State v. Ramos

340 P.3d 703, 267 Or. App. 164, 2014 Ore. App. LEXIS 1652
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedNovember 26, 2014
DocketC092342CR; A150423
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 340 P.3d 703 (State v. Ramos) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Ramos, 340 P.3d 703, 267 Or. App. 164, 2014 Ore. App. LEXIS 1652 (Or. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

SERCOMBE, R J.

Defendant set fires in her restaurant and made an insurance claim for the resulting damage to restaurant equipment. She was subsequently convicted of arson, in connection with setting the fires, and attempted aggravated theft, in connection with the fraudulent insurance claim. On appeal, she challenges only the restitution that the trial court ordered her to pay. First, she contends that any award of restitution violated either the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution or Article I, section 17, of the Oregon Constitution. The parties agree, as do we, that those arguments were not preserved, and we conclude that the purported error is not plain. Accordingly, we do not reach the merits of defendant’s constitutional arguments. Alternatively, she challenges the restitution that she was ordered to pay to her insurance company, Oregon Mutual Insurance Group (Oregon Mutual). Defendant contends that some of that restitution was improperly ordered under ORS 137.106, the statute authorizing restitution in criminal cases. As to that assignment of error, we conclude that the challenged expenses were appropriate subjects of restitution. Accordingly, we affirm.

The facts related to this appeal are undisputed. After defendant was found guilty, the state sought restitution awards to Shalimar Properties (defendant’s landlord), State Farm Insurance (the landlord’s insurer of the premises), and Oregon Mutual (defendant’s insurer of the contents of the premises). The state and defendant stipulated to $42,532.32 in restitution to Shalimar Properties and State Farm Insurance, and the trial court ordered that restitution. The state also sought restitution of $28,417.98 to Oregon Mutual.1 The state provided evidence that Oregon Mutual had paid various sums totaling that amount-to a law firm, a forensics company, two investigators, and a court reporting company in connection with its investigation and [166]*166processing of defendant’s claim, and to assist it in cooperating with the state’s investigation of the fires and prosecution of defendant. Defendant disputed the propriety of some parts of that restitution, but, after a hearing, the trial court ordered that defendant pay Oregon Mutual the full amount.

In her first assignment of error, defendant argues that the trial court erred in ordering any restitution because — under either the Sixth Amendment or Article I, section 17 — a restitution award must be based on jury findings or a valid jury waiver, neither of which occurred in this case. The parties agree — as do we — that defendant did not raise that issue below, but defendant asks us to review it as error apparent on the record.

Generally, we will not consider an unpreserved issue on appeal. State v. Wyatt, 331 Or 335, 341, 15 P3d 22 (2000). Nonetheless, we may review an unpreserved assignment of error as one “apparent on the record” under ORAP 5.45(1) — also known as “plain error” — if certain conditions are met: (1) the error is one of law; (2) the error is “apparent,” in that the “legal point is obvious, not reasonably in dispute”; and (3) the error appears on the record, such that we need not go outside the record or choose between competing inferences to find it, and the facts constituting the error are irrefutable. State v. Brown, 310 Or 347, 355, 800 P2d 259 (1990). Even when those conditions are satisfied, we must determine whether to exercise our discretion to consider the error and, if we choose to consider it, articulate our reasons for doing so. Ailes v. Portland Meadows, Inc., 312 Or 376, 382, 823 P2d 956 (1991). For the reasons below, the legal points that defendant raises are not “obvious” and, accordingly, not appropriate subjects for plain error review.

Defendant first argues that the Sixth Amendment, as construed in Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 US 466, 120 S Ct 2348, 147 L Ed 2d 435 (2000), and Blakely v. Washington, 542 US 296, 124 S Ct 2531, 159 L Ed 2d 403 (2003), requires that a jury must find the facts that provide the basis for restitution, unless the defendant waived the right to a jury determination. In Apprendi, the United States Supreme Court held that “[o]ther than the fact of a prior conviction, any fact that increases the penalty for a crime beyond the [167]*167prescribed statutory maximum must be submitted to a jury, and proved beyond a reasonable doubt.” 530 US at 490. Pour years later, in Blakely, the Court illuminated what it meant when it referred to a “prescribed statutory maximum” sentence. It is, the Court explained, the

“maximum sentence a judge may impose solely on the basis of the facts reflected in the jury verdict or admitted by the defendant. * * * In other words, the relevant ‘statutory maximum’ is not the maximum sentence a judge may impose after finding additional facts, but the maximum [the judge] may impose without any additional findings.”

542 US at 303-04 (emphasis in original).

Defendant concedes that, at the time the trial court imposed restitution, we had held that, even if Apprendi and Blakely applied to restitution, the imposition of restitution under ORS 137.106 did not run afoul of the principles announced in those cases. State v. McMillan (A112613), 199 Or App 398, 403, 111 P3d 1136 (2005). In McMillan, we explained that the facts necessary to impose restitution under ORS 137.106 are not facts that increase the penalty to which a defendant is subject beyond the statutory maximum, because the statutory maximum includes restitution for the full amount of the victim’s pecuniary damages.2 Id.; see also State v. Webster, 220 Or App 531, 535, 188 P3d 329, rev den, 345 Or 318 (2008) (applying reasoning of McMillan to restitution under ORS 811.706, which permits the imposition of restitution for automobile accident-related damages; statutory maximum sentence encompasses amount of damages caused by the person as a result of the incident that gave rise to the charges for which the defendant was convicted); State v. Travalini, 215 Or App 226, 234, 168 P3d 1159 (2007), rev den, 344 Or 110 (2008) (rejecting argument that trial court ran afoul of the Sixth Amendment by imposing restitution without having submitted the finding of facts underlying restitution to the jury; declining to overrule McMillan); State v. Mendez, 211 Or App 311, 314, 155 P3d 54, rev den, 343 Or 160 (2007) (rejecting argument that, under Apprendi, the determination of the amount of the victim’s [168]*168“economic damages” for purposes of restitution should have been submitted to the jury); State v. Black, 208 Or App 719, 721 n 1, 145 P3d 367 (2006) (same).

Defendant contends, however, that the holding of McMillan was erroneous under Southern Union Co. v. U.S., 567 US ___, 132 S Ct 2344, 183 L Ed 2d 318 (2012).3 In Southern Union Co., the defendant, a natural gas distributor, had been charged with, inter alia,

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Bluebook (online)
340 P.3d 703, 267 Or. App. 164, 2014 Ore. App. LEXIS 1652, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-ramos-orctapp-2014.