State v. Salyers

480 N.W.2d 173, 239 Neb. 1002, 1992 Neb. LEXIS 34
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 14, 1992
Docket90-715
StatusPublished
Cited by102 cases

This text of 480 N.W.2d 173 (State v. Salyers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Salyers, 480 N.W.2d 173, 239 Neb. 1002, 1992 Neb. LEXIS 34 (Neb. 1992).

Opinion

Fahrnbruch, J.

Randy Salyers appeals certain terms of his 3-year probation, which was imposed after he entered a plea of guilty to an amended complaint charging him with third degree assault of his wife. As a term of probation, the defendant was also ordered to pay a $500 fine.

The defendant was originally charged with the felony offense of sexual assault in the first degree of his wife, which carries a penalty, of not less than 1 nor more than 50 years’ imprisonment. See Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 28-319 and 28-105 (Reissue 1989). Pursuant to a plea agreement, Salyers entered a plea of guilty to assault in the third degree. On that charge, he could have been sentenced to 1 year in jail, fined $1,000, or both, since assault in the third degree is a Class I misdemeanor. See Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 28-310 and 28-106 (Reissue 1989).

In summary, Salyers claims the trial court, in imposing probation, erred by (1) requiring the defendant to serve the first 40 days he is not working in the county jail and (2) prohibiting the defendant from entering bowling alleys. The defendant appealed the sentence imposed by the county court to the district court for Platte County, where the sentence was affirmed. The defendant then appealed to this court.

Because the condition of probation regarding Salyers’ exclusion from bowling alleys is ambiguous, we vacate the defendant’s sentence and remand the cause to the district court for Platte County with directions to remand the cause to the county court for resentencing of the defendant in accord with the rules set forth in this opinion.

Before the assault involved here, bowling was a common activity for both Salyers and his wife. The defendant was *1004 involved in bowling league activities, having served as his league secretary and as an officer in the Columbus Men’s Bowling Association in 1990. He had won several individual bowling championships in 1989 and 1990. Salyers’ wife had worked in the Westbrook Lanes bowling alley in Columbus in 1985 when she and the defendant first met. At the time Mrs. Salyers was assaulted, she also bowled in a league.

On the night of February 28, 1990, the defendant and his wife were at the Boulevard Lanes bowling alley in Columbús, where they attended a party for a mutual friend. Salyers “had a few beers” in the bowling alley bar or lounge. He questioned his wife’s fidelity to him. The defendant’s wife became angry and went home alone.

When the defendant went home, he attempted to have sexual relations with his wife. When she refused, Salyers followed her into the bathroom, where he physically and sexually assaulted her. The wife’s screams awakened the couple’s 2-year-old son. Mrs. Salyers convinced the defendant to let her go to attend to their son. Salyers’ wife ran from her husband and hid from him in her 11-year-old son’s basement room. From her hiding place, Mrs. Salyers saw her husband searching for her with a shotgun. The defendant later said the shotgun was unloaded, but that his wife did not know that it was unloaded. He told the court he wanted to “scare” his wife “to come upstairs and talk with me.” Salyers admitted he picked up the shotgun to “threaten” his wife.

The wife then went to her 15-year-old daughter’s room and told her everything that had happened. The police were called. After evacuating other members of Salyers’ family from the residence, police found the defendant passed out in his bed, where they arrested him.

There appear to be discrepancies between what the trial judge ordered in open court and the order of probation prepared by the probation officer. As an example, in the verbatim record, the trial judge, as a part of probation, ordered that Salyers spend 40 days in jail, to be served on weekend days when he did not have to work. In the written probation order, the defendant was ordered to spend 40 days in jail on weekends. In the written order, there was no provision excusing him from *1005 jail on days of a weekend when he had to work. In the verbatim record, the defendant was ordered to “[s]tay out of all bars, including bowling alleys, ’cause apparently you do some drinking in bowling alleys. Or otherwise whose principle [sic] business is the sale of alcohol or a considerable amount of alcohol is being consumed on the premises.” In the written order, it is stated that the defendant shall “[n]ot enter any place where alcohol is primarily served or sold, nor any bowling alleys for the period of probation without written permission of your Probation Officer.”

We have held that where there is a conflict between the record of a judgment and a verbatim record of the proceedings in open court, the latter prevails. State v. Temple, 230 Neb. 624, 432 N.W.2d 818 (1988). We have also held that in imposing sentence, the court should state with care the precise terms of the sentence which is imposed. Id. This same rule applies to the terms of probation imposed upon a defendant.

In addition to the conflicts between the verbatim record and the written order of probation, there is ambiguity in some terms of Salyers’ probation. As an example, is Salyers ordered to stay away from bowling alleys altogether? Or is the defendant prohibited from entering bowling alleys where there is a bar on the premises or a bar connected by a doorway to the bowling alley? Or is the defendant only ordered to stay out of the bars in a bowling alley?

We further note that in the written order of probation, Salyers must “[sjatisfy other conditions of which you are notified in writing by your Probation Officer which are reasonably related to reconstructing your behavior and the protection of society.” Any condition imposed under this provision of a probation order would be improper. We remind sentencing judges that the fixing of terms and conditions of probation is a judicial duty and function and cannot be delegated to anyone, including a probation officer. See Ensrud v. Ensrud, 230 Neb. 720, 433 N.W.2d 192 (1988).

Salyers argues that his intermittent incarceration as a term of probation is erroneous. His reliance upon State v. Texel, 230 Neb. 810, 433 N.W.2d 541 (1989), for that position is misplaced. In State v. Texel, we held that it is error for a trial *1006 court, when imposing a straight jail sentence, to permit or require a defendant to serve his or her sentence intermittently. We have found no statute authorizing a court to impose an intermittent jail sentence when a defendant is given a straight jail sentence. There is, however, statutory authority for intermittent incarceration as a condition of probation. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 29-2262 (Reissue 1989) provides:

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Bluebook (online)
480 N.W.2d 173, 239 Neb. 1002, 1992 Neb. LEXIS 34, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-salyers-neb-1992.