State v. Flanagan
| Decision Date | 07 September 2021 |
| Docket Number | No. COA20-577,COA20-577 |
| Citation | 863 S.E.2d 812 |
| Parties | STATE of North Carolina, v. Jared Wade FLANAGAN, Defendant. |
| Court | North Carolina Court of Appeals |
Attorney General Joshua H. Stein, by Assistant Attorney General Robert C. Ennis, for the State.
Jason Christopher Yoder, for Defendant-Appellant.
¶ 1 Jared Flanagan ("Defendant") appeals from judgments of the trial court revoking his probation for various misdemeanor offenses. Defendant's notice of appeal failed to comport with Rule 4 of our rules of appellate procedure, and he asks this Court to allow his petition for writ of certiorari ("PWC") to reach the merits of his appeal. Defendant seeks our review of the revocation order, because the trial court failed to find good cause to revoke his probation. After careful review, we find the Stokes County Superior Court lacked jurisdiction to hear Defendant's appeal. Thus, we grant Defendant's PWC and vacate the judgment of the Stokes County Superior Court and reinstate the judgment of the Stokes County District Court.
¶ 2 On July 19, 2018, Defendant pleaded guilty in Forsyth County District Court to first-degree trespass and larceny (file no. 17 CR 60920). The trial court sentenced Defendant to one hundred twenty days in the custody of the Misdemeanant Confinement Program,1 suspended for twelve months of supervised probation. On August 24, 2018, Defendant pleaded guilty to possession of drug paraphernalia (file no. 18 CR 56369). The trial court sentenced Defendant to one hundred twenty days in the custody of the Misdemeanant Confinement Program, suspended for twelve months of supervised probation and ordered as a special condition of his probation that Defendant report for initial evaluation for a substance abuse assessment. On October 23, 2018, Defendant pleaded guilty to felony larceny (file no. 17 CR 61748). Defendant was sentenced to sixty days in the Forsyth County Jail, suspended for twelve months of supervised probation and ordered as a special condition of probation to serve ten days in the Forsyth County Jail.
¶ 3 On December 7, 2018, while subject to the restrictions of his probation, Defendant tested positive for opiates. On December 23, 2018, Defendant was charged in Forsyth County with second-degree trespass and misdemeanor larceny. On December 28, 2018, Defendant was charged with two counts of shoplifting concealment of goods. On January 3 and 17, 2019, Defendant failed to report to Treatment Accountability for Safer Communities care management services in violation of the terms of his probation. As a result, Defendant was terminated from the program. Defendant also failed to attend a scheduled appointment with Daymark Recovery Services for substance abuse services. Defendant failed to report to the Forsyth County Jail to serve his special condition of probation as ordered by the trial court on weekends in November and December 2018 and January 4, 2019. Defendant's probation officer, Tiffany Lynch ("PO Lynch"), testified Defendant had only completed four days of his special condition of probation as of the date of his revocation hearing.
¶ 4 PO Lynch filed violation reports in Stokes County District Court alleging that Defendant violated his probation in file nos. 19 CR 17-19 (the "misdemeanor cases") by committing new criminal offenses on January 18, 2019. The violation report gave notice of a revocation hearing scheduled on March 4, 2019. Two days later, Defendant stole multiple items from a Walmart in Stokes County. On April 1, 2019, Defendant failed to appear for a scheduled court date and also failed to report for a scheduled office visit with PO Lynch.
¶ 5 On April 3, 2019, a law enforcement officer stopped Defendant and his vehicle in Forsyth County for a traffic violation. Following that traffic stop, Defendant was arrested on multiple charges because he was found to be in possession of drug paraphernalia; tried to strike an officer with his vehicle; obstructed the investigation by driving away; drove without a driver's license and while displaying a license plate registered for another vehicle; drove recklessly, failed to maintain lane control, failed to stop at a stop sign; failed to wear a seat belt; and fled in his vehicle to elude arrest.
¶ 6 The following day, PO Lynch filed additional probation violation reports alleging Defendant absconded supervision, failed to report to PO Lynch, and committed new criminal offenses. PO Lynch also alleged that, during the April 3, 2019 incident, Defendant was using heroin in a Winston-Salem park and that he "is a danger to himself and the community."
