Hatley v. State

• Decision Date: 30 March 1984
• Docket Number: No. 14490,14490
• Citation: 678 P.2d 1160,100 Nev. 214
• Parties: David Wayne HATLEY, Appellant, v. The STATE of Nevada, Respondent.
• Court: Nevada Supreme Court

Page 1160

678 P.2d 1160

100 Nev. 214

David Wayne HATLEY, Appellant, v. The STATE of Nevada, Respondent.

No. 14490.

Supreme Court of Nevada.

March 30, 1984.

[100 Nev. 215] Morgan D. Harris, Public Defender, and Terrence M. Jackson, Deputy Public Defender, Las Vegas, for appellant.

D. Brian McKay, Atty. Gen., Carson City, Robert J. Miller, Dist. Atty., and James Tufteland, Deputy Dist. Atty., Las Vegas, for respondent.

OPINION

PER CURIAM.

This is an appeal from an order denying appellant's petition for post-conviction relief.

Appellant was originally convicted in 1979 of one count of burglary, and appealed his conviction to this court. His primary contention on that appeal was that the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress certain incriminating statements he made at the time of his arrest. Appellant contended that his arrest was made in violation of the fourth amendment and Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 100 S.Ct. 1371, 63 L.Ed.2d 639 (1980), since he was arrested in his home without a warrant and absent exigent circumstances.

Based on the evidence presented at trial, we concluded that the arresting officers did not have a warrant at the time of appellant's arrest. Hatley v. State, 97 Nev. 360, 630 P.2d 1225 (1981). We nevertheless concluded that Payton did not apply to appellant's case since appellant had been arrested prior to the Court's decision in Payton, and that appellant's arrest was valid under pre-existing Nevada law since there had been probable cause to support the arrest. Id.

Subsequent to our decision in Hatley, however, the United States Supreme Court decided that the warrant requirement set forth in Payton was to be applied retroactively to all cases pending on direct appeal at the time the Payton decision was issued. See United States v. Johnson, 457 U.S. 537, 102 S.Ct. 2579, 73 L.Ed.2d 202 (1982). ¹ Since Payton was decided during the pendency of appellant's first appeal, he subsequently brought the present petition for post-conviction relief in the district court, contending that he should be entitled to a new trial in light of the holding in Johnson.

The state opposed appellant's petition. In so doing, the state attached an affidavit sworn by one of the arresting officers, Officer Mertz, in July of 1982, which stated that appellant was initially arrested on the basis of a bench warrant that had previously been issued against appellant for his failure to appear in court on a misdemeanor traffic violation. This affidavit directly contradicted the trial testimony of the other arresting officer, Officer Meadow, who had testified that none of the arresting officers had a warrant at the time of appellant's arrest. ²

In light of this factual conflict, appellant requested that the district court hold an evidentiary hearing. Specifically, appellant wished to resolve the question of whether the arresting officers were in fact aware of the existence of the bench warrant at the time of appellant's arrest for burglary, and, if so, whether the bench warrant was impermissibly used as a pretext to arrest appellant on the burglary charge. The district court, however, refused to conduct an evidentiary hearing and summarily denied appellant's petition.

We conclude that it was error for the district court to deny the petition without first holding an evidentiary hearing. It is well settled that when "a petition for post-conviction relief contains allegations of facts outside the record which, if true, would entitle the petitioner to relief, an evidentiary hearing thereon is required." See Bolden v. State, 99 Nev. 181, 183, 659 P.2d 886, 887 (1983). See also Doggett v. State, 91 Nev. 768, 542 P.2d 1066 (1975). Clearly, appellant would be entitled to relief under Payton and Johnson if his allegation that the police officers were not aware of the bench warrant at the time of his arrest was true. Given that the conflict between Officer Meadow's trial testimony and Officer Mertz' affidavit with respect to this issue could not be resolved on the basis of the available record,...