 639, 643, 230 P.3d 784 [2010]), rev. denied 302 Kan. 1019 (2015). Thus, K.S.A. 2016 Supp.

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Related

Apprendi v. New Jersey
530 U.S. 466 (Supreme Court, 2000)
Descamps v. United States
133 S. Ct. 2276 (Supreme Court, 2013)
State v. Urban
239 P.3d 837 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 2010)
State v. Vandervort
72 P.3d 925 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 2003)
State v. Barajas
230 P.3d 784 (Court of Appeals of Kansas, 2010)
Mathis v. United States
579 U.S. 500 (Supreme Court, 2016)
State v. Moore
377 P.3d 1162 (Court of Appeals of Kansas, 2016)
United States v. Trevon Sykes
844 F.3d 712 (Eighth Circuit, 2016)
Johnson v. United States
176 L. Ed. 2d 1 (Supreme Court, 2010)
Uhlmann v. Richardson
287 P.3d 287 (Court of Appeals of Kansas, 2012)
State v. Riolo
330 P.3d 1120 (Court of Appeals of Kansas, 2014)
United States v. Rockwell
207 F. Supp. 3d 915 (W.D. Arkansas, 2016)
Henderson v. United States
207 F. Supp. 3d 1047 (W.D. Missouri, 2016)
Taylor v. United States
223 F. Supp. 3d 912 (E.D. Missouri, 2016)
State v. Brown
284 P.3d 977 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 2012)
State v. Taylor
319 P.3d 1256 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 2014)
State v. Williams
326 P.3d 1070 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 2014)
State v. Dickey
350 P.3d 1054 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 2015)
State v. Keel
357 P.3d 251 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 2015)
State v. Luarks
360 P.3d 418 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 2015)

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State v. Dixon, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-dixon-kanctapp-2017.