State v. Murray

118 Wash. App. 518
Court of Appeals of Washington·Decided September 15, 2003·No. No. 49364-7-I·Published·Cited by 45 cases

Opinion

Appelwick, J.

This is an appeal from an order authorizing a sentence modification. Sally Jean Murray was sentenced to serve 365 days, with credit for one day served, in a county work release program, a form of partial confinement. After serving part of her sentence, Murray filed a motion asking the court to permit her to serve the remainder of the sentence in home detention, a different form of partial confinement. The trial court, relying on its inherent authority, granted Murray’s motion. The State appeals. Based on State v. Shove, 113 Wn.2d 83, 776 P.2d 132 (1989), we reverse.

[520] FACTS

Sally Jean Murray was an attorney licensed to practice law in Washington State. Murray was charged with seven counts of theft after embezzling $70,063.89 from her clients. Murray and the State entered a plea agreement whereby the State agreed to dismiss two counts of first degree theft and one count of second degree theft in return for Murray’s promise to join in the State’s sentence recommendation of 12 months’ incarceration with 30 days converted to community service. On November 17, 2000, Murray pleaded guilty to four counts of first degree theft. On March 16, 2001, she was sentenced to 365 days in the King County jail, followed by 12 months of community supervision upon her release.1 The trial court rejected home detention, but authorized Murray to serve her time in a work release facility. The order did not provide for alternative forms of partial confinement, nor did it provide for movement from work release to home detention. On April 30, 2001, Murray requested that her sentence be modified to allow for home detention. The court denied her motion. Murray began serving her sentence on April 30, 2001.

On October 15, 2001, Murray again filed a motion requesting she be allowed to finish her sentence in home detention. Over the State’s objection that postjudgment modification of Murray’s sentence exceeded the court’s authority and breached her plea agreement, the trial court granted Murray’s motion, ruling that it had inherent authority to grant electronic home monitoring. On October 16, 2001, the State filed a notice of appeal of the trial court’s modification of Murray’s sentence and an emergency motion to stay execution of her sentence pending appeal. On October 30, 2001, a court commissioner denied the State’s motion for an emergency stay of the trial court’s modifica[521] tion of Murray’s sentence.2 The State appeals the trial court’s authorization of Murray’s sentence modification as exceeding its authority under former RCW 9.94A.150 (2000) and as a breach of Murray’s plea agreement.

ANALYSIS

I. Standard of Review

Whether a trial court has exceeded its statutory authority under the Sentencing Reform Act of 1981 (SRA), chapter 9.94A RCW, is an issue of law, which we review independently. State v. Hale, 94 Wn. App. 46, 54, 971 P.2d 88 (1999).

II. Mootness

Murray argues that because she completed her sentence in December 2001, the court should dismiss the State’s appeal as moot. “But this issue is a matter of continuing. . . public interest, ‘capable of repetition yet easily evading review.’ ” Hale, 94 Wn. App. at 52 (quoting State v. Clark, 91 Wn. App. 581, 584, 958 P.2d 1028 (1998)). In order to clarify the sentencing court’s authority and to provide future guidance, we address this issue here. Hale, 94 Wn. App. at 52.

III. Standing

The State has standing to appeal the sentence modification at issue here. Former RCW 9.94A.210(1)3 states that “[a] sentence within the standard sentence range for the offense shall not be appealed. For purposes of this section, a sentence imposed on a first-time offender. . . shall also be deemed to be within the standard sentence range for the offense and shall not be appealed.” However, this appeal is not a challenge to a standard-range sentence. It is a challenge to the modification of a prior standard-[522] range sentence. A sentencing court has discretion in sentencing only where the SRA so authorizes. State v. Shove, 113 Wn.2d 83, 89 n.3, 776 P.2d 132 (1989). When a trial court exceeds its sentencing authority under the SRA, it commits reversible error. Hale, 94 Wn. App. at 53. Former RCW 9.94A.210(1) does not prevent the State from appealing a sentence modification that exceeds the trial court’s authority or is legally erroneous. State v. DeBello, 92 Wn. App. 723, 725-26, 964 P.2d 1192 (1998) (citing State v. Bernhard, 108 Wn.2d 527, 530, 742 P.2d 1 (1987), overruled on other grounds by State v. Shove, 113 Wn.2d 83, 88, 776 P.2d 132 (1989)).

IV. Sentence Modification

We are presented with the issue of whether a trial court has authority to modify a sentence. The original sentence did not provide for a change in the form of partial confinement during the sentence. Here, the trial court reasoned at the time of modification that it had the inherent authority to modify Murray’s sentence to permit her to serve the last six months of her sentence in home detention in lieu of remaining in work release. Both home detention and work release are forms of partial confinement.

Murray argues that the trial court was authorized to release her from the work release facility in which she was incarcerated to home detention under former RCW 9.94A.150(3) and (6) (2000). Former RCW 9.94A.150(3) is inapplicable to Murray. It provided that “[a]n offender may leave a correctional facility pursuant to an authorized furlough or leave of absence.” Former RCW 9.94A.150(3). Murray’s sentence modification was not a furlough.

Former RCW 9.94A.150 allows for postsentence modification in limited circumstances. It provides:

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State v. Murray, 118 Wash. App. 518 (Wash. Ct. App. 2003).

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