State v. Hopkins

36 P.3d 1080, 109 Wash. App. 558
CourtCourt of Appeals of Washington
DecidedDecember 24, 2001
DocketNo. 46244-0-I
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 36 P.3d 1080 (State v. Hopkins) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Hopkins, 36 P.3d 1080, 109 Wash. App. 558 (Wash. Ct. App. 2001).

Opinions

Becker, A.C.J.

—Under former RCW 46.61.5055(1) (1998), a person convicted for the first time of driving while under the influence must “be punished” by a driver’s license suspension or revocation of either 90 days or one year, depending on the person’s alcohol concentration. Because the length of the revocation increases upon a finding that the level is 0.15 or greater, that finding is for the jury to make. In this case the sentence included a one-year revocation, based on a finding made by the judge. The sentence must be reversed.

On January 25, 1999, a Washington State Patrol officer arrested Kathryn Hopkins on suspicion of driving under the influence. She failed field sobriety tests. A breath alcohol test produced two readings averaging .157.

The State charged Hopkins with the crime of driving a motor vehicle with a breath alcohol content of .08 or greater, contrary to RCW 46.61.502 and .506. Hopkins, age 31, had no record of prior offenses. If convicted, she faced varying penalties depending on her alcohol concentration, according to the statutory penalty schedule in effect at the time she committed the offense.1 The threshold for conviction was a finding that her alcohol concentration was at least .08. That finding would bring with it imprisonment of at least 1 day; a fine of at least $350; and driver’s license suspension of 90 days. A finding that Hopkins’ alcohol concentration was at [561]*561least 0.15 would increase the minimum jail time and fine to two days and $500, and increase the mandatory license revocation to one year.2 Hopkins offered to plead guilty to an alcohol level between .08 and 0.15, but the State refused. Because of the greater penalties involved where the alcohol measurement is 0.15 or greater, Hopkins elected to proceed to a jury trial.

At trial, Hopkins attempted to introduce expert testimony showing the margin of error of the DataMaster breath testing machine to be 10 percent. Such a margin of error would mean that Hopkins’ actual alcohol level could have been as high as .172 or as low as .141. The trial court excluded this testimony after deciding that the issue of whether the alcohol concentration was at least 0.15 was for the judge to decide at sentencing, not for the jury. Hopkins proposed jury instructions and a special interrogatory that would have allowed the jury to determine whether or not her alcohol measurement was below 0.15. The court refused these submissions, and instead instructed the jury in such a manner as to require a guilty verdict if they found her alcohol concentration was at least .08.

The jury convicted Hopkins. At sentencing, the trial judge considered the testimony about the DataMaster’s margin of error. But, persuaded that the particular machine used in Hopkins’ case was extremely accurate, the judge determined by a preponderance of the evidence that Hopkins’ alcohol concentration was at least 0.15.

The judge entered a form “Order of Judgment and Sentence for the Crime of: Driving Under the Influence,” and checked a box for “.15 or >” instead of the box for “.08 - .14.” The sentence imposed one year in jail, with all but two days suspended; and a $5,000 fine, with all but $925 suspended. The judge checked a box marked “Other,” and wrote, “Revocation of license for one year.”3

[562]*562Hopkins appealed to the superior court, contending that the issue of over or under 0.15 should have been submitted to the jury. The superior court concluded that the judge properly determined the issue because it was relevant only to sentencing. This court granted Hopkins’ motion for discretionary review.* *4

Other than the fact of a prior conviction, any fact that increases the penalty for a crime beyond the statutory maximum must be submitted to a jury and proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 490, 120 S. Ct. 2348, 147 L. Ed. 2d 435 (2000); State v. Gore, 143 Wn. 2d 288, 312, 21 P.3d 262 (2001). Hopkins contends her sentence is invalid under Apprendi.

Apprendi applies to any situation in which a sentencing factor, other than a prior conviction, will increase the defendant’s sentence beyond the statutory maximum for the crime. In Apprendi, the trial judge accepted the defendant’s plea of guilty to charges based on his shooting into the home of an African-American family that had recently moved into an all-white neighborhood. The judge found by a preponderance of the evidence that the crime was motivated by racial bias, and was therefore subject to enhancement under a separate hate crime law. The enhanced sentence imposed was 12 years for a second degree offense that would have ordinarily carried a maximum 10-year term of imprisonment. The Supreme Court found the procedure to be a violation of due process, and also “an unacceptable departure from the jury tradition that is an indispensable part of our criminal justice system.” Apprendi, 530 U.S. at 497.

The State argues that this case is governed not by Apprendi, but rather by McMillan v. Pennsylvania, 477 U.S. 79, 106 S. Ct. 2411, 91 L. Ed. 2d 67 (1986). Apprendi [563]*563distinguished but did not overrule the holding of McMillan: Facts that increase a defendant’s sentence are properly found by a judge, so long as the resulting sentence is not “more severe than the statutory maximum for the offense established by the jury’s verdict.” Apprendi, 530 U.S. at 487 n.13. In McMillan, the court upheld a statute that required the sentencing judge to impose a mandatory minimum penalty of five years imprisonment if the defendant visibly possessed a firearm in the course of committing a specified felony. The mandatory minimum “neither alters the maximum penalty for the crime committed nor creates a separate offense calling for a separate penalty.” McMillan, 477 U.S. at 87-88. The statute “operates solely to limit the sentencing court’s discretion in selecting a penalty within the range already available to it without the special finding of visible possession of a firearm.” McMillan, 477 U.S. at 88.

In this case, the trial court sentenced Hopkins under former RCW 46.61.5055(1), the penalty schedule for the crime of driving under the influence. If jail time and fines were the only penalties involved in this statutory scheme, there would be no Apprendi issue. This is because the statutory maximum penalty of one year in jail and a $5,000 fine remain unchanged regardless of a defendant’s alcohol concentration; only the minimums vary. But in addition to facing jail time and fines, a defendant convicted of driving under the influence also faces a mandatory loss of driving privileges, and the period increases from 90 days to one year if the person’s alcohol concentration is at least 0.15:

(l)Aperson who is convicted of a violation of RCW 46.61.502

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111 Wash. App. 851 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 2002)
State v. Hopkins
36 P.3d 1080 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 2002)

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Bluebook (online)
36 P.3d 1080, 109 Wash. App. 558, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-hopkins-washctapp-2001.