State v. Miller

CourtNew Mexico Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 12, 2014
Docket29,244
StatusUnpublished

This text of State v. Miller (State v. Miller) 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. Miller, (N.M. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

This memorandum opinion was not selected for publication in the New Mexico Appellate Reports. Please see Rule 12-405 NMRA for restrictions on the citation of unpublished memorandum opinions. Please also note that this electronic memorandum opinion may contain computer-generated errors or other deviations from the official paper version filed by the Court of Appeals and does not include the filing date.

1 IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO

2 STATE OF NEW MEXICO,

3 Plaintiff-Appellee,

4 v. NO. 29,244

5 ANDREW MILLER,

6 Defendant-Appellant.

7 APPEAL FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF BERNALILLO COUNTY 8 Kenneth H. Martinez, District Judge

9 Gary K. King, Attorney General 10 Santa Fe, NM

11 Ralph E. Trujillo, Assistant Attorney General 12 Albuquerque, NM

13 for Appellee

14 Jorge A. Alvarado, Chief Public Defender 15 Carlos Ruiz de la Torre, Assistant Appellate Defender 16 Santa Fe, NM

17 for Appellant 1 MEMORANDUM OPINION

2 BUSTAMANTE, Judge.

3 {1} Defendant appealed his sentence of forty-two years of imprisonment for fraud,

4 embezzlement, and forgery, arguing that the sentence violated his plea agreement, that

5 the State violated his right to be free from double jeopardy, and that the district court

6 erred in calculating the amount of restitution and pre-sentence confinement.

7 Defendant’s arguments as to the propriety of the forty-two year sentence were

8 considered by this Court and then the New Mexico Supreme Court, which ordered that

9 Defendant be re-sentenced and remanded to this Court for review of Defendant’s other

10 arguments. We conclude that there are insufficient facts in the record to consider

11 whether Defendant’s double jeopardy rights were violated and remand to the district

12 court for development of this issue. Because Defendant’s other arguments are either

13 not preserved or inadequately developed for appeal, we decline to review them.

14 BACKGROUND

15 {2} Since this is a memorandum opinion and the second from this Court pertaining

16 to this case, we summarize the facts only briefly. See State v. Miller, 2012-NMCA-

17 051, 278 P.3d 561, cert. granted, 2012-NMCERT-005, 294 P.3d 446 and aff’d in part,

18 rev’d in part, State v. Miller (Miller II), 2013-NMSC-048, 314 P.3d 655. The present

19 matter pertains to two consolidated cases in which Defendant was indicted on sixty-

20 six counts involving fraud, embezzlement, and forgery contrary to NMSA 1978, § 30- 1 42-1 to -6 (1980, as amended through 2009) (the Racketeering Act). See Miller, 2012-

2 NMCA-051, ¶ 2. Pursuant to a plea agreement, all but six of the counts were

3 dismissed. Id. ¶ 3.

4 {3} After the plea agreement was accepted but before sentencing, Defendant moved

5 to withdraw the plea. Id. ¶ 4. The district court denied the motion to withdraw the

6 plea and sentenced Defendant to forty-two years of imprisonment followed by two

7 years of parole and five years of probation. Id. ¶ 5. Defendant appealed, arguing that

8 the district court erred in denying the motion to withdraw because the sentence was

9 not in accordance with the plea agreement, among other arguments. Id. ¶ 8. This

10 Court agreed, vacated the sentence, and remanded for withdrawal of the plea or

11 resentencing. Id. ¶¶ 28, 31. We did not reach Defendant’s other issues. Id. ¶¶ 30, 31.

