State v. Peppers

796 P.2d 614, 110 N.M. 393
CourtNew Mexico Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 3, 1990
Docket11362
StatusPublished
Cited by63 cases

This text of 796 P.2d 614 (State v. Peppers) 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. Peppers, 796 P.2d 614, 110 N.M. 393 (N.M. Ct. App. 1990).

Opinion

OPINION

HARTZ, Judge.

Defendant pleaded no contest to a charge of failure to appear for sentencing on a conviction of vehicular homicide. Because he had three prior felony convictions, defendant’s sentence for failure to appear was enhanced by eight years pursuant to the provisions of the habitual-offender statute, NMSA 1978, Section 31-18-17 (Repl. Pamp.1987). Defendant's conviction for vehicular homicide was among the prior convictions used to establish defendant’s status as a habitual offender. Shortly after sentencing, defendant moved to withdraw his plea. Defendant raises three issues on appeal: (1) whether the district court properly denied his motion to withdraw his plea; (2) whether the failure-to-appear statute, NMSA 1978, Section 31-3-9 (Repl.Pamp.1984), applies to failure to appear for sentencing; and (3) whether the vehicular-homicide conviction could be used to enhance his sentence. In addition, defendant’s appeal presents questions concerning procedural matters that affect the jurisdiction of this court and the scope of our review. We affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

On October 24, 1988, defendant pleaded no contest to the charge of failure to appear on June 20, 1988, for sentencing on his conviction of the offense of vehicular homicide. The following day the state filed a supplemental criminal information alleging that defendant was a habitual criminal offender. One count of the information alleged defendant’s conviction on May 2, 1988, of the crime of vehicular homicide. On October 26,1988, defendant admitted to being a habitual offender with at least three prior felony convictions, as charged in the supplemental information. On November 1, the district court filed the judgment, sentence, and commitment, providing for a sentence of one and one-half years on the charge of failure to appear, enhanced by eight years under the habitual-offender statute. The district court ordered the sentence of nine and one-half years to be served consecutively to defendant’s sentence on the charge of vehicular homicide.

Also on November 1, a few hours after the filing of the judgment, defendant’s counsel filed a motion to withdraw defendant’s plea. On the following day the district court conducted a hearing at which trial counsel asked to be -allowed to withdraw as defendant’s attorney and defendant said he wanted new counsel. The district court “relieved [counsel] of further responsibilities.” Although the district court indicated that it would appoint the public defender to represent defendant, no order was filed. The earliest evidence in the record that defendant was represented by the public defender is a motion to transport defendant, filed by the public defendant on December 6, 1988. The district court conducted a hearing on January 9, 1989, on defendant’s motion to withdraw his plea. On January 17 the district court entered its order denying the motion. Defendant filed a notice of appeal from the order on February 16.

II. PROCEDURAL CONSIDERATIONS AND JURISDICTION

A. Post-Conviction Motions for Relief 1. Introduction

In this and two other cases involving post-conviction motions for relief, we requested the parties to brief the question of our jurisdiction to hear the appeal. Our concern arose from SCRA 1986, 5-802, the Rule of Criminal Procedure entitled “Habeas corpus.” The rule provides a means for a person “in custody or under restraint” to contend

that such custody or restraint is, or will be, in violation of the constitution or laws of the State of New Mexico or of the United States; that the district court was without jurisdiction to impose such sentence; that the sentence was illegal or in excess of the maximum authorized by law or is otherwise subject to collateral attack.

Id., Para. A. Paragraph G of Rule 5-802 states that a defendant may obtain review of denial of the writ only through filing a petition for certiorari with the supreme court. Because the defendants in the three cases sought relief that might be obtained through a petition under Rule 5-802, we requested the parties’ views on what impact, if any, Rule 5-802 has on our jurisdiction in this case.

Our first inquiry must be whether Rule 5-802 is intended to be the exclusive means for seeking post-conviction relief. We hold that it is not. We review the two rules and two statutes providing for post-conviction motions for relief and hold that both rules and one of the two statutes are not preempted by Rule 5-802. 1

2. Discussion

The two rules providing for post-conviction motions for relief are SCRA 1986, 5-614 and -801 (Cum.Supp.1989). Rule 5-614 permits filing a motion for new trial. If the motion is based on the ground of newly discovered evidence, a defendant may file it within two years of the final judgment. Otherwise, a motion for new trial must be filed within ten days after the verdict, unless within that ten days the court extends the time. Rule 5-801, entitled “Modification of sentence,” permits the filing of a motion to reduce a sentence within thirty days after sentence is imposed or within thirty days of an appellate court mandate, order, or judgment upholding the judgment of conviction. Because nothing in the Supreme Court Rules states that either Rule 5-614 or Rule 5-801 is limited by Rule 5-802, we have no doubt that Rule 5-802 does not preempt either of the other rules. The supreme court has been explicit when it intended that one of its rules supersede another rule. See, e.g., Compiler’s Notes to SCRA 1986, 1-093.

The two statutes providing for motions for relief after a conviction are NMSA 1978, Sections 31-11-6 (Repl.Pamp. 1984) and 39-1-1 (Orig.Pamp.). The former, as revealed by a consideration of the pertinent history of the statute and related rules, is preempted by Rule 5-802.

The scope of Section 31-11-6 is essentially identical to that of Rule 5-802. The first paragraph of the statute states:

A prisoner in custody under sentence of a court established by the laws of New Mexico claiming the right to be released upon the ground that the sentence was imposed in violation of the constitution of the United States, or of the constitution or laws of New Mexico, or that the court was without jurisdiction to impose such sentence, or that the sentence was in excess of the maximum authorized by law, or is otherwise subject to collateral attack, may move the court which imposed the sentence to vacate, set aside or correct the sentence.

Section 31-11-6(A) permits such motions to be made at any time. When the statute was enacted in 1966, it tracked the language of Rule of Civil Procedure 93, which had taken effect on January 1, 1966. Then in June 1975 the supreme court adopted Rule of Criminal Procedure 57, which was to replace Rule 93 with respect to all motions for post-conviction relief filed on or after September 1, 1975. Rule 57 provided for motions to vacate, set aside, or correct a sentence, but differed somewhat from Rule 93.

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Bluebook (online)
796 P.2d 614, 110 N.M. 393, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-peppers-nmctapp-1990.