Jackson v. Commonwealth

• Decision Date: 22 March 2012
• Docket Number: No. 2009–SC–000115–DG.,2009–SC–000115–DG.
• Parties: James JACKSON, Appellant, v. COMMONWEALTH of Kentucky, Appellee.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky

363 S.W.3d 11

James JACKSON, Appellant,

v.COMMONWEALTH of Kentucky, Appellee.

No. 2009–SC–000115–DG.

Supreme Court of Kentucky.

March 22, 2012.

La Mer Kyle–Griffiths, Department of Public Advocacy, Frankfort, KY, Counsel for Appellant.

Jack Conway, Attorney General, Joshua D. Farley, Assistant Attorney General, Attorney General's Office, Office of Criminal Appeals, Frankfort, KY, Counsel for Appellee.

Opinion of the Court by Justice NOBLE.

The Appellant James Jackson was charged with felony drug trafficking and several misdemeanors, including possession of a handgun by a minor, in the juvenile session of the McCracken District Court. The district court certified him as a youthful offender and transferred him to the circuit court, where he entered a guilty plea and was sentenced as an adult. He now seeks to collaterally attack his conviction on the grounds that the transfer was improper and, as a result, the circuit court never acquired jurisdiction over him or his case. Because the district court's transfer order was legally sufficient on its face, and no other jurisdictional defects appear in the record, this Court concludes that the transfer was proper, and the circuit court had jurisdiction.

I. Background

In 2004, a little more than a month before his sixteenth birthday, the Appellant was taken into custody after police and his juvenile case worker found him in possession of cocaine, marijuana, and a handgun. The officer filed a juvenile petition alleging that Appellant was a public offender and charging Appellant with first-degree trafficking in a controlled substance, specifically cocaine, which at the time was a Class C felony; and possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, and possession of a handgun by a minor, all of which are misdemeanors. Despite the handgun charge, the trafficking offense was not specifically listed as firearm enhanced on the juvenile petition.¹

At a juvenile detention hearing that followed, the arresting officer described the events surrounding the arrest. As part of that testimony, he stated that the juvenile case worker, who was supervising Appellant's probation on an earlier adjudication, searched Appellant and found a loaded gun in his pants.

Upon hearing this, the district judge interrupted the examination of the witness to ask “Should these charges be firearm enhanced?” The following discussion then took place between the judge and the Assistant County Attorney:

Judge: Should these charges be firearm enhanced? Should these charges be firearm enhanced?

Attorney: Uh, yes your honor. I think so, and we—

Judge: And I, and I assume then we are talking about a transfer hearing?

Attorney: And we will be making a motion your honor, just for the record, to certify him as an adult.

Judge: Well. Yeah, that is what I was just saying.

No transfer motion, oral or written, was actually made at that time. Nevertheless, the judge scheduled a transfer hearing to be held about a month later. At that time, she made the following notation on the docket sheet:

CA motions to certify as adult

All charges are firearm enhanced

Despite this notation, no transfer motion was subsequently filed and the charges were never amended to specifically list them as firearm enhanced. Only the district court's docket sheets list the charges as “firearm enhanced.”

At the transfer hearing, held before a different judge, the court heard from the arresting officer and the juvenile case worker. After hearing the proof and giving the attorneys a chance to speak, the judge made the following oral findings:

Okay. I'm going to look at 640.010 again. I do find probable cause to believe that the felony offenses as charged were committed and that Mr. Jackson committed those. In examining the factors under .010(2)(b), I find that it is a very serious offense, especially trafficking with a handgun. Against persons: these are crimes against persons, distributing narcotics into neighborhoods. The maturity of the child as determined by his environment: I do not find that he is immature. He has a—well, I'll take up the prior record in a minute. Best interest of the child and the community: Mr. Jackson needs to be removed from this community for an extens—and any community—for an extensive period of time if these charges are true. And the prospect of adequate protection of the public: I do not believe there will be adequate protection to the public by remaining in the juvenile system. And the likelihood of reasonable rehabilitation: I really haven't heard any evidence on.

