State v. Vasquez

690 P.2d 1240, 142 Ariz. 527, 1984 Ariz. App. LEXIS 650
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arizona
DecidedNovember 1, 1984
DocketNo. 1 CA-CR 7376-PR
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 690 P.2d 1240 (State v. Vasquez) 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. Vasquez, 690 P.2d 1240, 142 Ariz. 527, 1984 Ariz. App. LEXIS 650 (Ark. Ct. App. 1984).

Opinion

OPINION

OGG, Judge.

The petitioner files this petition for review pursuant to Rule 32.9(c), Arizona Rules of Criminal Procedure, following the [528]*528summary dismissal of his petition for post-conviction relief and the trial court’s subsequent denial of his motion for rehearing filed pursuant to Rule 32.9(a). The issues preserved in the motion for rehearing, State v. Thompson, 139 Ariz. 552, 679 P.2d 575 (App.1984), are: (1) whether the nature and quality of counsel’s representation during the post-conviction proceedings deprived petitioner of review of the issues raised in the petition; and (2) whether petitioner was entitled to appointment of new counsel.

Petitioner was convicted of kidnapping, following a trial by jury. He admitted allegations of three prior convictions, and was sentenced to serve a term of fourteen years. He timely filed a notice of appeal and his conviction and sentence were affirmed by this court by memorandum decision in State v. Vasquez, 1 CA-CR 6380, filed November 8, 1983. Evidence supporting his conviction was specified in the previous decision on appeal and will not be repeated here. Petitioner raised one issue on appeal: whether he was denied a fair trial by virtue of improper comments made by the prosecutor during closing argument. This court held that the comments were improper but they did not deny petitioner a fair trial.

Petitioner began the present proceedings by filing a petition for post-conviction relief in propria persona on March 4, 1983. The trial court appointed the public defender to represent petitioner and subsequently determined that the public defender’s office had a conflict of interest. The trial court accordingly appointed present counsel to represent petitioner. Prior to the appointment of his current counsel, petitioner filed several motions: (1) a request to determine whether the prosecutor complied with Rule 15.1(a)(7) since he failed to disclose prior convictions of the victim and the co-defendant in the case (whom petitioner designated as “informants”); (2) a request to determine whether petitioner validly ' waived preparation of a presentence report; (3) a request to determine whether the trial court properly used petitioner’s conviction on January 21, 1970 to enhance sentence, and whether the trial court made a proper factual basis before accepting petitioner’s admission to the prior conviction; (4) a request to determine whether trial counsel was effective in representing petitioner; and (5) a request to determine whether the trial court improperly classified the offense as kidnapping, a Class 2 felony, rather than unlawful imprisonment, a Class 6 felony.

Thereafter, on June 9, 1983, counsel for petitioner wrote a letter to the trial court indicating that he had reviewed the petition for post-conviction relief and the motions, and that he had corresponded regularly with petitioner. Counsel further stated that he had reviewed the court file in this case and the related cases, read the trial transcript, reviewed the appellate briefs and the transcript of the preliminary hearing, and discussed petitioner’s case in detail at least twice with trial and appellate counsel. Petitioner’s present counsel concluded that:

After doing all the above, I have been unable to find anything which would support the filing of the supplemental petition for post-conviction relief on behalf of Mr. Vasquez. Therefore, I will not be filing a supplemental petition, and unless Your Honor feels that something more needs to be done on my part Mr. Vasquez’ request for relief can rest on his original petition as well as the additional documents which he has filed.

The State did not file a response to the petition for post conviction relief.' On June 22, 1983, the trial court summarily denied the petition for post-conviction relief based on its finding that petitioner had not “raised and documented any issue of law or fact upon which defendant might obtain relief in a Rule 32 proceeding.”

On August 5, 1983, petitioner filed a motion for rehearing, arguing that by virtue of counsel’s letter, he was denied a “fair, full and meaningful post-conviction relief review.” Vasquez asserted in his motion for rehearing that counsel had failed to comply with Rule 32.5(b) and Rule 32.6(a) by not filing a supplemental petition [529]*529for post-conviction relief. He also argued that counsel was ineffective by allegedly asserting that the petition for post-conviction relief should be summarily dismissed. Vasquez later requested appointment of new counsel in the post-conviction relief proceedings. On August 16, 1983, the trial court denied petitioner’s motion for rehearing and request for appointment of counsel. Petitioner filed a petition for review in this court on August 29,1983. The petition for review was sent to the trial court for filing and was filed October 13, 1983.

TIMELINESS OF MOTION FOR REHEARING

The threshold question on review is whether petitioner timely filed his motion for rehearing. Rule 32.9(a) provides that a motion for rehearing may be filed by an aggrieved party within 10 days after the trial court’s ruling on the petition for post-conviction relief. In this case, the petition for post-conviction relief was denied June 22, 1983 and was processed by the clerk of the court June 23, 1983. The motion for rehearing was not filed until August 5, 1983; the time period for the filing of the motion for rehearing had clearly expired. In State v. Pope, 130 Ariz. 253, 635 P.2d 846 (1981), the Arizona Supreme Court held that the time limits for filing a motion for rehearing pursuant to Rule 32.9(a) were not jurisdictional and, if a valid reason for noncompliance with the time limit is shown, the trial court may allow a late filing of the motion. In this case, neither petitioner nor the trial court addressed the timeliness of the motion for rehearing. We do note, however, that the order denying the petition for post-conviction relief indicates that a copy was mailed to counsel for petitioner but not to petitioner personally. Presumably counsel forwarded a copy of the order to petitioner and this procedure resulted in the delay in petitioner’s filing the motion for rehearing. Although no valid reason for noncompliance with the time limits of Rule 32.9(a) was presented to the trial court, we will nevertheless proceed to address the issues raised in the motion for rehearing.

EFFECTIVENESS OF COUNSEL

Petitioner contends in the motion for rehearing that counsel was ineffective by virtue of his failure to file a supplemental petition for post-conviction relief in accordance with Rule 32.5(b). He also contends that the trial court summarily dismissed the petition for post-conviction relief based on an alleged assertion by counsel that the petition for post-conviction relief should be summarily dismissed. A review of counsel’s letter to the trial court establishes that nowhere did counsel urge that the case be summarily dismissed. Rather, the letter asserted that petitioner’s request for relief could rest on the original petition as well as the additional documents filed by petitioner. Finally, the trial court summarily dismissed the petition for post-conviction relief, not on the ground that counsel had urged a dismissal, but rather on the ground that petitioner had neither raised nor documented any issue of law or fact upon which he might obtain relief.

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Bluebook (online)
690 P.2d 1240, 142 Ariz. 527, 1984 Ariz. App. LEXIS 650, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-vasquez-arizctapp-1984.