State v. Ortiz

2015 NMCA 020, 7 N.M. 342
CourtNew Mexico Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 14, 2015
DocketNo. 35,032; Docket No. 31,049
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 2015 NMCA 020 (State v. Ortiz) 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. Ortiz, 2015 NMCA 020, 7 N.M. 342 (N.M. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

OPINION

HANISEE, Judge.

This case comes to us a second time following a “limited remand” previously ordered by this Court to obtain discovery and information regarding the calculation of Defendant Sidney Patrick Ortiz’s earned meritorious deductions. Following an amended judgment and order, Defendant contends that the district court erred in determining that the Earned Meritorious Deductions Act (EMDA), NMSA 1978, Section 33-2-34 (1999, amended 2006), does not apply to a term of probation, even when the probation is served during a period of incarceration on another sentence. Defendant also challenges the imposition of parole, maintaining that New Mexico law does not require him to serve multiple periods of parole on consecutive counts. We affirm the rulings of the district court.

BACKGROUND

In May 2001, pursuant to a plea agreement, Defendant pled no contest to five felony counts of third-degree forgery, contrary to NMSA 1978, Section 30-16-10 (1963, amended 2006), in CR-01-69 (Case 69). The district court sentenced Defendant to a fifteen-year period of imprisonment. However, it suspended twelve of those years and ordered thatDefendantbe incarcerated for three years, followed by two years of parole to run concurrent with five years of supervised probation.

Several months later, in a separate case, CR-01-242 (Case 242), Defendant pled guilty to seven fourth-degree felonies and two misdemeanors. As a result of his previous conviction in Case 69, the district court classified Defendant as a habitual offender and sentenced him to eighteen months of incarceration on each felony count, enhanced by one year for Defendant’s habitual offender status. The district court ran Counts 1, 2, and 3 consecutive to each other and concurrent with Counts 4, 5, 6, and 7. Additionally, the district court sentenced Defendant to three hundred sixty-four days for each misdemeanor. The district court suspended all but the mandatory habitual offender time, resulting in a three-year sentence to run consecutive to the sentence imposed in Case 69. Upon completion of the sentence, the district court ordered one year of mandatory parole to run concurrent with five years supervised probation. Upon his release from prison in 2004, Defendant was serving his periods of probation in Cases 69 and 242. But by 2010, Defendant had been reincarcerated on 1 previous probation violations, and ultimately, the State filed a petition for probation revocation on both cases, alleging that Defendant had again violated the conditions ofhis probation. Defendant pled no contest to the violations, and the district court required him to serve the balance of his sentence, which it calculated to be eight and one-half years less seventy-eight days for the time he had already served on the prior probation violations. Following sentencing, Defendant sought reconsideration by written motion to the district court, which was denied.

Defendant initially appealed imposition of his remaining suspended sentence to this Court, arguing that the district court abused its discretion in imposing the balance of Defendant’s sentence as it “unfairly interfered with his life’s goals and ambitions.” We initially proposed summary affirmance; however, after Defendant filed a memorandum in opposition to the proposed affirmance, we referred the matter to our Appellate Mediation Office. The parties agreed to a “limited remand,” during which we ordered that discovery be obtained and information gathered regarding calculation of Defendant’s good-time credit.

On remand, Defendant filed a motion seeking recalculation of his sentence, arguing to the district court that it had improperly calculated his sentencing credits and failed to credit him with meritorious deductions he earned toward his probation on Case 69 while still incarcerated for Case 242. After a hearing, the district court found that “the time Defendant served was not properly credited!,]” and it ordered the Department of Corrections to calculate Defendant’s credits in accordance with the district court’s revised findings. However, the district court additionally found that the “Earned Meritorious Deduction Act does not apply to probation, even when the probation is served during a period of incarceration on another sentence.” Defendant appeals this ruling.

DISCUSSION

Earned Meritorious Deductions Do Not Apply to Reduce Probation Sentences

Defendant argues that probation time served during a period of incarceration is eligible for earned meritorious deductions under the EMDA. Specifically, Defendant maintains that because the sentences for Case 69 and Case 242 were served consecutively, he served probation for Case 69 while incarcerated in Case 242, and the district court erred in refusing to apply meritorious deductions, earned while he was incarcerated on Case 242, to his probationary sentence in Case 69. In support, Defendant relies on the EMDA itself, stating that it contains a list of circumstances under which inmates are ineligible for meritorious deductions, none of which exclude relief from a sentence of probation. See § 33-2-34(F), (G). He additionally maintains that because the “EMDA expressly applies to inmates who have been released from an incarcera[tive] sentence but are serving in-ho'use parolef,]” the intention of the Legislature was to apply the EMDA to non-incarcerative sentences, including probation.

Because eligibility for and the award of earned meritorious deductions are governed by statute, we must analyze whether the Legislature intended meritorious deductions acquired under the EMDA to apply to reduce a term of probation. Questions of statutory interpretation are questions of law, which we review de novo. State v. Tafoya, 2010-NMSC-019, ¶ 9, 148 N.M. 391, 237 P.3d 693. In interpreting a statute, our task is to “ascertain and give effect to the intent of the Legislature.” Id. ¶ 10 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). In order to accomplish this, we look to the plain meaning of the statute; however, when “the plain meaning of the statute fails to result in a reasonable or just conclusion,” we look to the legislative history and the statute’s structure and function within the “comprehensive legislative scheme.” Id. (internal quotation marks and citation omitted).

The EMDA governs prisoner eligibility for and award of good-time deductions in the state prison system.1 Section 33-2-34; Tafoya, 2010-NMSC-019, ¶ 11; While incarcerated, an inmate may earn meritorious deductions through active participation in authorized prison programs and upon the recommendation of a supervisor and approval of the warden. Section 33-2-34(B). These deductions “decrease the maximum amount of time an inmate must serve in prison before being eligible for parole or release.” Tafoya, 2010-NMSC-019, ¶ 11. While the EMDA does permit award of earned meritorious deductions for: (i) offenders who are incarcerated, (ii) those released from confinement to serve parole terms, and (iii) those confined following a revocation of parole, the act does not afford the same benefits to those serving probation while incarcerated or while released into the community. Section 33-2-34(A), (M). Thus, the plain language of the EMDA only directly manifests a legislative intent that meritorious deductions be earned by offenders who are currently incarcerated, incarcerated following parole revocation, or who have been released on parole. Id.

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Bluebook (online)
2015 NMCA 020, 7 N.M. 342, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-ortiz-nmctapp-2015.