State v. Gamble

• Decision Date: 12 December 2001
• Docket Number: No. 29562.,29562.
• Citation: 211 W.Va. 125,563 S.E.2d 790
• Court: West Virginia Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE of West Virginia, Plaintiff Below, Appellee v. Dean E. GAMBLE, Defendant Below, Appellant.

563 S.E.2d 790

211 W.Va. 125

STATE of West Virginia, Plaintiff Below, Appellee v. Dean E. GAMBLE, Defendant Below, Appellant.

No. 29562.

Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.

Submitted November 7, 2001.

Decided December 12, 2001.

Darrell V. McGraw, Jr., Attorney General, Allen H. Loughry, II, Assistant Attorney General, Charleston, for Appellee.

Harley E. Stollings, Summersville, for Appellant.

McGRAW, Chief Justice:

Dean Gamble, defendant below, appeals the lower court's ruling sentencing him to one to three years in the penitentiary after his plea of guilty to a charge of attempted forgery. Although the lower court gave Mr. Gamble credit for one hundred six days that Mr. Gamble served in North Carolina correctional facilities in connection with crimes committed in that state, Mr. Gamble argues that he should have received additional credit for time served. For reasons set forth below, we affirm the decision of the circuit court.

I. BACKGROUND

The convoluted history of this case winds through two states and several counties. On October 8, 1998, police in Nicholas County, West Virginia arrested the appellant Dean Gamble for the felony offenses of forgery and uttering for signing and passing allegedly stolen checks at several stores in or near Summersville, West Virginia. About a week later, on October 16, 1998, Mr. Gamble posted bond, with his mother Clara Maillett acting as surety.

Mr. Gamble and several members of his family traveled to North Carolina where they were arrested on February 7, 1999 in connection with some other sort of illegal activity.¹ Authorities in North Carolina jailed Mr. Gamble, who apparently could not secure adequate bail to gain his release. His mother, who had also been arrested in North Carolina but had been released on bond, returned to West Virginia. Upon her return, she visited the Clerk of the Circuit Court, of Nicholas County and requested the return of her bond that she had posted for her son back in October.

Pursuant to her request, the clerk gave Ms. Maillett a document known as a "bailpiece." The bailpiece is a document that evidences the intent of a surety to be relieved of his or her bond and is usually given in exchange for physical custody of the defendant in question.² In this case, Ms. Maillett sought the bailpiece because her son Mr. Gamble was in the custody of the North Carolina authorities. Ms. Maillett states that she informed the sheriff's department, who then informed the prosecuting attorney's office, of the location of her son and his desire to return to West Virginia to face the charges pending against him.

Complicating this picture further is the fact that Nicholas County was not the only place in West Virginia where Mr. Gamble had experienced an encounter with law enforcement authorities. The record indicates that Mr. Gamble had been stopped in Fayette County, West Virginia for driving when his license had been revoked for DUI. As a result of that stop, Mr. Gamble was charged with second offense driving while his license was revoked for DUI, obstructing an officer, and carrying a weapon without a license.³

On April 22, 1999, the Fayette County Prosecuting Attorney's Office wrote a letter to the officials at the Wake County Jail. The letter noted that it was to serve as a detainer against Mr. Gamble for the charges he faced in Fayette County. It made no mention of the Nicholas County charges. Mr. Gamble claims that he waived extradition to West Virginia on April 28, 1999, after receiving the detainer letter. It is not clear from the record if Mr. Gamble ever produced an official "request for final disposition form" at this time.⁴ All that is clear from the record is that Mr. Gamble remained incarcerated in North Carolina to face the charges pending against him there, and that authorities in Nicholas County, West Virginia did not place a hold or detainer upon Mr. Gamble until September 15, 1999.

On October 21, 1999, the North Carolina authorities acted on Mr. Gamble's case, ruling that he had served adequate time for charges filed against him in Wake County, North Carolina, and sentencing him to probation for crimes committed in Johnson County, North Carolina. A few weeks later, authorities returned Mr. Gamble to West Virginia, where he secured his release on bond on November 5, 1999. Mr. Gamble apparently remained free on bond until August 18, 2000, when he signed an agreement pleading guilty to the felony offense of attempted forgery. The court accepted the plea, convicted Mr. Gamble, and subsequently, on October 6, 2000, sentenced Mr. Gamble to the penitentiary for a period of not less than one year, nor more than three years, with credit for 106 days of time served.

