Willis v. State

205 S.W.3d 189, 90 Ark. App. 281, 2005 Ark. App. LEXIS 258
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedMarch 16, 2005
DocketCA CR 04-858
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 205 S.W.3d 189 (Willis 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
Willis v. State, 205 S.W.3d 189, 90 Ark. App. 281, 2005 Ark. App. LEXIS 258 (Ark. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinion

Andree Layton Roaf, Judge.

Joseph Willis pled guilty to violation of probation on October 6, 2003. He was sentenced to twenty years’ imprisonment with the imposition of five years suspended. On appeal, Willis argues that the trial court erred in amending the October 2003 judgment to reflect an additional offense of theft of property. We affirm.

Willis was charged by felony information with commercial burglary and theft of property in 2000. On the information, the case number for the two offenses is listed as “Case No. CR 2000-100.” Willis was convicted of commercial burglary and theft of property for which he received a sentence of five years’ probation. On December 6, 2002, the State filed a motion to revoke Willis’s probation, alleging that he had violated several of its conditions, including committing the offenses of terroristic threatening and domestic battery, testing positive for metham-phetamines, and failing to pay fines and costs. The petition for revocation indicated that the underlying offenses for Willis’s probation were commercial burglary, a class C felony; theft of property, a class B felony; and committing a fraudulent insurance act, a class D felony. Two case numbers were listed on the States petition, CR 2000-100 and CR 2000-148. Willis was also sent a notice of the State’s written motion for revocation on December 5, 2002. In the caption heading case numbers CR. 2000-100 and CR 2000-148 were listed.

Willis and the State entered a negotiated plea agreement, whereby Willis pled guilty to the offense of “probation revocation.” The plea agreement indicates that a sentence of twenty years’ imprisonment with the imposition of five years suspended will be imposed. The plea agreement was filed October 6, 2003 and lists CR 2000-100 as the case number. Willis also appeared before the trial court on that day for the revocation hearing. During the hearing, Willis pled guilty to the allegations of the revocation petition. Thereafter, the State recommended a sentence of twenty years’ imprisonment with five years suspended. The trial court inquired, “Is that the agreement?,” to which counsel for Willis responded, “Yes, sir.” The trial court then, based upon the plea and the recommendation of the State, set Willis’s sentence at twenty years with five years suspended. A judgment and commitment order reflecting this sentence was entered on October 22, 2003. The judgment and commitment order lists only the offense of commercial burglary, but does indicate that commitment on the offense was the result of revocation of probation. Case number CR 2000-100 is reflected on this order. 1

On March 5, 2004, Willis filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus, asserting that he had been sentenced to more than the maximum sentence allowed by law during his revocation proceeding. Willis stated that his probation had been revoked based upon a charge of commercial burglary; that commercial burglary is a class C felony; that the punishment range for class C felonies is three to ten years’ imprisonment; that he was not sentenced pursuant to any enhancement provision; and that his sentence of twenty years’ imprisonment with five years suspended exceeded the authorized law and must be reduced. On April 1, 2004, the State filed a motion to correct the October 22, 2003 judgment and commitment order to include the theft-of- property offense. Willis responded, arguing that the trial court lacked jurisdiction to amend the judgment and commitment order past the ninety-day limitation set out in Ark. Code Ann. § 16-90-111. The trial court amended the judgment and commitment order on April 21, 2004, to reflect the charges of both commercial burglary and theft of property. Willis brings this timely appeal.

Our standard of review in this case is abuse of discretion. McCuen v. State, 338 Ark. 631, 999 S.W.2d 682 (1999) (McCuen II). Willis points this court to McCuen IIas support for his assertion that the trial court lacked jurisdiction to amend the judgment and commitment order in this case. Willis argues that, because the theft of property offense was not read in open court, the omission of this offense was not a clerical error, and therefore the trial court’s nunc pro tunc order is invalid.

The procedural history of McCuen II is similar to the facts of this case. On April 29,1996, McCuen was sentenced in open court to seventeen years’ imprisonment and a $30,000 fine, following a guilty plea. The day after sentencing, the trial judge signed the judgment and commitment order, but the order did not include the $30,000 fine. Id. On May 3, 1996, McCuen filed a petition to vacate his sentence and to withdraw his guilty plea, and on July 23, 1996, he filed a pro se motion to correct sentences imposed in an illegal manner. Id. His motions were denied, and those denials affirmed on appeal. Id; see McCuen v. State, 328 Ark. 46, 941 S.W.2d 397 (1997).

On September 9, 1997, McCuen filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in federal district court and asserted that the State could not collect the $30,000 fine because it was not included in the written judgment and commitment order. McCuen II, supra. The next day, the State filed a motion for correction of the judgment and commitment order and sought to have the original order amended to include the $30,000 fine. Id. McCuen filed a response on September 11, 1997, contending that the trial judge had lost jurisdiction to amend the original judgment because the case had already been appealed to the supreme court. Id. On September 18, 1997, the trial judge entered a judgment and commitment order nunc pro tunc. Id. In the order, the judge stated that the $30,000 fine had been “inadvertently omitted” from the original order. Id. at 633, 999 S.W.2d at 683.

McCuen appealed from the corrected judgment, arguing that the trial court did not have jurisdiction to amend the original judgment and commitment order. Id. McCuen conceded, however, that the trial court did impose the $30,000 fine in open court. Id. McCuen asserted, nonetheless, that the omission of the fine in the judgment signed by the trial judge and entered of record constituted a judicial error that cannot be corrected after the mandate is returned. Id.

The supreme court held that a subsequent judgment entered nunc pro tunc to correct an erroneous judgment to speak the truth was the appropriate course for the trial judge to take. Id. The court noted that the trial judge had sentenced McCuen the previous day in open court, wherein he stated that McCuen was to pay the $30,000 fine. Id. The court also noted that, when the matter of the fine was subsequently brought to his attention, the trial court promptly corrected the “inadvertent” omission. Id. at 635, 999 S.W.2d at 684. The court found that there was nothing before it to suggest that the omission was not inadvertent, and that this is precisely the kind of clerical error meant to be corrected by a judgment entered nunc pro tunc. Moreover, McCuen could not demonstrate prejudice, according to the court, where he was present in the trial court when the fine was read as a part of his sentence.

In discussing the case, the McCuen II court distinguished Glick v. State, 238 Ark. 412, 677 S.W.2d 844

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Gholson v. State
308 S.W.3d 189 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2009)
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240 S.W.3d 124 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2006)

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Bluebook (online)
205 S.W.3d 189, 90 Ark. App. 281, 2005 Ark. App. LEXIS 258, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/willis-v-state-arkctapp-2005.