State v. Copeland

• Decision Date: 06 December 1988
• Docket Number: No. 860491,860491
• Citation: 765 P.2d 1266
• Parties: STATE of Utah, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Darrel COPELAND, Defendant and Appellant.
• Court: Utah Supreme Court

Page 1266

765 P.2d 1266

STATE of Utah, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Darrel COPELAND, Defendant and Appellant.

No. 860491.

Supreme Court of Utah.

Dec. 6, 1988.

Robert W. Gutke, Logan, for defendant and appellant.

David L. Wilkinson, Sandra L. Sjogren, Salt Lake City, for plaintiff and respondent.

DURHAM, Justice:

Defendant Darrel Copeland entered a plea of guilty and mentally ill to the charge of sodomy on a child. Prior to sentencing, defendant moved to withdraw his plea on the ground that it had not been entered voluntarily and knowingly. The trial court refused to allow defendant to withdraw his plea and sentenced him to a minimum mandatory term of fifteen years, with a recommendation that he be placed in the Utah State Hospital's in-patient sex offender program. Defendant raises the following issues on appeal: (1) he challenges Utah Code Ann. § 76-5-406.5 (Supp.1988), which denies him probation or suspension of his sentence while granting it to others in similar circumstances; (2) he challenges the constitutionality of Utah Code Ann. § 76-5-403.1 (Supp.1988), the minimum mandatory sentencing scheme, on the grounds that it is cruel and unusual punishment and that it is vague; (3) he claims that the trial court erred by not holding a hearing to determine his mental competency pursuant to Utah Code Ann. § 77-35-21.5 (Supp.1988); and (4) he claims that the trial court failed to properly ascertain whether his plea was voluntarily and knowingly made as required by Utah Code Ann. § 77-35-11 (Supp.1988) and Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 89 S.Ct. 1709, 23 L.Ed.2d 274 (1969). We vacate defendant's sentence and remand to the trial court to determine defendant's mental condition and to inquire into the voluntariness of defendant's guilty plea.

On May 13, 1986, defendant was arrested for sodomizing his seven-year-old niece. Sodomy on a child is a first degree felony and is punishable by imprisonment for a minimum mandatory term of five, ten, or fifteen years or which may be for life. Utah Code Ann. § 76-5-403.1 (Supp.1988). Defense counsel requested that the trial judge order an evaluation of defendant's mental capacity at the state psychiatric hospital pursuant to Utah Code Ann. § 77-14-4 (Supp.1988), and the court ordered the examination. The two doctors who evaluated defendant did not find him to be insane or of diminished capacity, but did find him to be mentally ill due to recurrent episodes of major depression.

After negotiations between the State and defendant, the parties reached an agreement whereby defendant would plead guilty and mentally ill to the charge of sodomy on a child. The State agreed not to bring any additional charges and to make a recommendation to the court concerning defendant's sentence. It is unclear from the record what the State promised to recommend and what it actually recommended. At the arraignment, defense counsel told the court that "the State would concur in a recommendation that [defendant] be committed or sentenced to the Utah State Hospital and placed in a sex offender program in-patient at the Hospital." The presentence report, however, stated that the county attorney recommended that "Mr. Copeland's sentence includes [sic] a sex offender treatment at the Utah State Hospital." (Emphasis added.) The presentence report recommended a fifteen-year minimum mandatory sentence at the state prison, with the requirement that defendant participate in a sex offender program before his release.

On July 28, 1986, defendant pleaded guilty and mentally ill to the charge of sodomy on a child. The following exchange occurred:

The Court: State vs. Copeland. Derrell [sic] Ray Copeland; is that your correct name?

Mr. Copeland: Yes.

The Court: Mr. Gutke is your attorney?

Mr. Copeland: Yes.

The Court: And you've received a copy of the information?

Mr. Copeland: Yeah.

The Court: This is an information that alleges a first degree felony of sodomy on a child and alleging that this occurred in Cache County on May 1, 1985, by engaging in a sexual act upon a child under the age of fourteen and involving the genitals of the actor and the mouth of the child. Have you made a determination of your plea?

Mr. Copeland: Yes.

The Court: And what would that be?

Mr. Gutke: Your Honor, there have been negotiations in this matter.... [T]he negotiations have been that Mr. Copeland will enter a plea of guilty but mentally ill, that plea being pursuant to Section 77-35-21.5 of the Utah Code, and that the state would concur in a recommendation that Mr. Copeland be committed or sentenced to the Utah State Hospital and placed in a sex offenders program in-patient at the hospital; and, in addition, no additional, other, further charges would be filed against Mr. Copeland.

