State v. Jaime L & Ronald T

CourtNew Mexico Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 26, 2011
Docket27,799 27,900
StatusUnpublished

This text of State v. Jaime L & Ronald T (State v. Jaime L & Ronald T) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Jaime L & Ronald T, (N.M. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

1 This memorandum opinion was not selected for publication in the New Mexico Reports. Please 2 see Rule 12-405 NMRA for restrictions on the citation of unpublished memorandum opinions. 3 Please also note that this electronic memorandum opinion may contain computer-generated 4 errors or other deviations from the official paper version filed by the Court of Appeals and does 5 not include the filing date. 6 IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO

7 STATE OF NEW MEXICO,

8 Plaintiff-Appellee,

9 v. NO. 27,799

10 JAIME L., Jr.,

11 Defendant-Appellant,

12 and

13 STATE OF NEW MEXICO,

14 Plaintiff-Appellee,

15 v. NO. 27,900

16 RONALD T.,

17 Defendant-Appellant.

18 APPEAL FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF LINCOLN COUNTY 19 Frank K. Wilson, District Judge

20 Gary K. King, Attorney General 21 Ann M. Harvey, Assistant Attorney General 22 Santa Fe, NM 1 M. Victoria Wilson, Assistant Attorney General 2 Albuquerque, NM

3 for Appellee 4 Robert E. Tangora, L.L.C. 5 Robert E. Tangora 6 Santa Fe, NM

7 for Appellant Jaime L., Jr.

8 Chief Public Defender 9 Allison H. Jaramillo, Assistant Appellate Defender 10 Santa Fe, NM

11 for Appellant Ronald T.

12 MEMORANDUM OPINION

13 CASTILLO, Chief Judge.

14 Jaime L. (Jaime) and his cousin, Ronald T. (Ronald), appeal their sentences.

15 Both challenge the constitutionality of NMSA 1978, Section 32A-2-20 (2005)

16 (amended 2009) and assert that a jury, not the district court, must determine the issue

17 of amenability to treatment as a juvenile. Jaime also challenges the sufficiency of the

18 evidence underlying the district court’s conclusion that he is not amenable to

19 treatment. Ronald makes a similar argument and also contends that the district court

20 used the wrong standard of evidence to evaluate amenability. In addition, Ronald

21 argues that his sentence was imposed in violation of NMSA 1978, Section 32A-2-17

2 1 (2005) (amended 2009), because the district court neither requested nor reviewed a

2 predisposition report from the New Mexico Department of Corrections. Ronald also

3 claims that the sentence imposed was contrary to the plea agreement. We affirm.

4 I. BACKGROUND

5 In October 2005, Jaime and Ronald (together referred to as Children) were both

6 fifteen years old and participated in a stabbing incident that ultimately resulted in the

7 death of another young man. Both were charged as serious youthful offenders with

8 second degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. They both pled no contest

9 to one count of second degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit second

10 degree murder. Each of the plea agreements contained the same waiver language, as

11 well as identical language regarding sentencing that specified the range of

12 dispositional alternatives to be from “juvenile disposition until age 21 . . . or up to 10

13 years[’] incarceration as an adult.”

14 Pursuant to Section 32A-2-20, the district court held an amenability hearing in

15 May 2007 to determine whether Children should be adjudicated as juveniles or as

16 adults. Dr. Noah Kaufman testified on the State’s behalf and proffered his clinical

17 assessment that neither Jaime nor Ronald was amenable to treatment as a juvenile. Dr.

18 Christine Johnson testified on Jaime’s behalf and concluded that he was amenable to

19 treatment. Similarly, Dr. Marc Caplan testified on Ronald’s behalf and offered his

3 1 conclusion that Ronald was amenable to treatment. A social worker from the

2 detention center and Ronald’s mother also testified on Ronald’s behalf and stated that

3 Ronald could be rehabilitated.

4 The district court, after considering the factors laid out in Section 32A-2-20(C),

5 concluded that neither was amenable to treatment. The court imposed adult sanctions

6 and sentenced Jaime to the maximum term permitted by the plea agreement: ten

7 years’ confinement, two years’ mandatory parole, and five years’ supervised

8 probation. As to Ronald, the court sentenced him to fifteen years for the second

9 degree murder charge and three years for the conspiracy charge, a total of eighteen

10 years. The court suspended eight years of Ronald’s sentence for a total of ten years’

11 incarceration to be followed by two years’ parole and five years’ supervised

12 probation.

