State v. Moa

2012 UT 28, 282 P.3d 985, 707 Utah Adv. Rep. 34, 2012 WL 1564353, 2012 Utah LEXIS 47
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedMay 4, 2012
DocketNo. 20090882
StatusPublished
Cited by71 cases

This text of 2012 UT 28 (State v. Moa) 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. Moa, 2012 UT 28, 282 P.3d 985, 707 Utah Adv. Rep. 34, 2012 WL 1564353, 2012 Utah LEXIS 47 (Utah 2012).

Opinion

Chief Justice DURRANT,

opinion of the Court.

INTRODUCTION

T1 This appeal encompasses two cases consolidated at the Utah Court of Appeals, each involving a separate shooting. In the first case (First Case), Charles Moa entered a no contest plea to a third degree felony, but later filed motions to withdraw that plea. At the hearing on his motions, he stipulated that his plea was taken in full compliance with rule 11 of the Utah Rules of Criminal Procedure. The district court ultimately concluded that Mr. Moa's plea was knowingly and voluntarily made and denied his motions. On appeal to the Utah Court of Appeals, Mr. Moa argued that the district court erred in denying his motions because his plea was not taken in compliance with rule 11. Because Mr. Moa had not preserved this argument, the court of appeals evaluated his claim un[988]*988der the plain error standard. The court of appeals held that Mr. Moa was not entitled to withdraw his plea because he did not show that the district court committed plain error in denying his plea withdrawal motions.

2 In the second case (Second Case), Mr. Moa pled guilty to two felonies and a misdemeanor. He was sentenced on the charges, with the sentences to run consecutively to each other and consecutive to any previous sentence. Mr. Moa appealed, arguing that the sentencing judge abused his discretion by considering irrelevant information in imposing consecutive sentences. The Utah Court of Appeals rejected Mr. Moa's argument after concluding that there was no evidence the judge had actually relied on irrelevant information in imposing the sentence.

13 We granted certiorari to address two issues, one in each case. Regarding the First Case, we consider whether the court of appeals erred in holding that Mr. Moa failed to demonstrate plain error in the district court's denial of his motions to withdraw his plea. Concerning the Second Case, we assess whether the court of appeals erred in affirming the district court's imposition of consecutive sentencing.

"I 4 We hold that we do not need to address whether the court of appeals correctly evaluated Mr. Moa's claim under the plain error standard because, by stipulating that his plea was taken in compliance with rule 11, Mr. Moa invited the district court's error. In addition, we hold that the court of appeals was correct in concluding that there is no evidence that the district court relied on any improper information in imposing consecutive sentences.

BACKGROUND

15 Because this appeal encompasses two consolidated cases, we address the facts and issues of each case individually.

I. THE FIRST CASE

"I 6 In April 2008, Mr. Moa and two accomplices allegedly drove to a business parking lot, pulled out handguns, and fired several shots at a group of people. A few days later, Mr. Moa left Utah and spent the next three years in Washington and California, where he was charged with various other crimes. Eventually, he was arrested and brought back to Utah to face criminal charges stemming from the alleged shooting. Upon his return, he was charged with three counts of aggravated assault, a second degree felony.

T7 After the charging documents were filed, Mr. Moa's first court-appointed attorney withdrew because of a conflict. On the day of his preliminary hearing, Mr. Moa requested that his second court-appointed attorney be removed. Mr. Moa's third court-appointed attorney attempted to negotiate a plea agreement that would allow Mr. Moa to plead "no contest" to one count of discharging a firearm from a vehicle, a third degree felony.1 In exchange, the State would agree to drop the remaining charges, recommend a suspended sentence of zero to five years, and not bring any additional charges stemming from the shooting. Mr. Moa's counsel completed a plea affidavit outlining the terms of this plea deal. Before Mr. Moa could accept the plea agreement, however, his counsel filed a motion to withdraw on the basis of a conflict. The district court granted the motion and appointed Mr. Moa a fourth attorney.

T8 Upon appointment, Mr. Moa's new counsel reviewed the proposed plea affidavit with Mr. Moa. During this meeting, Mr. Moa agreed to accept the plea deal that his prior counsel had originally prepared. When counsel informed the State of Mr. Moa's decision, however, the State responded that it wished to amend the plea deal so that Mr. Moa's sentence would be consistent with that of an accomplice in the shooting. Specifically, the State wanted Mr. Moa to remain in jail for twenty-one days so that his sentence [989]*989would be identical to that of his accomplice, who had been arrested before Mr. Moa but had agreed to plead to the same charge of discharging a firearm from a vehicle.

T9 Unhappy with the State's decision to amend the plea agreement, Mr. Moa asked his counsel to renegotiate the plea deal so that he could be released from jail immediately. Before a status conference on the pending charges, the State agreed that if Mr. Moa would plead to the third degree felony of discharging a firearm toward a building, with a suspended sentence of three to five years, he could be released from jail that day2 Although both plea deals involved third degree felonies under Utah Code seetion 76-10-508, the amended charge involved different elements and increased the required sentence to a range of three to five years instead of a range of zero to five years.

{10 Before accepting the "no contest" plea, the district court held a hearing where it reviewed the amended charge with Mr. Moa. During this hearing, the original plea affidavit was modified to reflect the new charge and the new sentence. But the modified plea affidavit did not list "intent to intimidate or harass another" as an element of the third degree felony charge. In addition, during the plea hearing, neither the judge, defense counsel, nor the prosecution articulated the necessary intent element of the offense. Nonetheless, the district court accepted Mr. Moa's no contest plea and released him from jail pending sentencing. Prior to sentencing, Mr. Moa filed timely pro se motions to withdraw his plea. In his motions, he argued that he should be allowed to withdraw his plea for three reasons. First, he stated that he had been confused about the sentence that he would receive under the amended charge. Specifically, he stated that he thought he was getting the same deal as the accomplice and that he would receive a sentence range of zero to five years, not a sentence range of three to five years. Second, he complained that his counsel had been ineffective because "he failed to object to the sudden changes in [the] plea agreement." Third, he asserted that the State had breached the plea deal by filing additional charges stemming from the shooting.

{11 Because Mr. Moa alleged that his prior counsel had been ineffective, the court appointed a new attorney to represent him. At the hearing on these motions, Mr. Moa's new counsel stipulated that Mr. Moa's plea was taken in full compliance with rule 11 of the Utah Rules of Criminal Procedure. In addition, Mr. Moa's prior attorney testified that Mr. Moa had understood that the amended charge required a sentence range of three to five years, but nonetheless wanted to enter a plea in order to be released from jail that day. The State also conceded that it had dropped its additional charges stemming from the shooting.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2012 UT 28, 282 P.3d 985, 707 Utah Adv. Rep. 34, 2012 WL 1564353, 2012 Utah LEXIS 47, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-moa-utah-2012.