State v. Herd

2004 MT 85, 87 P.3d 1017, 320 Mont. 490, 2004 Mont. LEXIS 96
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedApril 6, 2004
Docket02-563
StatusPublished
Cited by70 cases

This text of 2004 MT 85 (State v. Herd) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Montana 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. Herd, 2004 MT 85, 87 P.3d 1017, 320 Mont. 490, 2004 Mont. LEXIS 96 (Mo. 2004).

Opinions

JUSTICE COTTER

delivered the Opinion of the Court.

¶1 Michelle Lee Herd appeals a sentencing condition imposed in the District Court Judgment which followed her plea of guilty to four counts of negligent homicide. We reverse and remand.

ISSUE

¶2 Did the District Court err when it ordered, as a condition of her sentence for negligent homicide, that Herd be barred from driving for forty years?

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

¶3 On December 27,2000, Herd was living near Seattle, Washington, when she received an emergency phone call from her father. He said her mother had suffered a stroke and would probably not live more than 48 hours. Herd and her sister departed around 9:30 that evening, driving Herd’s Dodge Ram half-ton pickup truck toward Great Falls with urgency.

¶4 Herd drove through the night, traveling east on Interstate 90. In Idaho, she pulled over and slept for about two and a half hours. In Missoula, she and her sister exited the vehicle, stretched and purchased espresso drinks. Herd continued driving and exited onto Highway 200 at Bonner at about 9:00 a.m. on December 28.

¶5 Highway 200 has one lane of travel in each direction. Shortly past Bonner, Herd pulled into the westbound lane to pass another [492]*492eastbound vehicle, and neglected to return to the eastbound lane after completing the pass. Coming around a curve about 15 miles after she had entered Highway 200, Herd met with a westbound 1968 Volkswagen Beetle driven by Arundel Good, with her mother Stacy, her sister Kilty, and her brother Marcus, as passengers. Both vehicles swerved in an unsuceessftil attempt to avoid a collision. They hit head-on and the Volkswagen caught fire. Its four occupants died. Herd and her sister suffered minor injuries.

¶6 Herd admitted that she had only slept two and a half hours out of the previous twenty-seven. She stated that, being accustomed to multi-lane highways, and having just exited a four-lane highway, she had gotten confused and did not realize she was in an oncoming lane of travel until she saw the approaching Volkswagen.

¶7 Herd was charged with four counts of Negligent Homicide pursuant to § 45-5-104, MCA (1999). She eventually pled guilty to the charges, pursuant to a Plea Agreement with the Missoula County Attorney’s Office.

¶8 In the Plea Agreement, the State agreed to make several sentencing recommendations, including that Herd be given a twenty-year suspended sentence, and that she be barred from driving for five years, except in a bona fide emergency. At Herd’s sentencing on February 25, 2002, the Deputy County Attorney made no specific recommendations outside of the terms set forth in the Plea Agreement. Two members of the Good family testified, and both recommended that her driving privileges be terminated.

¶9 At the sentencing and in its written Judgment entered April 26, 2002, the District Court sentenced Herd to concurrent twenty-year sentences on Counts I and II and concurrent twenty-year sentences on Counts III and IV, all suspended, with the two sets of concurrent sentences to be served consecutively. The District Court ordered Herd to enter and successfully complete a pre-release program; to remain under the jurisdiction of the Adult Parole and Probation Bureau for the forty-year term; to pay $200 per month in restitution for the twenty-year term of Counts I and II; to not own or be in control of any firearms or deadly weapons for the next forty years; to not enter any bars or casinos for the next forty years; to not drink or possess alcoholic beverages for forty years; to obtain any counseling requested by her Probation Officer; and to submit to drug and alcohol testing at any time her Probation Officer has reasonable grounds to believe the test would disclose evidence of a probation violation. The District Court also ruled that Herd would be barred from driving during the [493]*493entire forty-year term of the sentences. The District Court explained that it set the sentences to run consecutively specifically to prohibit Herd from driving for forty years.

¶ 10 Herd filed a motion for reconsideration regarding the length of the driving restriction, which was denied. She now timely appeals the driving restriction to this Court.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

f 11 In State v. Montoya, 1999 MT 180, ¶ 15, 295 Mont. 288, ¶ 15, 983 P.2d 937, ¶ 15, we held that our standard of review of criminal sentences was properly confined to legality only. We noted that our previous standard of review-which was a two-tiered approach under which we reviewed sentences for both legality and abuse of discretion-was a “carry-over from the days when this Court reviewed all sentencing challenges, prior to the creation of the Sentence Review Division” (SRD). Id. Recently, we rejected a constitutional challenge to the statute limiting SRD review, thereby leaving some sentences unreviewable for severity. State ex rel. Holt v. District Court, 2000 MT 142, 300 Mont. 35, 3 P.3d 608. As will be discussed below, we feel it is necessary at this time to identify and clarify the standard of review for those cases in which the appellant is not eligible for SRD.

DISCUSSION

¶12 Did the District Court err when it ordered, as a condition of her sentence, that Herd be barred from driving for forty years?

¶13 When deferring imposition of sentence or suspending all or a portion of a sentence, district courts may impose reasonable restrictions or conditions on the offender. Section 46-18-201(4), MCA (1999). However, these restrictions and conditions must be reasonably related to the objectives of rehabilitation and the protection of the victim and society. Section 46-18-202(l)(f), MCA (1999).

¶14 The District Court specifically found that Herd was a good prospect for rehabilitation. It also found that she had led a law-abiding life for a substantial period before the collision, and that she was not likely to commit another crime. Nonetheless, the District Court concluded that Herd should be barred from driving for forty years.

¶15 Herd argues that the District Court was unreasonable in pi'ohibiting her from driving for the majority of her remaining life expectancy. She points out that, while the District Court states she has a good chance at rehabilitation if she follows through on the Judgment, she has no meaningful chance at rehabilitation if she can never drive [494]*494again. The State argues that Herd may seek relief in this Court from an illegal sentence only, per the standard of review set forth in Montoya, and that this Court should decline to address issues of equity, as the reasonableness of a sentence is an inquiry within the purview of SRD.

¶16 The problem is that Herd is ineligible for sentence review before SRD. Pursuant to § 46-18-903, MCA (1999), any person sentenced to one year or more in the state prison may apply to SRD for review of that sentence. The jurisdiction of SRD thus extends only to those persons who are actually incarcerated, and does not extend to those persons given suspended sentences. Holt, ¶ 8. Because Herd’s sentence was suspended, she does not meet the threshold SRD eligibility requirement. As a result, if we apply Montoya strictly, the reasonableness of the driving condition imposed upon Herd will not be subject to review by either SRD or this Court. As was pointed out in the dissent in Holt,

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Bluebook (online)
2004 MT 85, 87 P.3d 1017, 320 Mont. 490, 2004 Mont. LEXIS 96, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-herd-mont-2004.