Nixon v. State

• Decision Date: 05 August 2002
• Docket Number: No. 01-55.,01-55.
• Parties: Todd Luther NIXON, Appellant (Defendant), v. The STATE of Wyoming, Appellee (Plaintiff).
• Court: Wyoming Supreme Court

51 P.3d 851

2002 WY 118

Todd Luther NIXON, Appellant (Defendant), v. The STATE of Wyoming, Appellee (Plaintiff).

No. 01-55.

Supreme Court of Wyoming.

August 5, 2002.

Representing Appellant: Todd Luther Nixon, pro se.

Representing Appellee: Hoke MacMillan, Wyoming Attorney General; Paul S. Rehurek, Deputy Attorney General; D. Michael Pauling, Senior Assistant Attorney General.

Before HILL, C.J., and GOLDEN, LEHMAN¹, KITE, and VOIGT, JJ.

GOLDEN, Justice.

[¶ 1] Todd Luther Nixon appeals pro se from the district court's order which denied his post-sentence and post-direct appeal motion to withdraw his guilty pleas filed pursuant to W.R.Cr.P. 32(d). In that motion, Nixon raised several claims of ineffective assistance of trial counsel and a claim that the district court and his trial counsel failed to advise him about mitigation matters he could have presented during the sentencing phase of his capital case. In this appeal, Nixon raises those issues and the issue whether the district court erred by not conducting an evidentiary hearing on Nixon's motion to withdraw his guilty pleas. Although the State responds substantively to those issues, it first asks this Court to consider whether Nixon's appeal should be dismissed on grounds that the district court was without jurisdiction to entertain Nixon's post-sentence and post-direct appeal motion to withdraw his guilty pleas.

[¶ 2] Having carefully considered the jurisdictional question raised by the State, we hold that the district court was without jurisdiction to entertain Nixon's post-sentence and post-direct appeal motion to withdraw his guilty pleas. Consequently, we dismiss this appeal.

FACTS

[¶ 3] In early June of 1997, law enforcement authorities charged Nixon with first degree murder (felony murder in the perpetration of child abuse) in violation of Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 6-2-101(a) and with aggravated assault and battery in violation of Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 6-2-502(a)(i) arising from the death of his three-year-old, CL. Nixon v. State, 4 P.3d 864, 866 (Wyo.2000). As the case proceeded, Nixon changed his pleas of not guilty to pleas of guilty pursuant to a plea agreement with the State. Id.

[¶ 4] On August 22, 1997, a written plea agreement between Nixon and the State was consummated pursuant to which the State relinquished its option to seek the death penalty and Nixon entered pleas of guilty to the two charges. Id. On October 7, 1997, before sentencing, Nixon filed a motion to withdraw his pleas of guilty. Nixon asserted that his pleas were involuntary because the district court at the August 22 change of plea hearing had erroneously advised him that probation was a possibility although "extremely unlikely." Id. at 867. Nixon claimed that this improper and misleading advice influenced his decision to plead guilty. Id. at 868. The district court considered Nixon's motion, conceded that the advice was in error, but ruled that the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt given the totality of the record. Id. The district court denied Nixon's motion.

[¶ 5] At the sentencing hearing on October 10, 1997, the district court imposed a sentence of life imprisonment for first degree murder, which was to run concurrent to a sentence of seven to ten years imprisonment for aggravated assault and battery; and the district court ordered Nixon to pay attorney fees, a sum to the crime victim's compensation fund, and restitution. Id. at 868.

[¶ 6] Nixon filed a notice of appeal on October 31, 1997, from the judgment and sentences, asserting as error the district court's denial of his pre-sentence motion to withdraw his pleas of guilty and the requirement for restitution. Id. This Court considered those assertions, found no error, and affirmed Nixon's judgment and sentence in a decision published April 10, 2000. Id. at 872. On January 8, 2001, some nine months after this Court's affirmance of Nixon's direct appeal and some three years and three months after the district court's imposition of sentence, Nixon pro se filed his motion to withdraw his pleas of guilty pursuant to W.R.Cr.P. 32(d).

