Odhinn v. State

• Decision Date: 30 December 2003
• Docket Number: No. 02-281.,02-281.
• Citation: 2003 WY 169,82 P.3d 715
• Parties: Janvirgo Thunor Akihoka ODHINN, Appellant (Defendant), v. The STATE of Wyoming, Appellee (Plaintiff).
• Court: Wyoming Supreme Court

82 P.3d 715

2003 WY 169

Janvirgo Thunor Akihoka ODHINN, Appellant (Defendant), v. The STATE of Wyoming, Appellee (Plaintiff).

No. 02-281.

Supreme Court of Wyoming.

December 30, 2003.

Representing Appellant: Kenneth M. Koski, State Public Defender; and Donna D. Domonkos, Appellate Counsel.

Representing Appellee: H.M. Hoke Mac-Millan, Attorney General; Paul Rehurek, Deputy Attorney General; D. Michael Pauling, Senior Assistant Attorney General; and Daniel M. Fetsco, Assistant Attorney General.

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

KITE, Justice.

[¶ 1] Janvirgo Thunor Akihoka Odhinn appeals a district court's order denying his motion to dismiss criminal charges filed against him in Wyoming based upon alleged violations of the Interstate Agreement on Detainers (IAD). He claims his statutory and constitutional rights to a speedy trial were violated when he was not brought to trial within 180 days of the date Wyoming received notification of his request for final disposition of the charges. We hold Mr. Odhinn's right under the IAD to final disposition within 180 days was violated and reverse the district court's order.

ISSUES

[¶ 2] Mr. Odhinn presents the following issues:

ISSUE I

Whether the State of Wyoming denied Appellant his right to speedy trial under Article III of the Interstate Agreement on Detainers (IAD)?

ISSUE II

Whether the State of Wyoming denied Appellant his right to speedy trial as guaranteed by the 6th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and by Article I, § 10 of the Wyoming Constitution by the failure of the Nebraska Detainer Administrator to promptly send Appellant's Interstate Agreement on Detainer (IAD) demand for a speedy trial to Wyoming and/or as a result of the inaction by the State of Wyoming under the Interstate Agreement on Detailers?

FACTS

[¶ 3] In 1997, Mr. Odhinn was sentenced to two terms of two to four years in the Nebraska Department of Corrections on two convictions for theft. He escaped from the Nebraska facility in 1998. In August of 1999, the county attorney's office in Albany County, Wyoming filed an information alleging that Mr. Odhinn committed two counts of larceny in Laramie, Wyoming. The Albany County circuit court issued an arrest warrant and Mr. Odhinn was arrested in Utah on August 10, 1999. He was then extradited to Nebraska to complete his sentences on the theft charges and face prosecution for the escape.

[¶ 4] On May 18, 2000, the Albany County sheriff's office notified Nebraska that Mr. Odhinn was wanted in Wyoming on larceny charges and requested a detainer.¹ Mr. Odhinn was served with notice of the Wyoming charges on June 6, 2000. The notice informed him of his right to request final disposition of the Wyoming charges and be brought to trial in Wyoming within 180 days of delivery of his request to the Albany County prosecutor and court. That same day, Mr. Odhinn signed IAD Form II requesting final disposition of, and expressly waiving extradition with respect to, the Wyoming charges. At that time, Nebraska authorities did not advise Wyoming of Mr. Odhinn's request and waiver.

[¶ 5] On June 20, 2000, Nebraska notified the Albany County sheriff's office that Mr. Odhinn was due to be discharged on July 16, 2000. Prior to his release, the Nebraska county court presented him with another waiver of extradition form on July 3, 2000, which he refused to sign. Neither the record nor the parties' briefs indicate why Mr. Odhinn was asked to sign a second waiver after having waived extradition just two weeks before by signing IAD Form II.

[¶ 6] On July 10, 2000, officials in Nebraska informed Wyoming authorities that on July 5, 2000, Mr. Odhinn was sentenced to serve an additional one to two years in Nebraska on the escape charge and would not be available for release to Wyoming on July 16 after all. The record does not indicate and the parties offer no explanation as to why Mr. Odhinn was not available for release to Wyoming after being sentenced on the escape charge. From the record, it would appear that as of July 5, 2000, Mr. Odhinn had entered upon a term of imprisonment in Nebraska while charges upon which a detainer had been filed were pending in Wyoming, the very circumstances contemplated by the IAD for releasing him to Wyoming for disposition of the charges pending in this state.

