State v. Warren

270 P.3d 13, 47 Kan. App. 2d 57, 2012 Kan. App. LEXIS 12
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kansas
DecidedFebruary 17, 2012
DocketNo. 104,489
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 270 P.3d 13 (State v. Warren) 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. Warren, 270 P.3d 13, 47 Kan. App. 2d 57, 2012 Kan. App. LEXIS 12 (kanctapp 2012).

Opinion

Leben, J.:

When a small amount of marijuana was found in inmate Waddell Warren’s socks, he was convicted of introducing a controlled substance into a correctional facility and sentenced to an additional 122 months in prison. Warren asked that he be given a shorter sentence than called for under our sentencing guidelines, but the district court ruled that a lesser departure sentence — based on an argument that the amount of drugs was very small and thus less than typical for the offense — could not be considered.

We face two primary questions in deciding Warren’s appeal. First, we must determine whether we have jurisdiction to consider the appeal at all. Warren received the presumptive sentence for his offense and criminal-history score, and we have no jurisdiction to review a presumptive sentence. K.S.A. 21-4721(c)(l). Second, if we do have jurisdiction, we must determine whether tire district court’s ruling that a less-than-guidelines sentence cannot be given based on the amount of drugs was correct.

Warren also raises a final issue — that the State failed to bring him to trial within the time limit set under the Mandatory Disposition of Detainers Act, K.S.A. 22-4301 et seq., which applies to criminal charges against inmates held in Kansas. We have found no merit to that claim since Warren had waived his speedy-trial rights and had caused a trial continuance by seeking new counsel.

I. We Have Jurisdiction to Consider the Limited Question Presented in this Appeal, Even Though the Defendant Received a Presumptive Sentence.

We begin with the jurisdictional question. To determine the answer, we must consider the language of K.S.A. 21-4721(c)(l) as well as the holdings in three cases: State v. Huerta, 291 Kan. 831, 247 P.3d 1043 (2011); State v. Dillon, 44 Kan. App. 2d 1138, 244 P.3d 680 (2010); and State v. Cisneros, 42 Kan. App. 2d 376, 212 P.3d 246 (2009).

K.S.A. 21-4721(c)(l), as it stood at the time Warren filed his appeal, provided that an “appellate court shall not review... [a]ny sentence that is within the presumptive sentence for the crime . . . .’’As our Supreme Court explained in Huerta, this statutory [59]*59provision represented an intention to remove presumptive sentences from appellate review, even when appeals were based on a claim of prejudice, corrupt motive, or an error involving a constitutional right. 291 Kan. at 835-37, 838. Thus, the court instructed in Huerta that a presumptive sentence could not be appealed based on a claim that an individual presumptive sentence was unconstitutional for some reason. 291 Kan. 831, Syl. ¶ 3. And the court in Huerta specifically disapproved our decision in Dillon, which had considered an appeal on the basis that the district judge had refused to consider the constitutionality of the sentence. Huerta, 291 Kan. at 839-41.

But Warren is not raising a constitutional due-process argument or an argument that his presumptive sentence was unconstitutionally severe based on his facts. Warren instead argues that his appeal may be heard because the district court misinterpreted its sentencing options, the same argument our court ruled upon in Cisneros.

In Cisneros, the defendant initially received probation, but the probation was revoked and the defendant was sent to prison to serve his original 155-month sentence. At the probation-revocation hearing, the defendant asked the district court to enter a lesser sentence, but the judge said that was “not within my power here.” 42 Kan. App. 2d at 377. In fact, however, K.S.A. 22-3716(b) allows the district court to order the defendant either to serve the original sentence “or any lesser sentence” when probation is revoked. When Cisneros appealed, the State argued that our court lacked jurisdiction to consider the appeal because Cisneros had received a presumptive sentence. But our court considered the appeal a question of statutory interpretation rather than a review of a presumptive sentence: [60]*60Our court reversed, explaining that the district court had misunderstood its statutoiy authority. The case was remanded for re-sentencing, but the district court was free to enter whatever sentence it found appropriate, though it would understand on remand that the original sentence was not its only option.

[59]*59“Cisneros is not appealing the term or length of his sentence so much as he is appealing the district court’s judgment that it had no power to reduce his sentence upon revoking his probation. This is a question of law that we have jurisdiction to consider on appeal. If we were to dismiss the appeal for lack of jurisdiction as the State requests, then Cisneros would have no remedy to determine whether the district court properly applied K.S.A. 22-3716(b) in his case.” 42 Kan. App. 2d at 379.

[60]*60If Cisneros is still good law, then Warren is entitled to be heard on appeal because he presents essentially the same argument that we addressed there. In Cisneros, the district judge said, “I don’t have the power to lower [the sentence]. That is not within my power here.” 42 Kan. App. 2d at 377. But under the applicable statute, K.S.A. 22-3716(b), the district judge in Cisneros did have the power to give Cisneros a lesser sentence upon revoking his probation. In Warren’s case, the district judge also held that he did not have the power to reduce Warren’s sentence. Warren’s judge identified the question of whether the small amount of drugs can be “a legally sufficient reason” to depart, but concluded, “I do not believe that meets the statutoiy factor, or factors[,] and [is] legally sufficient to constitute a substantial and compelling reason for departure, the amount of drugs involved.” And in Warren’s case, as in Cisneros, Warren makes the argument that under the applicable statute, K.S.A. 21-4716(c)(l)(E), the judge in Warren’s case did have the power to give him a lesser sentence.

In both Warren’s case and in Cisneros, then, the appeal was based on the claim that the district court misinterpreted a statute and thus unduly limited its own statutory authority when sentencing the defendant. We see no meaningful distinction between the two cases, so we must now determine whether Cisneros is still good law given the Kansas Supreme Court’s decision in Huerta. We must determine the jurisdictional issue before addressing the merits of Warren’s claim. Huerta, 291 Kan.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
270 P.3d 13, 47 Kan. App. 2d 57, 2012 Kan. App. LEXIS 12, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-warren-kanctapp-2012.