State v. Kristina M. Quintana

306 P.3d 209, 155 Idaho 124, 2013 WL 2382526, 2013 Ida. App. LEXIS 44
CourtIdaho Court of Appeals
DecidedJune 3, 2013
Docket39049, 39156
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 306 P.3d 209 (State v. Kristina M. Quintana) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho 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. Kristina M. Quintana, 306 P.3d 209, 155 Idaho 124, 2013 WL 2382526, 2013 Ida. App. LEXIS 44 (Idaho Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

GUTIERREZ, Chief Judge.

Kristina Marie Quintana aka King appeals from her judgments of conviction for grand theft, burglary, and two counts of grand theft by possession of stolen property in two cases consolidated for appeal. Specifically, she *127 contends the sentences imposed after her guilty pleas to the charges are excessive. Quintana also appeals from the order denying her Idaho Criminal Rule 35 motion for reduction of sentences, contending the district court erred in denying her motion. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm.

I.

FACTS AND PROCEDURE

In March 2010, Quintana, then twenty-two years old, stole her college professor’s wallet during class while the professor was briefly out of the room. Quintana used a credit card from the wallet to make purchases at a local gas station and restaurant and to purchase wedding invitations online. After an investigation revealed Quintana was responsible for the theft and fraudulent credit card use, the State filed a complaint charging her with one count of grand theft, Idaho Code §§ 18-2403(1), 18-2407(l)(b), and two counts of grand theft by unauthorized control, I.C. §§ 18-2403(3), 18-2407(l)(b) (hereinafter Case No. 39049). Before she could be arrested, Quintana left Boise for New Mexico.

In December 2010, a Boise resident observed three individuals, two of whom were later identified as Quintana and Shauntel King, appearing to unlawfully enter a neighbor’s house. The neighbors returned to find their residence was ransacked and several items were stolen, including a credit card. A search warrant was executed for Quintana and King’s residence. Officers recovered various stolen property and other evidence tying Quintana and King to numerous recent home burglaries, theft from vehicles, and instances of mail theft in the Boise area. The evidence indicated the pair stole, among other things, electronics, credit cards, checks, purses, and jewelry and used the credit card and checking account numbers to make fraudulent purchases. For this series of crimes, which the charging document indicated included burglaries from five residences, theft from four vehicles, and thefts from three mailboxes, Quintana was charged with six counts of burglary, I.C. § 18-1401, six counts of grand theft, I.C. §§ 18-2403(1), 18-2407(l)(b), and six counts of grand theft by possession of stolen property, I.C. §§ 18-2403(4), 18-2407(1) (hereinafter Case No. 39156).

In Case No. 39049, pursuant to a plea agreement, Quintana pled guilty to one count of grand theft and the State dismissed the remaining charges. The district court imposed a unified sentence of fourteen years, with three years determinate.

Case No. 39156 proceeded before a different district court judge and, also pursuant to a plea agreement, Quintana pled guilty to one count of burglary and two counts of grand theft by possession of stolen property. The State dismissed the remaining charges. Quintana did not appear at the initially scheduled sentencing hearing, having sent the court a fabricated letter indicating she was unable to travel due to a high-risk pregnancy. After it was established she was not actually pregnant, the sentencing hearing was held and the district court imposed a unified ten-year sentence, with four years determinate, for the burglary conviction. On each of the two counts of grand theft by possession of stolen property, the court imposed a unified fourteen-year sentence, with four years determinate. The court ordered one of the grand theft sentences to run consecutively to the two other sentences, while the other sentences ran concurrently with each other. This resulted in an aggregate, unified sentence of twenty-eight years, with eight years determinate, to run concurrently with the sentence imposed in Case No. 39049. Quintana filed an Idaho Criminal Rule 35 motion for reduction of sentences, which the district court denied.

Quintana timely appealed the judgment of conviction in both cases, as well as the denial of her Rule 35 motion in Case No. 39156. The Idaho Supreme court granted her motion to consolidate the cases on appeal. Shortly before Quintana’s appellant’s brief was due on a second extension, she made a motion to suspend the briefing schedule and requested the appellate record be augmented with King’s presentence investigation (PSI) report and the portion of a letter, both referenced by the district court at sentencing in Case No. 39156. The Idaho Supreme Court denied the motion.

*128 II.

ANALYSIS

A. Motion to Augment

Quintana contends the Idaho Supreme Court violated her due process and equal protection rights by denying her motion to augment the record with King’s PSI report 1 and a letter. 2 We recently addressed a nearly identical argument in State v. Morgan, 153 Idaho 618, 620, 288 P.3d 835, 837 (Ct.App.2012):

We begin by disclaiming any authority to review and, in effect, reverse an Idaho Supreme Court decision on a motion made prior to assignment of the case to this Court on the ground that the Supreme Court decision was contrary to the state or federal constitutions or other law. Such an undertaking would be tantamount to the Court of Appeals entertaining an “appeal” from an Idaho Supreme Court decision and is plainly beyond the purview of this Court. Nevertheless, if a motion is, in effect, renewed by the movant, and new information or a new or expanded basis for the motion is presented to this Court that was not presented to the Supreme Court, we deem it within the authority of this Court to evaluate and rule on the renewed motion in the exercise of our responsibility to address all aspects of an appeal from the point of its assignment to this Court. Such may occur, for example, if the completed appellant’s and/or respondent’s briefs have refined, clarified, or expanded issues on appeal in such a way as to demonstrate the need for additional records or transcripts, or where new evidence is presented to support a renewed motion.

Quintana did not file with this Court a renewed motion to augment the record, nor did she present to this Court in her briefing any significant new facts or a new justification for augmentation beyond that already advanced in her motion to the Supreme Court — namely, that the requested PSI report and letter were relied upon by the district court in sentencing. She is, in substance, asking us to determine the Idaho Supreme Court violated her constitutional rights by denying her motion. As it is beyond the scope of our authority, we will not address the issue further.

B. Case No. 39156

1. Sentence review

Quintana contends that given any view of the facts, the individual sentences imposed upon her guilty pleas to burglary and two counts of grand theft by possession, as well as the unified, aggregate sentence of twenty-eight years, with eight years determinate (due to several sentences running consecutively), were excessive.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
306 P.3d 209, 155 Idaho 124, 2013 WL 2382526, 2013 Ida. App. LEXIS 44, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-kristina-m-quintana-idahoctapp-2013.