State v. Maguire

957 P.2d 598, 341 Utah Adv. Rep. 27, 1998 Utah LEXIS 22, 1998 WL 225298
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedApril 24, 1998
Docket960493
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 957 P.2d 598 (State v. Maguire) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah 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. Maguire, 957 P.2d 598, 341 Utah Adv. Rep. 27, 1998 Utah LEXIS 22, 1998 WL 225298 (Utah 1998).

Opinions

HOWE, Chief Justice:

The court of appeals reversed a district court order denying defendant Brian Ma-guire’s motion to correct his sentence. We then granted the State’s petition for a writ of certiorari to review the court of appeals’ decision that Utah Code Ann. § 76-3-405 (1995) precluded the district court from imposing a more severe sentence on Maguire after he was reconvicted following the withdrawal of his no contest plea.

BACKGROUND

While on parole from the Utah State Prison for a prior murder conviction, Maguire assaulted his grandmother and tore off the top third of her ear. The State revoked his parole and charged him with aggravated assault, a third degree felony; mayhem, a second degree felony; and being a habitual criminal, a first degree felony. Maguire entered into a plea agreement with the prosecutor wherein he pleaded no contest to the aggravated assault charge. In exchange for this plea, the prosecutor agreed to dismiss the other two charges and recommended reducing the aggravated assault conviction from a third degree felony to a class A misdemeanor. The district court judge accepted the plea agreement and sentenced Maguire to a term of not more than one year in the Utah State Prison. This term ran concurrently with the murder sentence that [599]*599he was serving because the trial judge did not specify it as “consecutive.” See Utah Code Ann. § 76-3-401(1).

Shortly after Maguire was sentenced, he moved to withdraw his no contest plea. The court ultimately denied his motion, but by that time, he had served his one-year sentence.1 He appealed, and the court of appeals, in an unpublished memorandum decision, reversed the district court’s order denying Maguire’s motion to withdraw his plea because the district court had not strictly complied with the requirements of rule 11 of the Utah Rules of Criminal Procedure in accepting his plea. On writ of certiorari, we affirmed the court of appeals’ decision. State v. Maguire, 830 P.2d 216 (Utah 1991) (per curiam). On remand to the district court, Maguire was finally allowed to withdraw his no contest plea.

After Maguire withdrew his plea, the State reinstated the aggravated assault, mayhem, and habitual criminal charges, and a trial date was set. During trial, the prosecutor again offered Maguire a plea bargain which he accepted. As before, Maguire agreed to plead guilty to aggravated assault in exchange for the dismissal of the mayhem and habitual criminal charges. However, this time, the prosecutor did not agree to recommend that Maguire be sentenced to a class A misdemeanor, and the district court judge sentenced him to a term not to exceed five years.2 Furthermore, the judge expressly stated that this term was to run consecutively to the term he was already serving for his prior murder conviction.

Approximately two years after the court sentenced Maguire pursuant to his second plea, he moved to correct his sentence pursuant to Utah Code Ann. § 76-3^05 (1995).3 He argued that this section precluded the court from imposing a more severe sentence on him for aggravated assault than was imposed after his first plea and conviction. The district court denied this motion, and Ma-guire appealed.

On appeal to the court of appeals, he again argued that his second sentence was unlawful under section 76-3-405. He also argued that his second sentence violated the prohibition against double jeopardy. See U.S. Const, amend. V; Utah Const, art. I, § 12; Utah Code Ann. § 77-l-6(2)(a). The court of appeals agreed with Maguire’s argument under section 76-3-405 and reversed his second sentence. See State v. Maguire, 924 P.2d 904, 906-07 (Utah Ct.App.1996). Because the court based its decision on section 76-3-405, it did not reach Maguire’s double jeopardy arguments. We then granted the State’s petition for writ of certiorari to review the court of appeals’ decision. See State v. Maguire, 931 P.2d 146 (Utah 1997).

ANALYSIS

The narrow issue presented by this case is whether section 76-3-405 prohibited the district court from imposing a more severe sentence on Maguire for aggravated assault after he prevailed on appeal and was allowed to withdraw his first plea. That section provides:

Where a conviction or sentence has been set aside on direct review or on collateral attack, the court shall not impose a new sentence for the same offense or for a different offense based on the same conduct which is more severe than the prior sentence less the portion of the prior sentence previously satisfied.

[600]*600Utah Code Aon. § 76-3-405 (emphasis added). The court of appeals determined that the plain language of this statute precluded Maguire’s second sentence. See Maguire, 924 P.2d at 907.

While we agree that the language of section 76-3-405 is plain, the fundamental question that we must answer in this ease is whether Maguire’s conviction was actually “set aside on direct review or collateral attack.” We hold that it was not.

The court of appeals overlooked the fact that Maguire simply appealed from the district court’s order denying his motion to withdraw his no contest plea; he did not actually attack his conviction. This distinction is important because in State v. Powell, 957 P.2d 595 (Utah 1998), a case also decided today, we held that

[w]hen an order denying a motion to withdraw a plea is reversed on appeal, the appellate court does not “set aside” the conviction. Rather, the appellate court merely overturns the trial court’s order and then remands the case to allow the defendant to withdraw his plea if he still desires to do so.

957 P.2d at 596. Therefore, Maguire’s conviction was not actually “set aside” on appeal.

Nevertheless, we note that the court of appeals stated in its unpublished memorandum decision that “we vacate defendant’s conviction and remand to the trial court to allow defendant to withdraw his no contest plea.” State v. Maguire, No. 900045, slip op. 1, 3 (Utah Ct.App. Nov. 16, 1990) (mem.) (emphasis added). In our view, the highlighted portion of this statement is neither correct nor tenable. First, it is incorrect because, as stated above, a defendant’s conviction is not actually “set aside” when the appellate court merely reverses the trial court’s denial of a motion to withdraw a plea. Rather, defendant sets aside his own conviction by withdrawing his plea on remand. Second, it is untenable because there would have been no reason to remand the case for the purpose of allowing him to withdraw his plea if Maguire’s conviction was actually vacated by the court on appeal. His conviction would have already been vacated and the only reason for remand would be to conduct a trial.

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State v. Maguire
957 P.2d 598 (Utah Supreme Court, 1998)

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Bluebook (online)
957 P.2d 598, 341 Utah Adv. Rep. 27, 1998 Utah LEXIS 22, 1998 WL 225298, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-maguire-utah-1998.