State v. Ortega

2004 NMCA 080, 93 P.3d 758, 135 N.M. 737
CourtNew Mexico Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 21, 2004
Docket23,892
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 2004 NMCA 080 (State v. Ortega) 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. Ortega, 2004 NMCA 080, 93 P.3d 758, 135 N.M. 737 (N.M. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

OPINION

WECHSLER, Chief Judge.

{1} This appeal raises a variation of the issue of whether the 2002 amendment to the habitual offender statute, NMSA 1978, § 31-18-17 (2002), applies to the enhancement of a sentence after July 1, 2002, the effective date of the amendment. The amendment in part excludes a felony conviction from habitual offender consideration when ten years or more have passed between the current conviction and the completion of the latter of the sentence, probation, or parole of the prior conviction. Section 31-18-17(D).

{2} In State v. Shay, 2004-NMCA-077, ¶ 23, 136 N.M. 8, 94 P.3d 8, 2004 WL 1541927 [No. 23, 594 (N.M.Ct.App. Apr. 21, 2004)], also filed today, we hold that the amendment applies when the district court sentences for the underlying crime after July 1, 2002 if the supplemental information charging the habitual offender status is also filed on or after July 1, 2002. In this appeal, the district court accepted a plea agreement and entered sentence prior to July 1, 2002. The sentence included a suspended sentence and probation. After a probation violation, the district court ordered the basic sentence to be served as well as a habitual offender enhancement for a prior felony conviction that would not have been included for enhancement purposes under the 2002 amendment. Because the district court had imposed sentence prior to July 1, 2002 based on the plea agreement, it properly applied NMSA 1978, § 31-18-17 (1993). We nevertheless reverse due to an ambiguity in the sentence and remand for correction of the sentence.

Factual and Procedural Background

{3} Defendant Ronnie Ortega, III was indicted for larceny of a firearm, larceny over $250, felon in possession of a firearm, and unlawful carrying of a deadly weapon. He •entered into a plea agreement, agreeing that he would plead guilty to the larceny over $250 and felon in possession of a firearm charges and that the other charges would be dismissed. As to prior felony convictions and habitual offender enhancement, the plea agreement provided that: Defendant would admit to convictions of possession of marijuana in 1985, forgery in 1992, and possession of cocaine in 1992; the 1992 forgery conviction would be the predicate offense for the felon in possession of a firearm charge; the sentence for one of the felonies subject to the plea agreement would be enhanced by four years based on two prior convictions; the State would file additional habitual offender proceedings if Defendant violated the plea agreement or conditions of probation or parole, which would mean that the sentence for the other felony subject to the plea agreement could be enhanced by four years; and Defendant agreed to waive his right to object to any sentence imposed under the plea agreement.

{4} The district court accepted the plea agreement. It adjudged Defendant guilty of larceny over $250 and possession of a firearm by a felon and found that Defendant had two prior felony convictions as a habitual offender. It sentenced Defendant to concurrent eighteen-month terms for each of the current charges and a four-year enhancement as a habitual offender on the larceny over $250 charge. It suspended eighteen months of the five and one-half year prison sentence and ordered supervised probation for eighteen months after Defendant completed his term of imprisonment.

{5} On June 20, 2002, after Defendant had served approximately four months of his period of probation, the State filed a motion to revoke Defendant’s probation for violating its terms. It filed a supplemental information on November 1, 2002 to enhance Defendant’s sentence for felon in possession of a firearm. Defendant admitted to the probation violation. At the sentencing hearing, Defendant argued that the 1985 conviction for possession of marijuana could not be used to enhance his sentence because it occurred more than ten years prior to the conviction for felon in possession of a firearm and thus was not a prior felony conviction under the 2002 amendment to the habitual offender statute. The district court rejected the argument and entered judgment and sentence on December 9, 2002, sentencing Defendant to custody for the balance of his basic sentence, fourteen months for larceny over $250, and eighteen months for felon in possession of a firearm, and to a four-year enhancement as a habitual offender on the felon in possession of a firearm charge. Defendant appeals.

Habitual Offender Enhancement

{6} In Shay, an opinion addressing two appeals, the defendants committed the crimes prior to July 1, 2002, the effective date of the 2002 amendment. Shay, 2004-NMCA-077, ¶ 3. For each defendant, the conviction, filing of the supplemental information, and sentencing were after the effective date. Id. ¶¶ 2-3. Our holding construed the legislative intent to intend the amendment to have effect as of the effective date for all crimes for which the penalty had not already been imposed based in part on NMSA 1978, § 12-2A-16(C) (1997), which states that “[i]f a criminal penalty for a violation of a statute or rule is reduced by an amendment, the penalty, if not already imposed, must be imposed under the statute or rule as amended.” We reasoned that because a habitual offender is punished by virtue of the conviction of the underlying crime and the enhanced sentence is punishment for the underlying crime, the amendment would apply to a defendant who had not been sentenced for the underlying crime at the effective date of the amendment. Shay, 2004-NMCA-077, ¶ 21.

{7} The reasoning of Shay does not apply to this case. Viewed from the perspective of the sentence the district court imposed, Defendant committed the crimes, entered into a plea agreement, and was sentenced under the plea agreement prior to the effective date of the 2002 amendment. Although Defendant did not receive the enhancement in question, the district court had imposed sentence for the underlying crime of felon in possession of a firearm. That sentence included a suspended sentence and a period of probation. It was subject to the statutory condition that the court could impose the full sentence if Defendant failed to fulfill the conditions of his probation. See NMSA 1978, § 31-21-15(B) (1989) (stating that upon establishment of a parole violation, a defendant may be required to serve “any sentence which might originally have been imposed”). Under the district court’s sentence and the plea agreement, the full sentence included an additional eighteen month prison term and a four-year enhancement as a habitual offender. Defendant negotiated and benefitted from the plea agreement; two charges were dismissed and the court imposed sentence holding in abeyance the four-year habitual offender enhancement. When Defendant violated the terms of his probation, the court’s action followed the sentence it had imposed and enforced the conditions that were before it at the time it approved the plea agreement.

{8} From the perspective of the habitual offender statute, we reach the same result. The statute applies to an enhancement upon the conviction of a crime. A probation violation is not a crime and does not trigger an enhancement as a habitual offender. See State v. Sanchez, 94 N.M. 521, 523, 612 P.2d 1332

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State v. Peina
New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2023
State v. Mcbride
New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2019
State v. Yazzie
2018 NMCA 1 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2017)
State v. Head
New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2016
State v. Lombardeux
New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2014
State v. Ordunez
2012 NMSC 24 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 2012)
State v. Bohannon
2010 VT 22 (Supreme Court of Vermont, 2010)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2004 NMCA 080, 93 P.3d 758, 135 N.M. 737, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-ortega-nmctapp-2004.