State v. Rojo

CourtCourt of Appeals of Kansas
DecidedJanuary 10, 2025
Docket126616
StatusUnpublished

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

Bluebook
State v. Rojo, (kanctapp 2025).

Opinion

NOT DESIGNATED FOR PUBLICATION

No. 126,616

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF KANSAS

STATE OF KANSAS, Appellee,

v.

ISAIAS ESAI ROJO, Appellant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Appeal from Douglas District Court; SALLY D. POKORNY, judge. Submitted without oral argument. Opinion filed January 10, 2025. Affirmed.

Sean P. Randall, of Kansas Appellate Defender Office, for appellant.

Jon Simpson, senior assistant district attorney, Suzanne Valdez, district attorney, and Kris W. Kobach, attorney general, for appellee.

Before HURST, P.J., ISHERWOOD and PICKERING, JJ.

PER CURIAM: After the State charged Isaias Esai Rojo with various crimes over the course of about two and a half years—some of which were ultimately dismissed— Rojo eventually entered a global plea agreement to resolve the remaining charges. Pursuant to the global plea agreement, Rojo pled no contest to aggravated battery and, in return, the State dismissed the remaining charges and recommended a downward dispositional departure at sentencing. However, the district court did not follow the sentencing recommendation in the plea agreement and instead sentenced Rojo to prison, albeit less prison than the presumptive sentence, which Rojo now appeals.

1 On appeal, Rojo claims the district court erred by not following the sentencing recommendation in the plea agreement and by not awarding him jail time credit. The State argues this court lacks subject matter jurisdiction to review Rojo's objection to the district court's failure to follow the sentencing recommendation in the plea agreement. Finding no error, this court affirms both the district court's refusal to follow the sentencing recommendation in the plea agreement and to grant Rojo jail time credit for time he spent in jail before he was charged in this case.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Between October 2020 and February 2023, the State initiated five different criminal cases against Rojo—including the one underlying this appeal. It is necessary to briefly review the history of Rojo's other cases, for some of which he spent time in jail.

2020-CR-724

On October 28, 2020, the State charged Rojo with one felony count of criminal damage to property. The district court issued a summons and, after Rojo appeared, released him on an own-recognizance bond. Rojo did not spend any nights in jail for that case.

2021-CR-361

On April 27, 2021, the State charged Rojo with two counts of rape, and Rojo was arrested the next day. Rojo remained in jail until October 2021 when he posted bond. On January 3, 2023, the State moved to dismiss the rape charges, citing insufficient evidence, which the district court granted.

2 2022-CR-338

On April 14, 2022, the State charged Rojo with one count each of burglary, felony theft, criminal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and misdemeanor theft. Rojo was arrested on May 8, 2022, and posted bond two days later. After the alleged victim failed to appear at the preliminary hearing, the district court dismissed the case.

2022-CR-973

On October 20, 2022, the State initiated the case underlying this appeal by charging Rojo with one count of aggravated battery for an act he committed in August 2022. Rojo was arrested on January 31, 2023, and posted bond later that day.

2023-CR-135

Based on Rojo's alleged resistance to his arrest on January 31, 2023, in 2022-CR- 973, the State charged him with one felony count of interference with law enforcement on February 3, 2023. Rojo posted bond for this case at the same time he posted bond in his aggravated battery case, 2022-CR-973.

Plea Agreement

Rojo eventually entered a global plea agreement with the State in which he agreed to plead no contest to one count of aggravated battery in 2022-CR-973 in exchange for the State dismissing the remaining charges in cases 2020-CR-724 (criminal damage to property) and 2023-CR-135 (interference with law enforcement). The State further agreed not to refile the dismissed charges in 2022-CR-338 or to file new drug-related charges based on his January 31, 2023 arrest. Both parties agreed to recommend the "[s]tandard term of the appropriate grid box," and the State agreed to support a downward

3 dispositional departure to 36 months of supervised probation. As expected, Rojo later filed a motion for a downward dispositional departure to 36 months of probation or, in the alternative, a downward durational departure to a shorter term of incarceration.

Sentencing

At Rojo's sentencing hearing, the State abided by the plea agreement and recommended the standard term of the appropriate grid box and supported Rojo's request for a downward dispositional departure to 36 months of supervised probation rather than imprisonment. The district court denied Rojo's motion for a dispositional departure but granted a downward durational departure and sentenced him to 36 months in prison. The district court explained its reasoning for granting a downward durational departure but declining to sentence him to probation rather than prison:

"THE COURT: I have had an opportunity to review the presentence investigation, and I did review Mr. Smith's motion for departure. I have read—thoroughly read [the] psychological evaluation, and Mr. Rojo, I am not going to depart and this is why: You say you have a job, but you are still unemployed, and you haven't been proactive yet in making any changes in your life. "Your prior criminal—there are four reasons in the presentence investigation why you should go to prison. First of all, you have a criminal history score of C. "Secondly, this crime was committed while you were on felony supervision in Arkansas. You are on probation now. And while you were on probation in Arkansas, you were arrested for another three felonies besides this, 20 CR 724, 21 CR 361, and 22 CR 338. This offense was committed while you were on felony bond in those three cases. .... "THE COURT: . . . I have no hope that putting you on probation is going to result in any different result than the results we have had in the past. "What I am going to do as far as the sentencing, for the offense of aggravated battery with a criminal history score of C, this is a person felony, and it is a severity Level 5 offense.

4 "As I said, there are four reasons why you are presumptive [prison], and the possible sentences are a mitigated sentence of 53 months, a standard of 57 months, and an aggravated sentence of 60 months. I agree with Mr. Wescott's analysis, Mr. Smith's analysis, and even yours, that you have been dealt a rough hand as a kid and that—we all know that that affects people and it affects most people what we call adversely; so although I am not going to do a dispositional departure, I am going to do a durational departure and I am going to sentence you to 36 months in the custody of the Secretary of Corrections. You will have—you will receive 15 percent good time on that sentence, and you will also have a post-release supervision durational period of 24 months."

At the end of the sentencing hearing, Rojo had this exchange with the district court:

"THE DEFENDANT: Do you know what is credited? "THE COURT: There is nothing in the presentence investigation to show credit for time served on this case. "THE DEFENDANT: I can't like get the six months that I was sitting in there for the rape case or anything? "THE COURT: No. It doesn't work that way. Sorry. Okay. We are in recess."

Rojo appealed.

DISCUSSION

Rojo makes two claims on appeal, arguing first that the district court erred in failing to award him jail time credit and second that it erred by not following the joint recommendation in the plea agreement to grant him probation.

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State v. Rojo, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-rojo-kanctapp-2025.