State v. Rodriguez

251 P.3d 1045, 227 Ariz. 58, 2010 Ariz. App. LEXIS 220
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arizona
DecidedNovember 30, 2010
Docket2 CA-CR 2010-0227-PR
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 251 P.3d 1045 (State v. Rodriguez) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Rodriguez, 251 P.3d 1045, 227 Ariz. 58, 2010 Ariz. App. LEXIS 220 (Ark. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion

OPINION

KELLY, Judge.

¶ 1 Petitioner Victor Rodriguez seeks review of the trial court’s May 13, 2010, order denying his petition for post-conviction relief filed pursuant to Rule 32, Ariz. R.Crim. P. We will not disturb that ruling unless the court clearly has abused its discretion. State v. Swoopes, 216 Ariz. 390, ¶ 4, 166 P.3d 945, 948 (App.2007).

¶ 2 Rodriguez was convicted after a jury trial of aggravated driving under the influence of intoxicating liquor (DUI) and aggravated driving with a blood alcohol concentration of .08 or more, committed on December 21, 2005. Rodriguez committed endangerment six years, eight months, and eleven days before his 2005 offenses. The state had asserted at trial, however, that the 1999 conviction fell within the five-year limitation of § 13-604(W)(2)(e) because the two years that *59 Rodriguez had been incarcerated for his 2003 DUI conviction were excluded from the five-year computation. Upon finding he had historical prior felony convictions for endangerment in 1999 and aggravated DUI in 2003, the trial court sentenced him to enhanced, concurrent, presumptive prison terms of ten years for each conviction.

¶ 3 On appeal from those convictions and sentences, Rodriguez asserted his conviction for endangerment, committed on April 10, 1999, did not qualify as a historical prior felony under former A.R.S. § 13-604(W)(2)(c) 1 because it was committed more than five years before the date of his most-recent offenses. State v. Rodriguez, No. 2 CA-CR 2007-0257,2008 WL 4415745 (memorandum decision filed Sept. 30, 2008); see also 2005 Ariz. Sess. Laws, eh. 188, § 1 (§ 13-604). Because he had not raised this claim in the trial court, however, we determined Rodriguez was “precluded” from raising it on appeal, 2 and we affirmed his convictions and sentences. Rodriguez, No. 2 CA-CR 2007-0257, ¶¶ 7-10.

¶ 4 Rodriguez then filed a petition for post-conviction relief, asserting his trial counsel had been ineffective in failing to raise the claim that his 1999 conviction had occurred more than five years before his current offenses. Rodriguez argued that evidence disclosed to his attorney showed he had been incarcerated for the 2003 offense for only eighteen months, rendering his 1999 conviction too remote to qualify as a historical prior felony under § 13-604(W)(2)(c). Had his trial counsel raised that argument, Rodriguez reasoned, he would have been sentenced to a lesser term. Rodriguez did not discuss in his petition any time spent incarcerated for his 1999 conviction.

¶ 5 The state agreed that Rodriguez had been incarcerated for only eighteen months for the 2003 DUI conviction. It asserted, however, that Rodriguez had been incarcerated for a total of 109 days for his endangerment conviction because he had been sentenced to a thirty-day jail term as a condition of probation in that case and had received no credit for the seventy-nine days he had been in jail prior to his sentencing. Thus, the state concluded, Rodriguez’s 1999 conviction fell within the five-year period for purposes of § 13-604(W)(2)(c).

¶ 6 Relying on State v. Derello, 199 Ariz. 435, 18 P.3d 1234 (App.2001), Rodriguez responded that the seventy-nine days he had spent in jail before his sentencing for the 1999 endangerment conviction should not be counted as excluded time under § 13-604(W)(2)(c) because it was not time spent incarcerated for a conviction. After an evi-dentiary hearing, the trial court determined the phrase, “[a]ny time spent ... incarcerated” in § 13-604(W)(2)(c), included any pre-sentence incarceration and that the prior conviction therefore had been properly relied on to enhance his sentence. Thus, the court concluded, Rodriguez’s claim failed because he had not established his counsel’s performance was deficient or that he was prejudiced.

¶ 7 On review, Rodriguez first asserts the state was precluded from arguing his endangerment conviction fell within § 13-604(W)(2)(c) because it had conceded on appeal the conviction was too remote. We disagree. The issue before the trial court and now before us on review is whether Rodriguez’s trial counsel was ineffective, that is, whether his counsel’s performance fell below an objectively reasonable professional standard and whether that deficient perform- *60 anee prejudiced him. See Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 669, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984); State v. Nash, 143 Ariz. 392, 397, 694 P.2d 222, 227 (1985). In evaluating this question, whether his 1999 endangerment conviction fell within § 13-604(W)(2)(c) is relevant only insofar as it informs us if counsel should have made the argument Rodriguez asserts she should have made, and whether that argument would have accorded him any relief. The state’s arguable concession in a later proceeding is not relevant to whether his counsel was ineffective in failing to raise it at trial.

¶ 8 Even assuming, however, that Rodriguez’s counsel was deficient in failing to point out Rodriguez had served only eighteen months in prison for his 2003 DUI instead of two years, we agree with the trial court that Rodriguez failed to demonstrate that failure prejudiced him. See State v. Salazar, 146 Ariz. 540, 541, 707 P.2d 944, 945 (1985) (defendant must prove both parts of Strickland test). Rodriguez’s argument depends on his assertion that the seventy-nine days he was in jail before he was sentenced for his 1999 conviction is not excluded time pursuant to § 13-604(W)(2)(c). But Rodriguez identifies no statutory support for that interpretation. 3 The statute provides that “[a]ny time” spent “incarcerated” is excluded. § 13-604(W)(2)(c). Nothing in its provisions limits the term “incarcerated” to mean only time spent in confinement as a result of conviction for a crime, nor is any such limitation inherent in the term itself. A statute’s plain language is the best indicator of the legislature’s intent. State v. Streck, 221 Adz. 306, ¶ 7, 211 P.3d 1290, 1291 (App.2009). And we give that language its ordinary meaning “‘unless a specific definition is given or the context clearly indicates that a special meaning was intended.’ ” State v. Jones, 222 Ariz. 555, ¶ 14, 218 P.3d 1012, 1016 (App.2009), quoting Trustmark Ins. Co. v. Bank One, Ariz., NA, 202 Ariz. 535, ¶ 27, 48 P.3d 485, 491 (App.2002).

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Bluebook (online)
251 P.3d 1045, 227 Ariz. 58, 2010 Ariz. App. LEXIS 220, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-rodriguez-arizctapp-2010.