[¶ 7] Mr. Odhinn remained in custody in Nebraska and four months later, on November 16, 2000, filed a grievance, asserting a violation of his right to final disposition of the Wyoming charges within 180 days. Nebraska responded to Mr. Odhinn's grievance by stating that when he requested final disposition of the Wyoming charges in June of 2000, his expected release date in Nebraska was not until July making his request inappropriate; he refused to sign a waiver of extradition in July of 2000, necessitating procurement of a warrant signed by the governor of Nebraska; and he was not sentenced on the escape charge in Nebraska until July of 2000, preventing trial in Wyoming at that time. By letter dated November 17, 2000, Nebraska advised the Albany County attorney of Mr. Odhinn's June request for final disposition of the Wyoming charges. The Albany County prosecutor received the letter on November 27, 2000, nearly six months after Mr. Odhinn's request. This letter was the first notice Wyoming had that Mr. Odhinn had formally requested speedy disposition of the Wyoming charges pursuant to the IAD.

[¶ 8] For the next several months, Mr. Odhinn remained incarcerated in Nebraska. On April 11, 2001, Nebraska advised Wyoming that Mr. Odhinn was scheduled to be released on May 16, 2001, but was refusing to sign a waiver of extradition to Wyoming. Despite Mr. Odhinn's June 6, 2000 waiver, Nebraska further advised that Wyoming would need to obtain a warrant from Nebraska's governor in order to secure his release.

[¶ 9] On May 15, 2001, Nebraska released Mr. Odhinn, but he was immediately taken into custody by the Lancaster County, Nebraska sheriff's office until Wyoming could obtain a governor's warrant. By letter to the Albany County circuit court dated June 3, 2001, Mr. Odhinn again requested dismissal of the Wyoming charges on the basis of speedy trial violations under the IAD and the Wyoming and United States Constitutions. In the letter, he specifically referenced his recent refusal to sign a waiver of extradition form, stating that his earlier signature on IAD Form II constituted a direct waiver of extradition to Wyoming making any additional waiver unnecessary.

[¶ 10] Meanwhile, despite Mr. Odhinn's letter stating he had already waived extradition, Wyoming authorities proceeded with obtaining a governor's warrant for his release. The governor of Nebraska signed the warrant on June 26, 2001, and sent it on to the Lancaster County, Nebraska sheriff's office where it was received on June 29, 2001. Although no longer serving any sentence in Nebraska, Mr. Odhinn remained in custody in the Lancaster County jail throughout this time. At some point that is not identified by the parties and does not appear in the record, Mr. Odhinn filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the Lancaster County district court in which he again asserted a violation of his right to speedy trial in Wyoming.² The district court held a hearing on the motion on July 24, 2001, and, by order dated July 26, 2001, denied the petition, holding that the Nebraska courts had no jurisdiction to address whether Mr. Odhinn's speedy trial right was violated in Wyoming. The district court ordered the Lancaster County sheriff's office to deliver Mr. Odhinn to Wyoming authorities.

[¶ 11] On August 2, 2001, fourteen months after Mr. Odhinn's request for final disposition of the Wyoming charges, sheriff's deputies from Albany County, Wyoming arrived in Nebraska to take Mr. Odhinn into custody and return him to Wyoming for trial. They were informed Mr. Odhinn was scheduled for a hearing the next day and could not be released. At the hearing, the Nebraska district court stayed its order of July 26 and ordered Nebraska authorities to hold Mr. Odhinn until disposition of his appeal from the denial of his petition for writ of habeas corpus. At some point, the Nebraska Supreme Court dismissed the appeal and, on December 26, 2001, Nebraska notified Wyoming that Mr. Odhinn was available for release to Wyoming authorities. Officers were dispatched to Nebraska on December 27, 2001, and returned to Wyoming with Mr. Odhinn the following day, more than a year and a half after he requested final disposition of the Wyoming charges.

[¶ 12] On March 15, 2002, Mr. Odhinn filed a motion in district court in Albany County seeking dismissal of the Wyoming charges on the ground that his speedy trial rights were violated. The district court held an evidentiary hearing on the motion and, on April 24, 2002, issued a decision letter in which it concluded no violation occurred because: 1) the delay in bringing Mr. Odhinn to trial resulted from his refusal to sign the waiver of extradition in April of 2001 and filing a petition for writ of habeas corpus, and 2) Mr. Odhinn's "self-imposed delays" constituted good cause to continue the date for computing the 180 days from November 27, 2000 to December 26, 2001. The district court entered an order denying the motion to dismiss on April 29, 2002. Mr. Odhinn entered a guilty plea conditioned upon his right to appeal the denial of his motion to dismiss and, on October 3, 2002, the district court sentenced him to not less than three nor more than nine years in the state penitentiary. Mr. Odhinn then appealed from the order denying his motion to dismiss.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

[¶ 13] To the extent the issue raised is a question of statutory interpretation, our review is de novo. Wyodak Resources Development Corporation v. Wyoming Department of Revenue, 2002 WY 181, ¶ 9, 60 P.3d 129, ¶ 9 (Wyo.2002). When a matter has been the subject of a bench trial (or evidentiary hearing) before...