Young v. Hutchings

CourtDistrict Court, D. Nevada
DecidedJanuary 20, 2021
Docket2:12-cv-00524
StatusUnknown

This text of Young v. Hutchings (Young v. Hutchings) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Nevada primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Young v. Hutchings, (D. Nev. 2021).

Opinion

1 2

4 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 5 DISTRICT OF NEVADA 6

7 DANNY ANDREW YOUNG, Case No. 2:12-cv-00524-RFB-NJK

8 Petitioner, ORDER 9 v.

10 WILLIAM HUTCHINGS, et al., 11 Respondents. 12 13 A. Introduction 14 This habeas matter is under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. The Court held an evidentiary 15 hearing on September 15, 2020, on (a) the merits of Ground 4(c), (b) the potential relief 16 to be ordered herein if Petitioner prevails on that claim as well as Ground 3, and (c) 17 Petitioner’s motion for release (ECF No. 78). This order supplements the Court’s prior 18 merits order on July 17, 2020 (“July Order”). (ECF No. 74). 19

20 B. Findings of Fact 21 The Court having held an evidentiary hearing and reviewed the record, makes the 22 following findings of fact. The Court also incorporates by reference its prior findings in its 23 July Order and construes them to be consistent with the findings in the instant order. 24 Petitioner Danny Young challenges his Nevada state conviction, pursuant to a jury 25 verdict, of two counts of sexual assault, one count of attempted sexual assault, and one 26 count of incest. As further background, the Court incorporates its summary in its prior 27 order of the trial evidence that it made in relation to Young’s challenges to the sufficiency 28 1 of the evidence subject to the qualifications stated in note 1 therein. (See ECF No. 74, at 2 2-10.) The Court reiterates that in summarizing the trial evidence it makes no credibility 3 determinations or factual findings regarding the truth or falsity of evidence presented at 4 trial. 5 In Ground 4(c), Young alleges that he was denied effective assistance of trial 6 counsel when counsel failed to discuss an advantageous plea offer with him. The Court 7 incorporates by reference its discussion in its prior order regarding the factual background 8 to Ground 4(c) that is reflected in the state court record, with relevant record citations. 9 (See ECF No. 74, at 32-34 & 37-42.) Some salient factual points from that discussion 10 are reiterated in this order. 11 Heading into trial, if Young were convicted and sentenced consecutively to the 12 maximum sentence on each count, he would face a minimum of 32 years of physical 13 custody prior to any possible parole outside of prison walls. Moreover, in the likely event 14 that Young’s parole on a prior conviction were revoked as a result of a conviction, Young 15 potentially would start serving such a 32-year minimum period of incarceration only if and 16 after he first was paroled again on that offense, if the sentences in the present case were 17 imposed consecutively to the sentence in that prior case. (See id., at 32-33.) 18 Young was approximately 50 years old when the trial started. (See id., at 33.) 19 Going to trial thus risked essentially incarceration for life without a practical possibility of 20 parole. With maximum sentencing, Young would not be eligible for a parole outside of 21 prison walls before he was 82 years old, and likely well past that age with a parole 22 revocation on the prior conviction. (See id., at 37-38.) 23 Near the end of an April 2, 2009 calendar call, on the Thursday before the Monday 24 trial, the trial judge asked the parties whether there was a pending offer and whether it 25 was subject to being revoked. The State responded that “by the end of today the offer 26 was two counts of incest and we would agree to eight to 20,” elaborating further that 27 “that’s the outstanding offer, and by the end of today we won’t offer that anymore.” (See 28 id., at 33.) 1 The offer lapsed that day. Five days later during the trial, the defense, against the 2 backdrop of the pretrial rulings in place, conceded Young’s guilt on the incest charge. 3 That concession exposed Young to a potential maximum sentence of 4 to 10 years on 4 that count. (Id., at 37.) 