Turner v. State

194 S.W.3d 225, 88 Ark. App. 40
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedSeptember 29, 2004
DocketCA CR 03-1153
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 194 S.W.3d 225 (Turner v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Turner v. State, 194 S.W.3d 225, 88 Ark. App. 40 (Ark. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

Andree Layton Roaf, Judge.

Tyrone Turner appeals the revocation of bis probation and sentence of ten years’ imprisonment. On appeal, Turner argues that (1) the trial court lacked jurisdiction to revoke because of a prior modification of his sentence, and (2) the ten-year sentence recited in the judgment and commitment order is erroneous because the trial court pronounced sentence of only one year and because it is an illegal sentence for the count of first-degree terroristic threatening. We affirm the revocation as modified to correct the illegal sentence.

On May 10, 1999, Turner pled guilty to first-degree terror-istic threatening, a class D felony, third degree domestic battery, a class A misdemeanor, and felon in possession of a firearm, a class B felony. The offenses were committed on December 3, 1998. Pursuant to the plea agreement, Turner was not charged with any prior convictions. He received a five-year sentence of probation, and was ordered to complete eighty hours of community service and attend domestic abuse classes. Turner was also ordered to pay court costs and $2,000 in fines.

On November 19, 2001, the State filed the first of a series of revocation petitions. A hearing was held on March 4, 2002, in which the State’s petition was dismissed, and the trial court ordered that Turner’s probation continue. However, the trial court ordered Turner committed to the Pulaski County jail on fines and court costs stemming from the 1999 convictions. On March 4, 2002, the Pulaski County circuit clerk sent a “speed letter” to the Pulaski County jail, advising the jailers that the revocation petition had been dismissed, and that the trial court had ordered Turner “committed on fines and court costs.”

The State filed a second petition of revocation on June 28, 2002, and a hearing was held on October 21, 2002. Initially the trial court commented, “On a plea of guilty, it’ll be the judgment and sentence of the court that you pay a fine of $200 plus costs and be returned to probation.” The State cautioned that if the trial court wanted to continue Turner on probation it would not be able to modify the sentence at a later date if an additional fine was assessed. The State requested that the petition be dismissed so that the probated sentence would be subject to modification at a later date. The trial court dismissed the petition and returned Turner to his sentence of probation.

A third revocation petition was filed on January 8, 2003. The State presented evidence that Turner had failed to meet with his probation officer, failed to pay his supervision fees, and failed to perform his community service. The trial court found Turner guilty and sentenced him as follows: “All right, I find you guilty as charged. Count one, that will be ten years in the Arkansas Department of Correction. Count two, one year concurrent. Count three, one year concurrent.”

Turner first argues that the trial court lacked jurisdiction to revoke his probation pursuant to the petition filed in 2003 because the court had previously modified his probated sentence and fine in 2002. Prior to Act 1569 of 1999, a trial court lost subject matter jurisdiction to modify or amend an original sentence once it was put into execution. Gates v. State, 353 Ark. 333, 107 S.W.3d 868 (2003). A sentence is put into execution when the trial court issues a judgment of conviction or a commitment order. Id. A guilty plea, coupled with a fine and probation or a suspended imposition of a sentence, constitutes a conviction. Id. This conviction deprives the trial court of jurisdiction to amend or modify the executed sentence. Id. See also Ark. Code Ann. § 5-4-301 (Repl. 1997). Once a sentence is put into execution, an attempted modification of the original order is erroneous. Gates, supra (holding that the trial court lacked subject matter jurisdiction to modify the sentence originally imposed by imposing an additional term of fifteen years’ suspended sentence).

In Harmon v. State, 317 Ark. 47, 876 S.W.2d 240 (1994), the appellant entered a guilty plea, and the trial court sentenced her to a suspended imposition of sentence of one year. The appellant was also ordered to pay a fine of $500 and court costs of $107.75 at the rate of $50 per month. Subsequently, the State filed a petition to revoke the appellant’s suspended imposition of sentence. The trial court held that the appellant’s suspended sentence would remain in effect, but modified the sentence by adding another $500 fine and two weeks’ incarceration in the Crawford County Detention Center. On appeal, the supreme court held that the trial court lacked jurisdiction to modify the appellant’s sentence once it was put into execution.

Turner’s convictions arose from offenses committed in 1998, prior to the effective date of Act 1569 of 1999. Consequently, the supreme court’s holding in Gates, supra, is controlling, and while the trial court had jurisdiction to revoke Turner’s probation, it lacked jurisdiction to modify the original sentence with respect to any of the State’s petitions to revoke. Thus, the issue that this court must resolve is whether the trial court’s 2002 “commitment on fines and court costs” ordered at the time the 2001 revocation petition was dismissed constitutes a modification of Turner’s original sentence.

In this regard, the State argues that the trial court’s commitment of Turner at the March 2002 hearing was not a modification because the trial court could have been acting pursuant to Ark. Code Ann. § 5-4-203 (Repl. 1997). The State contends that the trial court did not enter a judgment and commitment order following the March 2002 hearing and that the trial court was merely imposing a “jail-for-dollar, failure-to-pay-fine commitment of [Turner] for his failure to pay his fine and court costs.” The State concedes that Turner’s failure to pay his fine could have been a basis on which to revoke his probation, but contends that, because the March 2002 proceeding resulted in neither a revocation nor an additional fine, the trial court retained jurisdiction to revoke Turner’s probation pursuant to the State’s 2003 petition.

Arkansas Code Annotated section 5-4-203 (Repl. 1997) provides in pertinent part:

(a)(1) When a defendant sentenced to pay a fine or costs defaults in the payment thereof or of any installment, the court, upon its own motion or that of the prosecuting attorney, may require him to show cause why he should not be imprisoned for nonpayment.
* * *
(3) (A) Unless the defendant shows that his or her default was not attributable to a purposeful refusal to obey the sentence of the court or to a failure on his or her part to make a good faith effort to obtain the funds required for payment, the court may order the defendant imprisoned in the county jail or other authorized institution designated by the court until the fine or costs or specified part thereof is paid.
(B) The period of imprisonment shall not exceed whichever is the shorter period:
(i) One (1) day for each forty dollars ($40.00) of the fine or costs;

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Bluebook (online)
194 S.W.3d 225, 88 Ark. App. 40, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/turner-v-state-arkctapp-2004.