[¶ 7] In this motion, Nixon again challenged the voluntariness of his pleas of guilty, albeit on grounds different from those asserted in his pre-sentence motion to withdraw his pleas of guilty. This time Nixon's asserted grounds concerned instances of alleged ineffective assistance of trial counsel, specifically whether his trial counsel, and the district court, failed to advise him of any matters in mitigation he could present during the sentencing phase; whether his trial counsel failed to investigate the case and failed to advise him of potential defenses and of strengths and weaknesses of the State's case; whether his trial counsel failed properly to advise him of the sentence he was facing; and whether the above and foregoing errors cumulatively denied him his right to effective assistance of counsel. We note that these claims of ineffective assistance of trial counsel were not raised in Nixon's direct appeal of his conviction, judgment and sentence. Nixon, 4 P.3d at 865-66. The district court denied this motion without conducting an evidentiary hearing. This appeal followed in which Nixon challenges the district court's failure to conduct an evidentiary hearing and the district court's denial of the motion to withdraw guilty pleas.

[¶ 8] As explained below, this Court's precedent, as well as policy considerations including the interest in the finality of criminal decisions, mandate that such a motion to withdraw a guilty plea, filed after an appeal of right from a judgment and sentence has been concluded, cannot be considered by the district court because of a lack of jurisdiction over such matters. Further, because this Court enjoys no greater jurisdiction than that of the district court in such matters, this Court must dismiss this appeal for lack of subject matter jurisdiction in this Court.

ANALYSES

[¶ 9] Rule 32(d) of the Wyoming Rules of Criminal Procedure addresses the withdrawal of guilty pleas:

(d) Plea withdrawal.—If a motion for withdrawal of a plea of guilty or nolo contendere is made before sentence is imposed, the court may permit withdrawal of the plea upon a showing by the defendant of any fair and just reason. At any later time, a plea may be set aside only to correct manifest injustice.

Although this Rule does not, in and of itself, set a time limit for filing such a motion with the district court after sentencing, such a limit must exist as a logical corollary to the general rule that a case becomes final after judgment and sentence is entered and an appellate decision affirming the conviction has been made, or the time for taking an appeal expires without perfection of an appeal, or after the voluntary dismissal of such an appeal. See Schuler v. State, 771 P.2d 1217, 1220 (Wyo.1989) (citing Attletweedt v. State, 684 P.2d 812 (Wyo.1984); State v. Duswalt, 153 N.J.Super. 399, 379 A.2d 1278 (1977)), for the proposition that a case is no longer pending after a final judgment (in Wyoming, that is the judgment and sentence) has been entered in the trial court. Unless a specific, express exception is created to this general rule by statute or court rule, a district court's jurisdiction to consider a motion to withdraw a plea—or any other motion not specifically provided for by statute or rule— ends when the case becomes final because of the expiration of the time for taking an appeal. In sum, once a criminal case becomes final pursuant to the general rule, a trial court loses the power to act in that case unless it is expressly permitted to do so by statute or court rule.

[¶ 10] In fact, this Court and the Wyoming Legislature have provided specific methods in both statutes and court rules for seeking review of prior and otherwise final criminal proceedings. With two exceptions, both confined to challenging the jurisdiction of the trial court—correcting an illegal sentence pursuant to W.R.Cr.P. 35(a) and state habeas corpus relief pursuant to Wyo. Stat. Ann. §§ 1-27-101 et seq.—all available methods contain time limits for taking such actions. For instance, a motion for sentence reduction must be made within one year after the sentence is imposed or probation is revoked, or within one year after receipt by the court of a mandate issued upon affirmance of the judgment or dismissal of the appeal, or within one year after entry of any order or judgment of the Wyoming Supreme Court denying review of, or having the effect of upholding, a judgment of conviction or probation revocation. W.R.Cr.P. 35(b). After expiration of that period, the district court no longer has jurisdiction to reduce a sentence. Stewart v. State, 654 P.2d 727 (Wyo.1982).

[¶ 11] Similarly, Wyoming statutes provide two additional avenues for presenting a challenge of a conviction to a district court: by way of the post-conviction relief statutes at Wyo. Stat. Ann. §§ 7-14-101 through 108, and state habeas corpus relief at Wyo. Stat. Ann. §§ 1-27-101 through 134. Review by way of a petition for post-conviction relief must be filed within the five-year limitation period, and the scope of such review is strictly limited. Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 7-14-103 (LexisNexis 2001).

[¶ 12] Review in a state habeas corpus action is not time limited, but is seriously limited in scope so that defendants may only raise a claim going to the subject matter or personal jurisdiction of the court. Hovey v. Sheffner, 16 Wyo. 254, 265-67, 93 P. 305, 307-08 (1908). This remedy is also unique in that the petition must be made to the court most convenient in distance to the petitioner. Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 1-27-104 (LexisNexis 2001). In other words, this particular remedy is not even a continuation of the criminal proceeding, but is a separate civil proceeding, so the continuing jurisdiction of the district court in the original criminal action is not of concern.

[¶ 13] In short, except where there has been a remand...