That's certainly more than two factors. And discussing his record, beginning April of '03, leaving the scene of an accident, intimidating a witness. August '03, assault fourth degree, which was, I'm sorry, that was dismissed. Two contempts in September of '03. CD time, beyond control. January of '04, seven days detention. Starts picking up drug charges in March of '04; possession of controlled substance first degree, possession of drug paraphernalia, CD time revoked. Assault fourth degree, was guilty of March ' 04. April '04, an assault third degree times two. And then he was actually operating a vehicle in August of '04. That would tend to show some level of maturity. And then he has these current charges. I'm going to order that Mr. Jackson be bound up to the grand jury, so they can take a look and see whether or not the grand jury thinks it merits keeping it up there.

At the conclusion of the hearing, the judge made the following notation on his docket sheet, which was signed:

Found probable cause

Certified as youthful offender

Bound to Grand Jury

The grand jury indicted Appellant on first-degree trafficking in a controlled substance with a firearm enhancement and the same three misdemeanors he had been charged with in the district court. The indictment described the trafficking charge as a Class B felony, presumably based on the firearm enhancement statute, KRS 218A.992. In the circuit court, Appellant entered into a plea bargain in which the Commonwealth recommended a ten-year sentence (the minimum for a class B felony) in exchange for Appellant's plea of guilty to all four charges. The circuit court accepted Appellant's guilty plea and sentenced him in accordance with the plea agreement.

Appellant was scheduled for “adult resentencing” under KRS 640.030(2) to take place soon after he turned eighteen (in 2006). Shortly before the hearing, Appellant's counsel moved under RCr 11.42 and CR 60.02 to vacate his conviction on the ground that he was improperly certified as a youthful offender and transferred from the district court to circuit court, which, he claimed, lacked jurisdiction. The circuit court denied the motion to vacate and ordered that Appellant serve the remainder of his sentence in the custody of the Department of Corrections.

On appeal, the Court of Appeals held that the circuit court properly had jurisdiction over Appellant's case, noting that the circuit court had general subject-matter jurisdiction over youthful offender cases and that the only real question was whether the court had jurisdiction over this particular case based on the district court's findings at the transfer hearing. The court concluded that issue was really a question of due process, based on one of its own prior decisions, since the case was at the collateral attack stage, and required “an error of such magnitude to render the judgment of conviction so fundamentally unfair that the defendant can be said to have been denied due process of law.” Schooley v. Commonwealth, 556 S.W.2d 912, 917 (Ky.App.1977). The court held that any complaints about the district court's findings should have been raised on direct appeal, that the guilty plea waived “evidentiary defenses and subsequent claims of error,” and that any evidentiary issues could only be raised in the context of a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. Because a guilty plea limits even the types of issues that can be alleged as ineffective assistances of counsel to those going to the voluntariness of the plea, see Quarles v. Commonwealth, 456 S.W.2d 693, 694 (Ky.1970), the court could not get into the substance of the combined due process and ineffective assistance claim. Nonetheless, the court concluded that the voluntariness of Appellant's guilty plea was still in question and that the circuit court had erred in failing to address it. As a result, the court remanded the case to the circuit court to determine whether the guilty plea itself had been voluntary.

Despite a partial victory at the Court of Appeals, Appellant sought discretionary review by this Court of the issue of the circuit court's jurisdiction over his case, which was granted. The Commonwealth has not sought discretionary review of the Court of Appeals' decision to remand for a determination of voluntariness of the guilty plea.

II. Analysis

Appellant argues that his conviction must be vacated because his transfer to circuit court violated his due process rights. Specifically, he claims that the district court never made the findings required under KRS 635.020 and KRS 640.010(2)(a), and that no such finding could have been made in light of the record or the law. In essence, he asserts that the circuit court did not have jurisdiction. He also claims that his trial counsel was ineffective by failing to object to the transfer both at the district and circuit courts. The Commonwealth responds by claiming that Appellant's unconditional guilty plea waived all his claims.

The Commonwealth is correct that the general rule in this state is that an unconditional guilty plea waives all defenses except that the indictment does not charge a public offense. See, e.g., Thompson v. Commonwealth, 147 S.W.3d 22, 39 (Ky.2004) (“[T]he entry of a valid guilty plea effectively waives all defenses other than that the indictment charged no offense.”). This waiver covers most claims of ineffective assistance of counsel, including those...