State v. Perrilloux

762 So. 2d 198, 2000 WL 635118
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 17, 2000
Docket99-KA-1314
StatusPublished
Cited by55 cases

This text of 762 So. 2d 198 (State v. Perrilloux) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Perrilloux, 762 So. 2d 198, 2000 WL 635118 (La. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinion

762 So.2d 198 (2000)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Ramsey PERRILLOUX.

No. 99-KA-1314.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fifth Circuit.

May 17, 2000.

*200 Katherine M. Franks, Louisiana Appellate Project, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Attorney for Appellant Ramsey Perrilloux.

John M. Crum, Jr., District Attorney, 40th Judicial District, Rodney A. Brignac, Assistant District Attorney, LaPlace, Louisiana, Attorney for Appellee State of Louisiana.

Panel composed of Judges JAMES L. CANNELLA, SUSAN M. CHEHARDY and CLARENCE E. McMANUS.

CANNELLA, Judge.

Defendant, Ramsey Perrilloux, appeals the trial judge's rulings rescinding his guilty plea, reinstating his guilty plea and reducing his sentence from 15 to 10 years imprisonment at hard labor. We affirm the conviction, vacate the sentence and remand for re-sentencing.

Defendant pled guilty to attempted first degree robbery on December 14, 1998. As part of the plea agreement, the State agreed not to file habitual offender proceedings against the Defendant. Prior to *201 sentencing, the trial judge ordered a presentence investigation report (PSI).

The sentencing hearing was held on May 5, 1999. Before Defendant was sentenced, defense counsel asserted that a sentencing cap of 10 years had been agreed upon at the time of Defendant's guilty plea. The trial judge reviewed the guilty plea transcript, found no mention of a sentencing cap, and sentenced Defendant to 15 years imprisonment at hard labor, without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence. The trial judge further ordered that the sentence be served concurrently with the sentence which he would have to serve as a result of probation revocation in another case. Defendant objected to the severity of the sentence and the trial judge informed him that his remedy was to file for a reconsideration of his sentence.

On May 24, 1999, Defendant filed a pro se Motion For Reconsideration of Sentence and/or Correction of Illegal Sentence, which was heard on August 11, 1999. Defendant claimed that he had entered into a plea bargain based on the assurance that he would not receive a sentence of greater than 10 years. He asserted that he would not have pled guilty had he not been promised such a sentencing cap. Defendant requested that his sentence be changed to 10 years. At the conclusion of the testimony, the trial judge stated that she remembered discussing a sentencing cap of 10 years with Defendant's counsel. On the chance that Defendant had relied on this discussion in entering his guilty plea, the trial judge vacated the plea, did not resentence the Defendant as requested, but ordered the case to be set for trial.

On August 31, 1999, Defendant filed a motion to quash the second Bill of Information, arguing that the trial court's ruling which vacated his plea subjected him to double jeopardy. The motion was argued on September 9, 1999, and the trial judge took the matter under advisement. On October 21, 1999, the trial judge issued a written judgment, in which she rescinded her ruling of August 11, 1999, and reinstated Defendant's guilty plea. The trial judge further ordered that Defendant's sentence be amended from 15 to 10 years, and that the sentence be served without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence. Defendant was not present on either September 9, 1999, or October 21, 1999.

The facts are recounted in the PSI, contained in the record. The record also contains the victim's brief testimony at a hearing on Defendant's motion to suppress the identification.

Joyce Charles testified that, on the evening of August 29, 1997, she drove to her cousin's house on Ormond Drive in the Sugar Ridge Subdivision. She stopped her car short of the driveway and got out of her car to move a garbage can that was blocking the way. Defendant approached with a gun pointing at her. He ordered her to give him her purse, or he would shoot her. She ran into her cousin's house, where she called 9-1-1. Defendant was later apprehended by police, and she identified him as the man who had attempted to rob her.

On appeal, Defendant asserts that he was subjected to double jeopardy when the trial judge vacated his plea agreement in response to his motion to reconsider or correct his sentence. Defendant also asserts that the PSI failed to comply with La.C.Cr.P. art. 875. Third, Defendant contends that the trial judge erred in ordering that any sentence which Defendant received as a result of a probation revocation in another case be served consecutively to the sentence imposed in this one.

THE PLEA AGREEMENT

In his pro se motion to reconsider or correct sentence, Defendant argued that the trial judge failed to comply with what he believed was a provision of the plea agreement, that he would receive no more that a 10 year sentence. The guilty plea transcript contains no mention of any *202 such agreement, and the guilty plea form signed by Defendant and his attorney is devoid of any reference to a sentencing cap. Defendant first mentions the 10 year condition of the plea agreement at the sentencing hearing. At that point, Defendant's counsel, who had not represented him at his guilty plea, advised the trial judge that Defendant had told him, "he had an understanding conveyed to him by his counsel, not me, at the time of the guilty plea, that there was going to be a sentence of no greater than ten years in this case." (R., p. 92). The trial judge stated that she had no independent recollection of such an agreement. She then sentenced Defendant to 15 years, based on the PSI.

Subsequently, a hearing was held on the motion to reconsider or correct sentence. At that hearing, the attorney who represented Defendant at his guilty plea, Geri Baloney, stated:

[I]n relationship to the sentence and the plea agreement, I had engaged in quite a bit of discussions with the District Attorney's Office in trying to reach a plea agreement, and we did not successfully reach a plea agreement in that case. I subsequently spoke with the judge about the impasse that, that I reached with the District Attorney's Office in attempting to negotiate agreement, and expressed that my client was desirous of entering a guilty plea. He did not want to go to trial. And it was in that conversation that it was discussed that the maximum sentence the judge, the judge did not state what sentence would be imposed. What was said was that not more than ten years would be imposed because the judge wanted to do a presentence investigation, or wanted to order a presentence investigation. And that is what I relayed to Mr. Perrilloux.

(R., p. 110).

Following argument, the trial court ruled:

I have no specific memory of this case. However, I do remember some months back having a Bench conversation with Ms. Baloney on a case in which she asked me if I would consider a cap of ten years on a case. And I said yes. At the time, looking back in this record, there's no way I would have known that this defendant had a record as his P.S.I. came back showing he had a record already. He had already served time. In all fairness to the Defendant though, if he did, in fact, rely on my conversation with Mrs. Baloney, I am going to allow him to vacate his plea and reset this matter for trial. So at this time I will order the plea vacated and I'm going to set this matter for trial .... [emphasis added.]

(R., pp. 121-122).

In Defendant's hearing on the motion to quash the second Bill of Information, he argued that the trial court subjected him to double jeopardy by rescheduling the matter for trial.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
762 So. 2d 198, 2000 WL 635118, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-perrilloux-lactapp-2000.