State v. Dunn

Court of Appeals of Kansas·Decided July 5, 2019·No. 119866·Unpublished

Opinion

NOT DESIGNATED FOR PUBLICATION

No. 119,866

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF KANSAS

STATE OF KANSAS, Appellee,

v.

STEPHEN MONTREAL DUNN, Appellant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Appeal from Montgomery District Court; F. WILLIAM CULLINS, judge. Opinion filed July 5, 2019. Affirmed in part, sentence vacated, and case remanded with directions.

Peter Maharry, of Kansas Appellate Defender Office, for appellant.

Rachel L. Pickering, assistant solicitor general, and Derek Schmidt, attorney general, for appellee.

Before SCHROEDER, P.J., GREEN and POWELL, JJ.

PER CURIAM: Stephen Montreal Dunn appeals the sentence the Montgomery County District Court imposed for his conviction of rape. Dunn claims the district court erred because it imposed lifetime postrelease supervision, electronic monitoring of that supervision, and it failed to grant him good time credit. For the first time on appeal, the State claims the district court imposed an illegal sentence by departing more than 50 percent from a standard guideline sentence under the Kansas Sentencing Guidelines Act (KSGA). The State is correct. The sentence must be vacated.

1 Dunn is also partially correct. The district court erred in not granting him good time credit and by imposing lifetime postrelease electronic monitoring. Even so, the district court did not err by imposing lifetime postrelease supervision. We affirm in part, vacate the sentence, and remand with directions for resentencing.

FACTS

The State charged Dunn with the statutory rape of a 12-year-old girl which occurred when he was 18 years of age. After plea negotiations, Dunn entered a no contest plea to the rape charge and the State dismissed unrelated criminal charges in another case. Dunn also agreed to pay restitution for the dismissed charges. At the plea hearing, the State referenced an addendum to the plea agreement requiring Dunn to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. Dunn acknowledged he was aware of this addendum.

Before sentencing, Dunn moved for a dispositional and durational sentencing departure. At the sentencing hearing, the district court granted Dunn's request, departed from the presumptive life sentence to the sentencing grid, and further reduced the sentence from the applicable grid penalties to 78 months' imprisonment. The court based the departure on Dunn's young age when he committed the offense, the desire of the victim's family to see a lesser sentence imposed, the victim's willing participation in the sexual intercourse, and the court's belief Dunn's remorse was heartfelt and sincere. The court originally ordered Dunn to serve 60 months of postrelease supervision. The State objected, and the court continued the sentencing hearing so the parties could brief the issues of applicable postrelease supervision period and good time credit.

After receiving briefs from the parties, the district court reconvened the sentencing hearing and imposed lifetime postrelease supervision with lifetime electronic monitoring. The court also found Dunn was not entitled to good time credit.

2 ANALYSIS

Dunn's departure sentence is illegal

The State contends the sentence imposed by the district court constituted an illegal sentence. The State neither raised the issue in the district court nor filed a separate appeal from the judgment imposed by the district court. Typically, the lack of a timely notice of appeal would deprive this court of jurisdiction over the issue. See State v. Sanchez- Loredo, 294 Kan. 50, 53, 272 P.3d 34 (2012) (citing Douglas v. Lombardino, 236 Kan. 471, 490, 693 P.2d 1138 [1985]). But the Kansas Supreme Court has authorized the State to challenge the legality of Dunn's sentence because a party that did not take an appeal or file a motion to correct illegal sentence may still challenge a sentence's illegality during the other party's appeal. See State v. Spencer, 291 Kan. 796, 820, 248 P.3d 256 (2011) (citing State v. Gracey, 288 Kan. 252, 260-61, 200 P.3d 1275 [2009]); see also K.S.A. 2018 Supp. 22-3504(a) (authorizing courts to correct an illegal sentence "at any time" while the defendant is serving such sentence).

An illegal sentence within the meaning of K.S.A. 2018 Supp. 22-3504(3) is a sentence imposed by a court without jurisdiction; a sentence that does not conform to the applicable statutory provisions, either in character or term of authorized punishment; or a sentence ambiguous with respect to the time and manner in which it is to be served. State v. Hayes, 307 Kan. 537, 538, 411 P.3d 1225 (2018). The State contends the sentence imposed upon Dunn by the district court failed to conform with the applicable statutory provisions, namely K.S.A. 2018 Supp. 21-6818(a), which states:

"When a departure sentence is appropriate, the sentencing judge may depart from the sentencing guidelines as provided in this section. The sentencing judge shall not impose a downward dispositional departure sentence for any crime of extreme sexual violence, as defined in K.S.A. 2018 Supp. 21-6815, and amendments thereto. The sentencing judge shall not impose a downward durational departure sentence for any crime of extreme sexual violence, as defined in K.S.A. 2018 Supp. 21-6815, and

3 amendments thereto, to less than 50% of the center of the range of the sentence for such crime."

A crime of extreme sexual violence is statutorily defined to encompass "a crime involving an act of sexual intercourse, sodomy or lewd fondling and touching with any child who is less than 14 years of age." K.S.A. 2018 Supp. 21-6815(c)(2)(F)(i)(c). Statutory rape falls within this definition. See K.S.A. 2018 Supp. 21-5503(a)(3). Consequently, the district court was statutorily limited and could not reduce the durational departure sentence to less than 50 percent of the standard penalty within the applicable guidelines grid.

At sentencing, Dunn's criminal history score was H. When the district court departed to the sentencing grid block, the severity level of Dunn's crime became a severity level 1 person felony. See K.S.A. 2018 Supp. 21-5503(b)(1)(B) (sexual intercourse with a child under the age of 14 is a severity level 1 person felony without the aggravating factor of the offender's age). This placed Dunn in a sentencing grid box of 166-176-186 months. See K.S.A. 2018 Supp. 21-6804(a). Half the standard penalty within that grid box (176 months) is 88 months. By imposing a sentence less than 88 months, the district court violated K.S.A.

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