13 We now proceed to the arguments Children make on appeal regarding their

14 sentences.

15 II. DISCUSSION

16 A. Constitutionality of Section 32A-2-20 and Waiver

17 We begin with the joint argument that Section 32A-2-20 violates Children’s

18 Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury in that the statute directs the district court to

19 make the amenability determination and impose either an adult or juvenile sentence.

4 1 Citing Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466 (2000) and its federal progeny, and State

2 v. Frawley, 2007-NMSC-057, 143 N.M. 7, 172 P.3d 144, Children claim that the

3 amenability determination must be made by a jury. The State counters that Children

4 waived the right to raise this objection by entering into the plea agreement, and even

5 if there is no waiver, Section 32A-2-20 is constitutional, State v. Gonzales, 2001-

6 NMCA-025, 130 N.M. 341, 24 P.3d 776, overruled on other grounds as recognized

7 by State v. Rudy B., 2010-NMSC-045, 149 N.M. 22, 243 P.3d 726, controls, and the

8 amenability determination was properly made by the district court.

9 In this case, Children waived “any and all motions, defenses, objections or

10 requests which [Children have] made or raised, or could assert hereafter, to the

11 [c]ourt’s entry of judgment and imposition of a sentence consistent with this

12 agreement.” Although the plea agreement contained this language, the record shows

13 that the issue of waiver was raised and discussed at length below. At the outset of the

14 amenability hearing, counsel for Jaime attempted to raise the issue of the

15 constitutionality of Section 32A-2-20, but the district court interjected and explained

16 that Children had waived this argument in light of the fact that they had entered a plea

17 of no contest and accepted the terms of the plea agreement. The State agreed with this

18 conclusion and pointed out that, as long as the plea agreement was in effect, the only

19 issues Children could raise were jurisdictional matters. The court asked Jaime and

5 1 Ronald if they wished to withdraw their plea agreements and both responded that they

2 did not. Generally, “a voluntary guilty plea ordinarily constitutes a waiver of the

3 defendant’s right to appeal his conviction on other than jurisdictional grounds.” State

4 v. Chavarria, 2009-NMSC-020, ¶ 9, 146 N.M. 251, 208 P.3d 896 (internal quotation

5 marks and citation omitted).

6 Whether the issue was waived or not, the result is the same. In its recent case

7 of Rudy B., 2010-NMSC-045, our Supreme Court examined Section 32A-2-20 and

8 held that the Sixth Amendment does not require a jury to perform the amenability

9 determination, thus upholding “from constitutional challenge New Mexico’s statutory

10 preference for judge-made amenability decisions.” Rudy B., 2010-NMSC-045, ¶ 2.

11 We affirm on this issue.

12 B. Substantial Evidence/Abuse of Discretion

13 Children also challenge the district court’s determination that they were not

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Apprendi v. New Jersey
530 U.S. 466 (Supreme Court, 2000)
State v. Chavarria
2009 NMSC 020 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 2009)
State v. Rudy B.
2010 NMSC 045 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 2010)
State v. Trujillo
2009 NMCA 128 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2009)
State v. Solano
2009 NMCA 098 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2009)
State v. Sosa
1997 NMSC 032 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1997)
State v. Boyer
712 P.2d 1 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 1985)
State v. Franklin
428 P.2d 982 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1967)
State v. Tapia
443 P.2d 514 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 1968)
State v. Boergadine
2005 NMCA 028 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2005)
State v. Gonzales
2001 NMCA 025 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2001)
State v. Frawley
2007 NMSC 057 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 2007)
State v. Todisco
6 P.3d 1032 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2000)
State v. Johnson
662 P.2d 1349 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1983)
State v. Orquiz
2003 NMCA 089 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2003)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
State v. Jaime L & Ronald T, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-jaime-l-ronald-t-nmctapp-2011.