12 {4} On writ of certiorari, the Supreme Court reversed. See Miller II, 2013-NMSC-

13 048, ¶ 1. Although it agreed that the sentence violated the plea agreement, the

14 Supreme Court disagreed that Defendant should be permitted to withdraw the plea.

15 It “reverse[d] the Court of Appeals’ remand order that [gave] Defendant the option to

16 either withdraw his guilty and no contest pleas or to be sentenced according to his

17 understanding of the [plea agreement] terms if the State agrees.” Id. ¶ 31. Instead, it

18 ordered the district court to “inform Defendant that it will embody in the judgment

19 and sentence the disposition provided for in the . . . plea agreement [as it was

3 1 interpreted by the Supreme Court].” Id. It remanded the matter to this Court for

2 consideration of the remainder of Defendant’s arguments on appeal. Id. ¶ 40.

3 Additional facts are included as pertinent to our discussion of Defendant’s arguments.

4 DISCUSSION

5 {5} Defendant’s remaining arguments are that (1) his double jeopardy rights were

6 violated by the State’s sale of seized vehicles before he entered a plea and (2) the

7 district court erred in calculating restitution amounts and pre-sentence confinement

8 credit. We address these arguments in the order presented.

9 Double Jeopardy

10 {6} Defendant argues that the sale of one or more of his vehicles prior to sentencing

11 precludes the State from imposing any further punishment on him and that his

12 subsequent conviction therefore violated his right to be free from double jeopardy

13 under the New Mexico Constitution. See N.M. Const. art. II, § 15. The legal basis of

14 this argument is found in State v. Nunez, in which the Supreme Court held that “the

15 New Mexico [d]ouble [j]eopardy [c]lause forbids bringing criminal charges and civil

16 forfeiture petitions for the same crime in separate proceedings.” 2000-NMSC-013,

17 ¶ 117, 129 N.M. 63, 2 P.3d 264. We interpret Defendant’s argument to be that (1)

18 jeopardy attached upon the sale of the cars; and (2) because forfeiture of the cars was

19 punitive, any further punishment constituted double jeopardy for the same conduct.

4 1 See State v. Tijerino, 2004-NMCA-039, ¶¶ 12, 135 N.M. 313, 87 P.3d 1095 (stating

2 that jeopardy attached when “[t]he practical effect of [an] agreement [between the

3 state and a secured party] and the . . . dismissal was that [d]efendants’ property interest

4 in the vehicle was altered once [the secured party] took possession.”); Nunez, 2000-

5 NMSC-013, ¶¶ 55-57, 61, 94, 104 (applying a three-pronged test to determine whether

6 (1) the forfeiture action and criminal prosecution were conducted in the same

7 proceedings, (2) “the conduct at issue consists of one or more than one offense[,]” and

8 (3) “both proceedings impose punishment” and concluding that double jeopardy was

9 violated where the forfeiture action was punitive and did not occur in the same

10 proceeding as the criminal prosecution.” See State ex rel. Schwartz v. Kennedy, 1995-

11 NMSC-069, 120 N.M. 619, 904 P.2d 1044). Essentially, Defendant invites us to

12 conduct a Nunez-like analysis of these factors as they apply to him.

13 {7} But Defendant has provided no factual basis for his legal arguments. Although

14 Defendant agreed to forfeit “[a]ll vehicles purchased using money obtained using [the

15 victim’s] money[]” as well as real property and computers in the plea agreement, the

16 record is silent as to what property was seized and when, whether any property was

17 sold and when, and whether Defendant acquired the property with money fraudulently

18 obtained. Defendant admits that “the record with respect to this issue may need to be

19 further developed” and acknowledges that double jeopardy implications arise only

5 1 “[i]f the prosecutor did indeed subject [Defendant’s] property to forfeiture prior to

2 convicting [him]” (emphasis added).

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State v. Miller
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2004 NMCA 039 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2004)
State v. Wood
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State v. Trujillo
877 P.2d 575 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1994)
State v. Nunez
2 P.3d 264 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1999)
State v. Antillon
2 P.3d 315 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1999)
State v. Miller
2013 NMSC 048 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 2013)
State v. Wood
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State v. Trujillo
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Tawzer v. McAdam
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State v. Miller, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-miller-nmctapp-2014.