State v. Kruzycki

531 N.W.2d 429, 192 Wis. 2d 509, 1995 Wisc. App. LEXIS 313
CourtCourt of Appeals of Wisconsin
DecidedMarch 9, 1995
Docket93-0292-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 531 N.W.2d 429 (State v. Kruzycki) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Kruzycki, 531 N.W.2d 429, 192 Wis. 2d 509, 1995 Wisc. App. LEXIS 313 (Wis. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinions

GARTZKE, P.J.

Mark Kruzycki appeals from a judgment convicting him on four counts of first-degree sexual assault, § 940.225(l)(b), STATS., battery, § 940.19(1), Stats., false imprisonment, §§ 940.30 and 939.63(l)(a)4, Stats., and kidnapping, §§ 940.31(1) and 939.63(l)(a)2, STATS.1 He also appeals from an order denying his motion for postconviction relief.

Kruzycki raises several issues: (1) whether commitment under the now-repealed provisions of the Sex Crimes Law, ch. 975, STATS., 1977,2 is a sentence for [516]*516purposes of the repeater statute, § 939.62, STATS.; (2) whether convicting him on two counts of first-degree sexual assault subjects him to double jeopardy; (3) whether the trial court erred by admitting in evidence his three 1979 convictions to impeach his credibility; and (4) whether we should order a new trial because of prosecutorial misconduct.

We conclude that Kruzycki was erroneously sentenced as a repeater, but he was not subjected to double jeopardy, and the trial court properly allowed the prosecution to use his 1979 convictions to impeach his credibility. Because Kruzycki did not object to the alleged prosecutorial misconduct, and the alleged misconduct was not plain error, and the criteria for a new trial under § 752.35, Stats., have not been met, we decline to order a new trial. We reverse the judgment as to the sentences and remand for resentencing without recourse to the repeater statute, and otherwise affirm the judgment of conviction and the order denying Kruzycki's motion for postconviction relief.

1. Sentencing Under the Repeater Statute

The repeater statute, § 939.62, STATS., permits a court to impose enhanced penalties on a defendant convicted of a felony within the five-year period immediately preceding the crime for which the defendant is presently being sentenced. "In computing the preceding 5-year period, time which the actor spent in actual confinement serving a criminal sentence" is excluded. Section 939.62(2).

The crimes for which Kruzycki was convicted and sentenced in the case resulting in this appeal were committed in September 1991. In 1979, he was convicted of first-degree sexual assault and second-degree sexual assault, § 940.225(l)(b) and (2), STATS., 1977. He [517]*517was committed for those convictions under the Sex Crimes Law from July 1979 through February 1985 and from September 1986 through July 1990. Before trial, his counsel withdrew a motion challenging the applicability of the repeater statute to Kruzycki, and after the jury rendered its verdict, his counsel stipulated that the repeater statute applied. The trial court applied the repeater statute to increase the term of his sentence on each conviction.

The trial court denied Kruzycki's postconviction motion challenging the increases to his terms of imprisonment under the repeater statute. It reasoned that because he had been in "actual confinement" when serving his commitments under the Sex Crimes Law, he had no opportunity for criminal conduct, and therefore the period of that confinement is excluded when computing the "preceding 5-year period" described in § 939.62(2), Stats.

The State contends that Kruzycki waived the right on appeal to question his sentence as a repeater when he withdrew his motion challenging the applicability of the repeater statute and again when he stipulated to its applicability. We consider the withdrawal as essentially nothing more than the usual waiver which occurs when trial counsel fails timely to object to error and thus usually prevents his or her client from raising the issue for the first time on appeal. The waiver rule is one of judicial administration, and it does not affect our power to deal with an issue. Wirth v. Ehly, 93 Wis. 2d 433, 443-44, 287 N.W.2d 140, 145-46 (1980). Kruzycki's stipulation to the applicability of the repeater statute does not affect our review. A concession on an issue of law does not bind an appellate court. A question of law "cannot be bargained away by counsel nor shielded [518]*518from ab initio consideration by successive court reviews." Fletcher v. Eagle River Memorial Hosp., Inc., 156 Wis. 2d 165, 182, 456 N.W.2d 788, 796 (1990).

No Wisconsin precedent specifically states that commitment under the now-repealed provisions of the Sex Crimes Law tolls the five-year limit on the use of prior convictions to enhance sentences under the repeater statute, § 939.62, Stats. Resolution of the issue is important to the sentencing process. We should set aside an unlawfully imposed sentence. We therefore exercise our discretion to review the issue in this appeal.

The State urges that we treat the word "sentence" in § 939.62(2), STATS., as ambiguous and reminds us that a literal construction of a statute should not be adopted if it defeats the legislative purpose. State ex rel. Tessmer v. Circuit Court Branch III, 123 Wis. 2d 439, 443, 367 N.W.2d 235, 237 (Ct. App. 1985). It asserts that the intent of the statute is to exclude from the computation the time during which a previously convicted offender is removed from the community and is unable to endanger the community or commit further offenses. The State claims that any other interpretation is unreasonable, and notes that we are to interpret statutes to avoid unreasonable results. State v. Robertson, 174 Wis. 2d 36, 46, 496 N.W.2d 221, 225 (Ct. App. 1993).

However, the considered views repeatedly expressed in State v. Hungerford 76 Wis. 2d 171, 251 N.W.2d 9 (1977), regarding the nature of the confinement of a person committed under the Sex Crimes Law, are such that we cannot hold that a commitment is a sentence for purposes of the repeater statute, § 939.62(2), STATS. The Hungerford court, quoting from [519]*519Huebner v. State, 33 Wis. 2d 505, 526, 147 N.W.2d 646, 656 (1967), stated that a commitment under ch. 975, STATS., 1975, is "so essentially different from penal sentencing as to amount to an independent proceeding... ." Hungerford, 76 Wis. 2d at 176, 251 N.W.2d at 10. The Hungerford court continued, "Commitment is an alternative disposition to sentencing. Commitment proceedings pursuant to ch. 975 constitute, neither civil commitment nor sentencing." Id. (footnotes omitted). The court ruled that because Hungerford had been committed under ch. 975, he "was not previously sentenced ...." Id. at 177, 251 N.W.2d at 11.

The issue in Hungerford was whether a sentence for the crime of escape under § 946.42(4), Stats., 1975, had to be consecutive to a Sex-Crimes-Law commitment. Section 946.42(4) provided that a sentence imposed for an escape had to be consecutive to any sentence previously imposed. Because a commitment under ch. 975, STATS., 1975, is not a sentence, the supreme court concluded that the trial court could impose a sentence concurrent with a commitment.

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State v. Kruzycki
531 N.W.2d 429 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 1995)

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Bluebook (online)
531 N.W.2d 429, 192 Wis. 2d 509, 1995 Wisc. App. LEXIS 313, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-kruzycki-wisctapp-1995.