State v. Trammell

2014 NMCA 107, 6 N.M. 785
New Mexico Court of Appeals·Decided October 24, 2014·No. No. 34,826; Docket No. 31,097·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

OPINION

KENNEDY, Chief Judge.

{1} The memorandum opinion previously filed in this matter on March 17, 2014, is hereby withdrawn, and this Opinion is substituted therefor.

{2} We determine that our opinion in State v. Edwards applies retroactively to Defendant’s case, and he thus suffered ineffective assistance of counsel. 2007-NMCA-043, 141 N.M. 491, 157 P.3d 56. Lucas Trammell (Defendant) stole a pick-up truck, discovering after he drove off that a child was in it. Among other offenses, he pled guilty to committing false imprisonment of a minor, which, at the time, was considered a sex offense requiring registration under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), NMSA 1978, § 29-11A-3 (2000). Defendant was not informed that he was required to register as a sex offender until he was released from custody. Defendant moved to withdraw his plea, claiming that his attorney’s failure to inform him of this consequence constituted ineffective assistance of counsel. We conclude that Edwards did not state a new rule of procedure and thus applies retroactively to Defendant’s plea. Because his attorney’s performance was deficient and he suffered prejudice, we hold that his counsel’s assistance was ineffective and reverse the district court’s denial of his motion to withdraw his plea. Although he has served his sentence in full, we permit him to withdraw his plea for false imprisonment and remand for further proceedings in the case as may be required.

I. BACKGROUND

{3} Pursuant to a plea agreement, Defendant was convicted of five felony counts related to his theft of a pick-up truck. Because a minor child was in the truck during the theft, two of those pleas were to negligent child abuse and false imprisonment of a minor child, which, at the time of his crimes, required him to register under SORNA, NMSA 1978, §§ 29-11A-1 to -10 (1995, as amended through 2013). This requirement apparently escaped the notice of the State, the district court, and defense counsel, as it was not menftoned in the plea agreement, and the appropriate box was not checked in the judgment and sentence. In his standard plea agreement, Defendant admitted one prior felony that enhanced one of his sentences and waived time limits by providing for habitual offender enhancement of the remaining four sentences should he violate probation or'parole “before completing the sentence in this case[.]” Defendant’s sentences were imposed consecutively. .He was released from prison to serve two years probation and parole as ordered by the district court and acknowledged by Defendant on the probation order. Six months prior to his release from prison, Defendant was informed that, upon his release, he would be subject to registration as a sex offender under SORNA. He did not object to this and, upon his release, duly registered as a sex offender. The probation and parole division assigned him to their sex offender unit. The distinguishing requirement of sex offender supervision, for purposes of this case, was a behavioral contract Defendant executed, in which he agreed not to have unsupervised contact with minors, or to date or marry a person with custody of minors without obtaining prior permission of his probation officer.

{4} About a year-and-a-half after his release, Defendant was arrested when he battered a fourteen-year-old boy during a domestic disturbance with the boy’s mother, who was Defendant’s girlfriend. Defendant was also accused of violating the terms of his behavioral contract by not receiving prior permission to date or marry anyone who has custody of a minor child. Both probation and parole violations were filed against him as a result. Defendant moved to dismiss the second allegation, alleging that the requirement was not part of the sentence ordered by the district court and a violation of his due process rights. With roughly six months remaining on his sentence, the State initiated habitual offender enhancement proceedings. Defendant’s parole was revoked because he had violated its conditions, requiring him to comport himself while on probation as a law-abiding citizen and abide by his probation officer’s assessment of his risk as an offender. Based on the violation of Defendant’s parole, the State soughtto impose the remaining four habitual enhancements to his sentence as per his plea agreement.

{5} Defendant subsequently moved to modify his sentence based on his argument that the terms of his probation and parole were illegal. Defendant further soughtto withdraw his plea, contending that, at the time of the plea,-he was not made aware that he would be subject to sex offender registration or conditions of sex offender probation and parole. He argued that, because he was not informed of the collateral consequences of his plea, he suffered ineffective assistance of counsel. Defendant also argued against imposition of habitual offender enhancement on the four counts, alleging that his sentence had largely been served, and the State had no further time in which to proceed. The district court imposed four, one-year enhancements on the remaining counts and denied Defendant’s motions. The State withdrew the probation violation. Defendant appealed.

II. DISCUSSION

{6} Because we reverse Defendant’s conviction, we do not address the propriety of conditions imposed on his probation and parole following his release from custody. Defendant argues that he should be able to withdraw his plea, as it could not have been made knowingly and voluntarily without his knowledge that he was pleading to a sex offense that required SORNA registration. He maintains that it was ineffective assistance of counsel to fail to inform him of that consequence and that he would have rejected the plea if he had known of it. The State argues that it was not ineffective assistance because Edwards does not apply retroactively to Defendant’s plea and, even if it did, he failed to show that he was prejudiced by his attorney’s failure. The district court agreed. To the extent that the State argues that the district court did not have jurisdiction to hear the motion to withdraw the plea, we agree with Defendant that any possible delays with his motion were waived by the district court when it accepted and permitted the issue to be fully litigated.

{7} We review a district court’s denial of a motion to set aside a plea for abuse of discretion. Edwards, 2007-NMCA-043, ¶ 16. “The district court abuses its discretion in [this context] . . . when the undisputed facts establish that the plea was not knowingly and voluntarily given.” State v. Paredez, 2004-NMSC-036, ¶ 5, 136 N.M. 533, 101 P.3d799 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). However, we are not precluded from “correcting errors premised on the [district] court’s misapprehension of the law[.]” State v. Barnett, 1998-NMCA-105, ¶ 13, 125 N.M. 739, 965 P.2d 323. “Furthermore, whether a defendant must be advised of certain consequences of a plea as a matter of due process of law is a question of law that we review de novo.” Edwards, 2007-NMCA-043, ¶ 16.

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State v. Trammell, 2014 NMCA 107, 6 N.M. 785 (N.M. Ct. App. 2014).

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