Matakis v. State

• Decision Date: 08 April 2015
• Docket Number: No. A13–1040.,A13–1040.
• Citation: 862 N.W.2d 33
• Parties: Jason Donald MATAKIS, Appellant, v. STATE of Minnesota, Respondent.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

862 N.W.2d 33

Jason Donald MATAKIS, Appellant

v.STATE of Minnesota, Respondent.

No. A13–1040.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

April 8, 2015.

Bradford Colbert, Legal Assistance to Minnesota Prisoners, Saint Paul, MN, for appellant.

Lori Swanson, Attorney General, Saint Paul, MN; and Donald F. Ryan, Crow Wing County Attorney, Rockwell J. Wells, Assistant County Attorney, Brainerd, MN, for respondent.

OPINION

GILDEA, Chief Justice.

Appellant Jason Matakis pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, Minn.Stat. § 609.342, subd. 1(h)(iii) (2014), and was sentenced to 144 months in prison. He later filed a petition for postconviction relief alleging that his guilty plea was not knowingly, voluntarily, and intelligently made. The postconviction court denied the petition without an evidentiary hearing, concluding that the petition lacked factual support and failed to meet the substantive requirements for a postconviction petition. Matakis appealed, and the court of appeals affirmed. Matakis v. State, 842 N.W.2d 689, 693 (Minn.App.2014). Because we conclude that the postconviction court did not abuse its discretion, we affirm.

This case arises from statements 13-year-old A.I.M. made in an interview with a Crow Wing County social worker. Specifically, A.I.M. said that Matakis engaged in sexual intercourse with her almost every night when she was between the ages of 9 and 11. The social worker reported the allegations to law enforcement. During a subsequent phone conversation with an investigator from the Brainerd Police Department, Matakis admitted to sexually touching A.I.M. from approximately July 2007 to January 2008. He admitted that he touched her over her underwear, usually a day or two before her period because he thought she seemed more receptive to it then. He also admitted rubbing his penis against her, over her underwear, and said that she would get on top of him and rub against him, sometimes until he ejaculated. Matakis guessed that he did this to her 9 or 10 times, but he repeatedly denied that there was ever any penetration.

Respondent State of Minnesota charged Matakis in Crow Wing County District Court with three counts of criminal sexual conduct in the first degree under Minn.Stat. § 609.342 (2014) and three counts of criminal sexual conduct in the second degree under Minn.Stat. § 609.343 (2014).¹

Matakis entered an Alford guilty plea² to one count of criminal sexual conduct in the first degree, in violation of Minn.Stat. § 609.342, subd. 1(h)(iii), which criminalizes sexual penetration with a person under 16 years of age when the actor has a significant relationship to the complainant and there have been multiple acts committed over an extended period of time. The plea agreement stated that Matakis would serve the mandatory minimum prison sentence of 144 months. Although he did not admit to sexual penetration with A.I.M., Matakis admitted he would be found guilty of that offense if A.I.M. testified consistent with her recorded statement. The district court accepted Matakis's plea, and, consistent with the plea agreement, the court sentenced Matakis to 144 months. Matakis did not file a direct appeal.

On May 10, 2013, 3 days before the expiration of the 2-year statute of limitations for postconviction relief,³ Matakis filed a postconviction petition, seeking to withdraw his guilty plea. In his petition, Matakis argued that his guilty plea “was not knowingly, voluntarily, and intelligently made where there is reason to question the accuracy of the factual basis underlying the plea and the circumstances under which he pled guilty suggest that it was not voluntarily entered.” The petition included no additional facts or documentation, instead stating that “[c]ounsel attempted to arrange a visit with [Matakis] at [the prison] to obtain the necessary documentation for this petition,” but “the documentation could not be finalized prior to the filing of this petition” because of “conflicting schedules with caseworkers at [the prison] and counsel.” The petition then stated that “[c]ounsel will obtain the necessary records, and then provide a Memorandum of Law in Support of the Petition for Postconviction Relief with an affidavit from [Matakis].”

On June 4, 2013, without Matakis having filed a memorandum, the postconviction court denied Matakis's request for relief. The court concluded that Matakis “did not fulfill the basic content requirements” of a postconviction petition. The court noted that Matakis's petition “does not state that the lack of documentation unreasonably prohibited [Matakis] from providing any factual basis at all to accompany the Petition as required by the statute.”