The Court: I would ask then, Mr. Copeland, what is your plea to the information?

Mr. Copeland: Guilty but mentally ill.

The Court: Okay. You understand that this charges you with a first degree felony, which has a minimum mandatory sentence, either the hospital or prison, either one, and that this can be a minimum mandatory of five years, ten years, or fifteen; do you understand that?

Mr. Copeland: Yeah.

The court also informed defendant that a guilty plea has the same effect as a jury verdict of guilty and that the court was not bound by the recommendations of counsel. The court questioned defendant to assure itself that the plea was voluntary and had not been induced by threats or promises and then accepted the plea.

The sentencing hearing was held on August 26, 1986. Prior to sentencing, defendant requested to withdraw his plea pursuant to Utah Code Ann. § 77-13-6 (1982). Defendant's counsel argued that defendant's plea was not voluntarily and knowingly entered because of his mental condition and a misunderstanding concerning the State's recommendation. Counsel argued that his client thought the State would recommend commitment to the Utah State Hospital, not prison. The trial court dismissed the request to withdraw the plea on the ground that the consequences of mandatory sentencing had been explained to defendant and he had been told that the court was not bound by the State's recommendation.

The court found that defendant was not a candidate for probation under Utah Code Ann. § 76-5-406.5 (Supp.1988) because defendant was not "the victim's parent, stepparent, adoptive parent, or legal guardian." After examining the aggravating and mitigating circumstances, the court held that the aggravating circumstances overrode the mitigating circumstances. Based on its findings, the court imposed a fifteen-year minimum mandatory sentence at the Utah State Prison, with a recommendation that prison authorities consider placing defendant in the Utah State Hospital's sex offender program.

I

Defendant challenges the constitutionality of Utah Code Ann. § 76-5-406.5 (Supp.1988), which provides:

(1) In a case involving rape of a child, attempted rape of a child, or sodomy upon a child involving the actor's genitals and the mouth or anus of the child, where the defendant is the victim's parent, stepparent, adoptive parent, or legal guardian who has lived in the household in the role of a parent to the victim for a continuous period of time of at least one year prior to the earliest offense, and the victim was more than five years of age at the time the earliest offense was alleged or proven, execution of sentence may be suspended and probation may be considered....

(Emphasis added.) Defendant contends that this statute denies him equal protection of the law in violation of the fourteenth amendment to the United States Constitution and article I, section 24 of the Utah Constitution. Defendant claims that limiting probation to the class of persons defined in the statute is discriminatory and therefore unconstitutional.

In State v. Bishop, 717 P.2d 261 (Utah 1986), this Court determined that the minimum mandatory sentence provision of the child sodomy statute does not unconstitutionally discriminate. In that case, as in this one, the class of persons under the scrutiny of the Court consisted of child sodomizers who do not "generally constitute a suspect class entitled either to a heightened or an intermediate level of scrutiny." Id. at 266 (footnote omitted). We stated: "Equal protection of the law provisions do not preclude people from being treated differently under the law as long as there is a reasonable basis for the difference." Id. Therefore, the question in the instant case is whether the probation statute "bears a reasonable and substantial relation to a legitimate state objective." State v. Amicone, 689 P.2d 1341, 1343 (Utah 1984). We hold that it does.

House Bill 209, entitled "Child Kidnaping and Sexual Abuse," significantly changed much of the law dealing with sexual exploitation of children. ¹ Representative Hillyard, while introducing the bill to the House, stated:

[T]he primary controversy in this bill has been in the question of an incest exception.... [W]hen this bill was first drafted there was no exception for incest. And in the negotiations and concerns with many of the social workers involved in that area, there have been compromises and agreements made for an exception in the area of incest.

The exception mentioned became the probation provision of Utah Code Ann. § 76-5-406.5 (Supp.1988).

On March 3, 1983, during the discussion of House Bill 209, Representative Richards proposed an amendment to the probation section of the bill which was passed by the legislature. This amendment had the effect of enlarging the class of incest offenders eligible for probation. ² The debates concerning this amendment illustrate the legislature's rationale for adopting an incest exception. The legislature determined that in incest cases the judge should have discretion to grant probation when appropriate for the child victim, the family, and the offender.

Representative Richards argued that in some instances it is in the best...