It appears from the record that the 106-day credit granted was for time Mr. Gamble served after the filing of the Nicholas County detainer on September 15, 1999, until his release on November 5, 1999 (a little over 50 days), and for time he served between the signing of his plea agreement on August 18, 1999, and his sentencing on October 6, 1999 (also a little over 50 days), for a total of 106 days. At issue in this appeal is whether the Nicholas County Prosecuting Attorney should have acted sooner in seeking Mr. Gamble, or whether the lower court should have granted Mr. Gamble credit for time he served in North Carolina between the dates of March 18, 1999, the date on which his mother requested the bailpiece, and September 15, 1999, the first day for which he has already received credit for time served.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

In this case we are asked to review the lower court's interpretation of various statutes. In such cases, our standard of review is clear: "Where the issue on an appeal from the circuit court is clearly a question of law or involving an interpretation of a statute, we apply a de novo standard of review." Syl. pt. 1, Chrystal R.M. v. Charlie A. L., 194 W.Va. 138, 459 S.E.2d 415 (1995). Or in other words, "[i]nterpreting a statute or an administrative rule or regulation presents a purely legal question subject to de novo review." Syl. pt. 1, Appalachian Power Co. v. State Tax Dep't of West Virginia, 195 W.Va. 573, 466 S.E.2d 424 (1995).

We have before considered our standard of review in cases such as this:

[I]n State ex rel. Modie v. Hill, 191 W.Va. 100, 443 S.E.2d 257 (1994), we recognized that "the Agreement on Detainers, W. Va. Code, 62-14-1, et seq., [i]s an interstate compact to which the State is a party by statutory enactment." 191 W.Va. at 102, 443 S.E.2d at 259. As the United States Supreme Court has stated, "[t]he Agreement is a congressionally sanctioned interstate compact within the Compact Clause, U.S. Const., Art. I, § 10, cl. 3, and thus is a federal law subject to federal construction." Carchman v. Nash, 473 U.S. 716, 719, 105 S.Ct. 3401, 87 L.Ed.2d 516 (1985).

State v. Somerlot, 209 W.Va. 125, 128, 544 S.E.2d 52, 55 (2000) (footnote omitted). Bearing these standards in mind, we turn to an analysis of Mr. Gamble's arguments.

III. DISCUSSION

Mr. Gamble makes two assignments of error. He argues that the lower court should have found that the Nicholas County Prosecuting Attorney had a duty to seek his return from North Carolina prior to September 15, 1999. He also claims that the lower court erred when it did not grant him credit for time served between March 18, 1999 and September 15, 1999. Mr. Gamble predicates this argument upon our bailpiece statute and upon the Interstate Agreement on Detainers, discussed infra.

First Mr. Gamble argues that the plain language of our bailpiece statute required the state to seek his return in a speedier fashion than transpired in this case. The language of the section he cites reads:

A bailpiece is a certificate stating that the bail became such for the accused in a particular case and the amount thereof. Upon demand therefor, the court, justice [magistrate] or clerk shall issue to the surety a bailpiece. Any officer having authority to execute a warrant of arrest shall assist the surety holding such bailpiece to take the accused into custody and produce him before the court or justice [magistrate]. The surety may take the accused into custody and surrender him to the court or justice [magistrate] without such bailpiece.

W. Va.Code § 62-1C-14 (1965).

Mr. Gamble states that his mother requested the bailpiece on March 18, 1999, and that she then informed the Nicholas County Sheriff's Department that Mr. Gamble was incarcerated in North Carolina. Mr. Gamble also states that the sheriff's office then informed the Nicholas County Prosecuting Attorney's Office of the same. Mr. Gamble maintains that by providing this information to the sheriff's office, and ultimately to the prosecuting attorney's office, his mother's efforts triggered, under the Interstate Agreement Detainers (the "IAD"), an obligation on the part of the prosecuting attorney to seek his return from North Carolina sooner than September 1999.

We have been asked to interpret the state's obligations under the IAD on several occasions:

We have defined the Agreement on Detainers, W. Va.Code, 62-14-1, et seq., as an interstate compact to which the State is a party by statutory enactment. State ex rel. Mayward v. Bronson, 167 W.Va. 35, 277 S.E.2d 718 (1981). The purpose of the Agreement on Detainers, as set forth in article I of the agreement, is to encourage the expeditious and orderly disposition of outstanding criminal charges and the determination of the status of detainers based upon untried indictments, informations or complaints. Id. See also People v. Garner, 224 Cal.App.3d 1363, 274 Cal.Rptr. 298 (1990).

State ex rel. Modie v. Hill, 191 W.Va. 100, 102, 443 S.E.2d 257, 259 (1994). In short, the IAD places certain obligations upon officials in the "charging state" (to which the incarcerated seeks to return) once a prisoner complies with certain requirements of the statute. The prisoner must comply with the following:

(a)

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