The court of appeals affirmed, noting that the petition “consisted of argumentative assertions and did not include even implausible factual allegations that could support the conclusion that his guilty plea was involuntary.” Matakis, 842 N.W.2d at 692. The court concluded that although Matakis had a right to an appeal, “one who chooses the postconviction route also chooses the obligation to meet the requirements of the postconviction statute.” Id. at 693. The court held that “Matakis did not meet those basic requirements, and his failure defeats his petition.” Id. We granted Matakis's petition for review.

I.

On appeal to our court, Matakis argues that the postconviction court erred by denying his petition for postconviction relief without providing him notice or an opportunity to be heard. We review the denial of a petition for postconviction relief for an abuse of discretion. Sontoya v. State, 829 N.W.2d 602, 603 (Minn.2013). We review legal issues de novo, but on factual issues our review “is limited to whether there is sufficient evidence in the record to sustain the postconviction court's findings.” Vance v. State, 752 N.W.2d 509, 512 (Minn.2008). We will not reverse an order “unless the postconviction court exercised its discretion in an arbitrary or capricious manner, based its ruling on an erroneous view of the law, or made clearly erroneous factual findings.” Reed v. State, 793 N.W.2d 725, 729 (Minn.2010).

A.

The postconviction court concluded that Matakis had not supplied any facts to support his claim for relief, and therefore denied his petition without holding an evidentiary hearing. Minnesota Statutes § 590.02, subd. 1 (2014), lists the requirements for filing a proper postconviction petition. This statute provides, in part, that the petition shall contain “a statement of the facts and the grounds upon which the petition is based and the relief desired. All grounds for relief must be stated in the petition or any amendment thereof unless they could not reasonably have been set forth therein.” Minn.Stat. § 590.02, subd. 1(1). Matakis does not argue that his petition set forth the factual basis for his contention that his plea was invalid. But he argues that the postconviction court should have given him a greater opportunity to provide that information.

Matakis notes that Minn.Stat. § 590.04, subd. 1 (2014), provides that a postconviction court shall hold an evidentiary hearing “[u]nless the petition and the files and records of the proceeding conclusively show that the petitioner is entitled to no relief.”⁴ We have held, however, that an evidentiary hearing is “not required unless facts are alleged which, if proved, would entitle a petitioner to the requested relief.” Fratzke v. State, 450 N.W.2d 101, 102 (Minn.1990). In Fratzke, the petition asserted ineffective assistance of counsel and alleged “that trial counsel did not properly handle hearsay and inconsistent testimony and coached” a witness who testified for the State. Id. The postconviction court found that these allegations were “too generalized to warrant an evidentiary hearing,” and we agreed. Id.

In Townsend v. State, the petitioner also argued ineffective assistance of counsel, and asserted that his “Sixth Amendment rights were violated due to the ineffectiveness of [appellate] counsel, during the process of his appeal.” 582 N.W.2d 225, 229 (Minn.1998) (alteration in original) (internal quotation marks omitted). The petitioner did not elaborate or offer any supporting affidavits or documents. Id. We concluded that, “[h]aving only a general allegation before it, the postconviction court did not err in refusing to hold an evidentiary hearing on this issue.” Id. Similarly, in Hodgson v. State, we noted that a postconviction “petitioner's allegations must be ‘more than argumentative assertions without factual support.’ ” 540 N.W.2d 515, 517 (Minn.1995) (quoting Beltowski v. State, 289 Minn. 215, 217, 183 N.W.2d 563, 564 (1971) ).

Matakis's petition is even more devoid of factual support than the petitions in those cases. Matakis submitted only a conclusory allegation, stating that his guilty plea “was not knowingly, voluntarily, and intelligently made where there is reason to question the accuracy of the factual basis underlying the plea and the circumstances under which he pled guilty suggest that it was not voluntarily entered.” But the petition provides no “reason to question the accuracy of the factual basis underlying the plea.” Accordingly, the petition lacks a factual basis for the suggestion that the guilty plea was improper.

Matakis nevertheless attempts to distinguish this case from Fratzke, Townsend, and Hodgson by noting that in each of those cases, the defendant had received review by direct appeal. But nothing in our analysis in those cases suggests that a prior direct appeal affects the statutory requirements for a postconviction petition. Moreover, we have previously upheld a postconviction court's denial of a petition without an evidentiary hearing even when there was no direct appeal. See Vickla v. State, 793 N.W.2d 265, 268, 272 (Minn.2011).

It is true, as Matakis argues, that petitions for postconviction relief must be “liberally construe[d].” Minn.Stat. § 590.03 (2014) (“The court shall liberally construe the petition and any ame...