¶ 7 On October 22, 2019, Defendant pleaded guilty in Stokes County Superior Court to felony larceny from a merchant and to misdemeanor larceny (19 CRS 50404-05). The trial court sentenced Defendant to a minimum of nine, maximum of twenty months in custody, suspended for eighteen months of supervised probation. On October 29, 2019, Defendant pleaded guilty in Forsyth County Superior Court to attempted assault with a deadly weapon on a government official and resisting a public officer (19 CRS 53256); driving while license revoked and reckless driving (19 CRS 53257); possession of drug paraphernalia (19 CRS 53262); and fleeing to elude arrest with a motor vehicle (19 CRS 53263). The trial court sentenced Defendant to a minimum of fifteen, maximum of twenty-seven months, suspended for a term of thirty-six months of supervised probation.
¶ 8 Defendant failed to report to PO Lynch in Stokes County or his Forsyth County Courtesy Officer for his November 14, 2019 appointment. PO Lynch reported Defendant told his Forsyth County Courtesy Officer that he would be unable to attend his November 14, 2019 appointment with the Forsyth County Courtesy Officer because he was working out of town. However, around November 15, 2019, Defendant was charged in Forsyth County with misdemeanor larceny at a Walmart. His presence at Walmart was a violation of a prior court order prohibiting Defendant from being on the premises of any Walmart. On November 22, 2019, Defendant was charged in Stokes County with resisting a public officer.
¶ 9 On December 2, 2019, Defendant appeared before the Stokes County District Court for a hearing on the January 18, and April 4, 2019 violation reports. While in the Stokes County District Court, Defendant both waived his violation hearing and admitted he violated the conditions of his probation. That same day, the Stokes County District Court entered orders revoking Defendant's probation and activating the suspended sentences in the misdemeanor cases. The trial court imposed his sentence of one hundred twenty days in the Misdemeanant Confinement Program and gave him credit for ninety-two days of prior confinement; his sentence of one hundred twenty days in the Misdemeanant Confinement Program; and his consecutive sentence of sixty days in the Stokes County Jail. After learning his probation was being revoked, Defendant ran out of the courtroom, was quickly apprehended in the courthouse, and ordered to serve thirty days in jail for criminal contempt of court. Defendant gave notice of appeal to the Stokes County Superior Court.
¶ 10 On December 23, 2019, PO Lynch filed violation reports in the Stokes County Superior Court, alleging that Defendant had violated the terms of his probation in file nos. 19 CRS 50404-05, and in 19 CRS 053256-57 and 19 CRS 053262-63 (). The report gave notice of a hearing scheduled for February 5, 2020.
¶ 11 On February 5, 2020, Defendant appeared before the Stokes County Superior Court. At the hearing, Defendant admitted to willfully violating his probation as alleged in the violation reports in the Superior Court probation files. The Stokes County Superior Court found Defendant had violated his probation and entered five judgments revoking Defendant's probation and activating his suspended sentences in the misdemeanor cases, and in 19 CRS 50404-05 and 19 CRS 459 (the felony cases). On February 11, 2020, Defendant filed written notice of appeal regarding the misdemeanor cases and the felony cases.2 The misdemeanor cases are the only cases currently before us.
¶ 12 On August 10, 2020, Defendant filed a PWC with this Court. Defendant filed a PWC because his appeal failed to "identify the ‘[C]ourt to which appeal is taken.’ " N.C. R. App. P. 4(b). Because Defendant failed to comply with Rule 4 of our rules of appellate procedure, Defendant asks this Court to exercise its discretion and issue a writ of certiorari to permit appellate review. In our discretion, we allow the petition to consider the merits of Defendant's appeal.
¶ 13 At the outset, we must first determine whether the Stokes County Superior Court possessed jurisdiction to hear Defendant's appeal from the Stokes County District Court. The question of whether a superior court has appellate jurisdiction over a district court's revocation of probation and subsequent activation of a sentence when the defendant has waived his revocation hearing is an issue of first impression before this Court.
¶ 14 The right to appeal in a criminal case is "purely a creation of state statute." State v. Pennell , 228 N.C. App. 708, 710, 746 S.E.2d 431, 433 (2013) (quoting State v. Singleton , 201 N.C. App. 620, 623, 689 S.E.2d 562, 564 (2010) ), rev'd in part , 367 N.C. 466, 758 S.E.2d 383 (2014). "Where jurisdiction is statutory and the Legislature requires the Court to exercise its jurisdiction in a certain manner, to follow a certain procedure, or otherwise subjects the Court to certain limitations, an act of the Court beyond these limits is in excess of its jurisdiction." In re T.R.P. , 360 N.C. 588, 590, 636 S.E.2d 787, 790 (2006) (quoting Eudy v. Eudy , 288 N.C. 71, 75, 215 S.E.2d 782, 785 (1975) ).
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