Halbleib v. State, 99-179.
| Decision Date | 31 May 2000 |
| Docket Number | No. 99-179.,99-179. |
| Citation | 7 P.3d 45 |
| Parties | Jeffrey L. HALBLEIB, Appellant (Defendant). v. The STATE of Wyoming, Appellee (Plaintiff). |
| Court | Wyoming Supreme Court |
Representing Appellant: Sylvia Lee Hackl, State Public Defender; Donna D. Domonkos, Appellate Counsel; Ryan R. Roden, Assistant Appellant Counsel. Argument by Mr. Roden.
Representing Appellee: Gay Woodhouse, Wyoming Attorney General; Paul S. Rehurek, Deputy Attorney General; D. Michael Pauling, Senior Assistant Attorney General; T. Alan Elrod, Assistant Attorney General. Argument by Mr. Elrod.
Before LEHMAN, C.J., and THOMAS, MACY, GOLDEN and HILL, JJ.
Appellant Jeffrey L. Halbleib (Halbleib) appeals from the district court's order revoking his probation and imposing a judgment and sentence of not less than two years nor more than four years in the Wyoming State Penitentiary. Halbleib was originally given probation with a suspended sentence, but he violated his probation. He spent eleven days in the Laramie County jail awaiting his probation revocation hearing. His sentence did not include credit for those eleven days. Halbleib contends Wyoming law and the constitutional prohibition against double jeopardy require credit for any post-sentence time served as long as an escape charge would lie upon an unauthorized departure from confinement.
We hold the district court did not abuse its discretion when it denied credit for time served in jail while awaiting a probation revocation hearing. In Smith v. State, 988 P.2d 39, 40 (Wyo.1999), we recently determined that a probationer is not entitled to credit for time served while awaiting a probation revocation hearing. Although Halbleib asks this Court to reconsider Smith, based on his double jeopardy argument, we decline to do so. This situation is distinguishable from the cases relied upon by Halbleib, and double jeopardy is not implicated when a probationer is awaiting a probation revocation hearing. Therefore, we affirm.
In his initial brief, Halbleib presents the following statement of the issue:
Whether the trial court erred by denying Appellant credit for time served on his felony fraud sentence for time served in custody awaiting his probation revocation hearing?
The State counters with this issue:
Did the district court abuse its discretion in denying Appellant credit for time served awaiting his probation revocation, given that this confinement would have persisted regardless of Appellant's financial ability to post bond?
In his reply brief, Halbleib addresses the State's reliance on Smith, which was published the same day Halbleib filed his initial brief:
Whether Smith v. State, [988 P.2d 39 (Wyo.1999)], which fails to address the prohibition against multiple punishments for the same offense, should be applied to the present case?
On May 15, 1998, Halbleib pled guilty to felony check fraud, proscribed by Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 6-3-702(a)(b)(iii) (LEXIS 1999), and was sentenced to two to four years in the state penitentiary. The district court suspended that sentence and placed Halbleib on probation for four years. Halbleib violated his probation in several ways, and a petition for revocation of probation was filed in the district court. Halbleib was arrested in Pennsylvania and extradited to Wyoming. Halbleib was held in the Laramie County jail while awaiting his probation revocation hearing from his arrest on March 14, 1999, until the revocation hearing on March 25, 1999, eleven days. The district court revoked Halbleib's probation and ordered execution of his previously suspended sentence. After the district court said Halbleib would be given credit for time served awaiting this sentence, the prosecution asked the district court to disallow any credit for time served outside the original twenty-six days he spent in jail prior to being sentenced in May of 1998.1 The district court complied with the State's request, and Halbleib appealed.
and cases cited therein (equal protection); Prejean v. State, 794 P.2d 877, 879 (Wyo.1990) (double jeopardy).
In his initial brief Halbleib correctly noted that this Court had not addressed credit for time served while awaiting a probation revocation hearing. In his reply brief, he also correctly concedes that Smith v. State, 988 P.2d 39 (Wyo.1999), held a probationer is not entitled to credit for time served while awaiting his probation revocation hearing, but Halbleib argues the double jeopardy issue must not have been raised in Smith because we did not address the issue in the opinion.
The double jeopardy clause, found in the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution and at Article 1, § 11 of the Wyoming Constitution, protects an accused from multiple punishments for the same crime. Amrein v. State, 836 P.2d 862, 864 (Wyo.1992). Halbleib claims the trial court's refusal to credit time served while awaiting a probation revocation hearing increases the length of the previously suspended sentence, thereby violating the double jeopardy clause. In Yates v. State, 792 P.2d 187, 192 (Wyo. 1990), we noted:
[T]he punishment for a violation of probation is the imposition of the sentence for which the defendant was placed on probation and, further, as a general rule, any sentence imposed and then suspended during a period of probation may not be increased because of the conduct that serves as the basis for the revocation. The punishment for that conduct is the revocation itself. If the revocation is justified by the commission of a separate crime, the defendant may be convicted of that crime and then sentenced to the full extent permitted by law for it.
In both his initial and reply briefs, Halbleib relies on Craig v. State, 804 P.2d 686 (Wyo.1991), to argue the district court's failure to credit his sentence violates the double jeopardy clause. However, Craig is distinguishable from the case at bar. In Craig, the trial court revoked Craig's probation and reinstated his sentence twice, resulting in his incarceration for the original charge for a period of ninety days in the Sheridan county jail and 199 days in the Wyoming State Penitentiary. Id. at 687. With the following holding, we reversed the trial court:
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