Goings v. Missouri Dept. Of Corrections

• Decision Date: 21 December 1999
• Citation: 6 S.W.3d 906
• Parties: (Mo.banc 1999) . Gary Goings, Appellant, v. Missouri Department of Corrections, Respondent. Case Number: SC81589 Supreme Court of Missouri Handdown Date:
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

6 S.W.3d 906 (Mo.banc 1999)

This slip opinion is subject to revision and may not reflect the final opinion adopted by the Court.

Gary Goings, Appellant, v. Missouri Department of Corrections, Respondent.

Case Number: SC81589

Supreme Court of Missouri

Handdown Date: 12/21/99

Appeal From: Circuit Court of Cole County, Hon. Byron L. Kinder

Counsel for Appellant: Gary Goings

Counsel for Respondent: Michael J. Spillane

Opinion Summary:

While on parole, Gary Goings was arrested for felony stealing. His parole was revoked, and he returned to prison in August 1996. He was sentenced for felony stealing in December 1997. The department of corrections refused to credit his sentence for time served from August 1996 to December 1997 pursuant to section 558.031. The circuit court upheld the refusal, and he appealed.

REVERSED AND REMANDED.

Court en banc holds:

Section 558.031 requires a person receive credit toward a sentence on an offense for time in custody after arrest and before the sentence when the time "relates to" that offense. Although Goings' incarceration "related to" his earlier offenses, the use of the broad term "related to" instead of, for example, "caused by" or "the result of" compels the conclusion that his custody can be "related to" both the earlier and felony stealing offenses. Since Goings' earlier and felony stealing offenses run concurrently, Goings is entitled to credit for time spent in custody after his arrest before sentencing on felony stealing.

Opinion Author: Michael A. Wolff, Judge

Opinion Vote: REVERSED AND REMANDED. All concur.

Opinion:

Gary Goings was on parole from prison after serving a portion of his five-year sentence on Franklin County convictions when he was arrested in 1996 on a felony stealing charge from Stoddard County. After it was determined that Goings had violated conditions of his parole, Goings was returned to the custody of the department of corrections in August 1996. Thereafter the circuit court for Stoddard County sentenced Goings, in December 1997, to a five-year term on the stealing charge, to be served concurrently with his earlier sentences, which apparently were for stealing and second-degree assault.¹ The department of corrections refused to give Goings credit for time served, pursuant to section 558.031,² against the five-year sentence imposed in December 1997 in the circuit court for Stoddard County.

Goings, confined in the Algoa Correctional Center in Cole County, brought this declaratory judgment action in Cole County Circuit Court challenging the department's refusal to give him credit for time served prior to his December 1997 sentencing on the felony stealing charge.³ The court denied relief, and Goings appealed to this Court, challenging the constitutionality of section 558.031 and the legality of the department's refusal to grant him credit for time served prior to the December 1997 sentencing. Because Goings challenges the constitutionality of a statute, we have jurisdiction under art. V, sec. 3 of the Missouri Constitution.

The dispositive issue is whether Goings was "in custody related to" the offense for which he was sentenced in December 1997 and, therefore, should be credited with time served in the department of corrections prior to that sentencing. We believe that the statute, section 558.031, requires such a credit. We therefore reverse and remand.

Goings is entitled to credit for time served prior to sentence if the time in custody is "related to that offense." The statute, section 558.031.1, provides:

A sentence of imprisonment shall commence when a person convicted of a crime in this state is received into the custody of the department of corrections or other place of confinement where the offender is sentenced. Such person shall receive credit toward the service of a sentence of imprisonment for all time in prison, jail or custody after the offense occurred and before the commencement of the sentence, when the time in custody was related to that offense . . . .

In interpreting the statute, both sides cite State ex rel. Blackwell v. Sanders, 615 S.W.2d 467 (Mo. App. 1981). In Blackwell, after spending 362 days in jail, a defendant received a suspended execution of sentence and five years of probation pursuant to a guilty plea in 1977. In 1980, the defendant was arrested on an assault charge, his probation was revoked, and the 1977 sentence was executed. A new sentence on the 1980 assault conviction was imposed to run concurrently with the 1977 sentence. At the time of his 1980 sentencing defendant had spent 64 days in jail after his arrest. The end result was that defendant was entitled to credit the 64 days spent in jail in 1980 against the 1980 sentence; he received no credit against the 1980 sentence for the 362 days spent in jail prior to the 1977 sentence, which was a probation term on a suspended execution of sentence. Id. at 467, 469.

Here, Goings seeks to apply the time he spent in state custody from August 16, 1996, to December 18, 1997, against his Stoddard County sentence. The statute plainly allows such a credit for time spent in custody "after the offense occurred and before the commencement of the sentence, when the time in custody was related to that offense . . . ." Section 558.031.1 (emphasis added). Generally, credit for time spent in custody is unavailable for offenses unrelated to the one underlying the sentence. Blackwell, 615 S.W.2d at 648.⁴

The purpose of section 558.031 undoubtedly is to eliminate the disparity of treatment between indigent defendants, who typically are in custody prior to sentencing, and...