5 On the prior Thursday, the then 50-year-old Young would have been able to avoid 6 potential exposure—based on maximum sentences imposed consecutively—to a 7 minimum of 28 more years of incarceration by instead agreeing to the State’s plea deal, 8 which involved a maximum of only 4 more years of minimum incarceration than on the 9 count conceded at trial. That is, a plea deal with only 4 more years of minimum 10 incarceration (in the event of consecutive sentencing) than on the conceded count would 11 have avoided instead possible incarceration for a minimum of 28 more years before the 12 possibility of a noninstitutional parole. Defense acceptance of the plea offer thus would 13 have replaced a potential additional 28-year minimum aggregate sentence with the 14 possibility of only an additional 4-year minimum sentence, a sevenfold difference. (See 15 id., at 37-38.) 16 Young ultimately was convicted on all charges at trial, and the trial judge sentenced 17 him to the maximum possible sentencing, with the sentences imposed consecutively to 18 one another and further consecutively to the sentence on the prior conviction. (Id., at 42.) 19 After considering the evidence presented at the federal evidentiary hearing and 20 the record in this case, the Court further finds as follows, on a de novo review, that 21 defense counsel clearly did not confer with Young—on any topic—for months prior to the 22 Thursday calendar call. 23 The state district court minutes reflect that the case initially was trailed “for [defense 24 counsel] to speak with the defendant.” (ECF No. 24-5, at 35.) When the case was 25 recalled, lead defense counsel orally moved for a continuance of two to four weeks in part 26 because she had seen Young that day for the first time in several months. Counsel stated 27 that she had not seen Young over that period because (a) she had been in trial for the 28 past six weeks and (b) correctional officials had failed to transport Young for trial 1 preparation as ordered previously. (ECF No. 24-36, at 3 & 5-6. See also ECF No. 104, 2 at 20-22; Joint Exhibit No. 12, at 18-20; Joint Exhibit No. 14, at 33-36.) 3 The Court also finds that defense counsel did not confer with Young—on any topic, 4 including the plea offer stated at the end of the calendar call—after the calendar call and 5 prior to the lapse of the offer. 6 Young testified credibly that he was taken away by officers immediately following 7 the calendar call and had no communication from or with counsel during the rest of the 8 day. Both defense counsel, many years and many cases after the fact, had no 9 independent recollection of speaking with Young about the offer at any point, including 10 after the calendar call. The detention center visitation logs confirm that defense counsel 11 did not go to the detention center and speak with Young in custody after the calendar call 12 before the offer lapsed. The practice of both counsel in this context would have been to 13 speak with a defendant who then was back in custody at the detention center in person 14 via a confidential contact visit rather than by phone or video conference. (ECF No. 104, 15 at 22-27, 39 & 44-45; Petitioner’s Hearing Exhibit 2, at 011; Joint Hearing Exhibit 12, at 16 7-13, 15, 16-18, 20-21, 25-39, & 41-44; Joint Hearing Exhibit 14, at 6-38.) 17 The Court does not find that the hearing evidence or the record establish that the 18 prosecution conveyed the plea offer to defense counsel prior to the calendar call and that 19 defense counsel then conferred with Young about the offer when the matter initially was 20 trailed at the calendar call. 21 The prosecutor on the case, Richard Scow, presented an account of what allegedly 22 transpired at the calendar call that was presented for the first time in the long life of this 23 case at the federal evidentiary hearing.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Carvel Corp. v. Noonan
350 F.3d 6 (Second Circuit, 2003)
In Re Bonner
151 U.S. 242 (Supreme Court, 1894)
Harris v. Nelson
394 U.S. 286 (Supreme Court, 1969)
Strickland v. Washington
466 U.S. 668 (Supreme Court, 1984)
Hilton v. Braunskill
481 U.S. 770 (Supreme Court, 1987)
Schlup v. Delo
513 U.S. 298 (Supreme Court, 1995)
Mitchell v. Esparza
540 U.S. 12 (Supreme Court, 2003)
Harrington v. Richter
131 S. Ct. 770 (Supreme Court, 2011)
Salvatore Joseph Marino v. Dan Vasquez, Warden
812 F.2d 499 (Ninth Circuit, 1987)
Martinez v. Ryan
132 S. Ct. 1309 (Supreme Court, 2012)
Missouri v. Frye
132 S. Ct. 1399 (Supreme Court, 2012)
Jeffrey Welton Nunes v. G.A. Mueller, Warden
350 F.3d 1045 (Ninth Circuit, 2003)
Sandy v. Fifth Judicial District Court
935 P.2d 1148 (Nevada Supreme Court, 1997)
O'Brien v. O'Laughlin
557 U.S. 1301 (Supreme Court, 2009)
United States v. James McCandless
841 F.3d 819 (Ninth Circuit, 2016)
Cullen v. Pinholster
179 L. Ed. 2d 557 (Supreme Court, 2011)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
Young v. Hutchings, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/young-v-hutchings-nvd-2021.