State v. Jonason, 49509

• Decision Date: 11 March 1980
• Docket Number: No. 49509,49440.,49509
• Citation: 292 NW 2d 730
• Parties: STATE of Minnesota, Petitioner, v. Kelly JONASON, Respondent, and STATE of Minnesota, Petitioner, v. Michael Duane OLSON, Respondent.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

292 N.W.2d 730 (1980)

STATE of Minnesota, Petitioner, v. Kelly JONASON, Respondent, and STATE of Minnesota, Petitioner, v. Michael Duane OLSON, Respondent.

Nos. 49509, 49440.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

March 11, 1980.

Warren Spannaus, Atty. Gen., St. Paul, for petitioner in both cases.

James Clifford, County Atty., Center City, for petitioner in No. 49509.

Thomas L. Fabel, Deputy Atty. Gen., Richard D. Hodsdon, Special Asst. Atty. Gen., St. Paul, Stephen Rathke, County Atty., Brainerd, for petitioner in No. 49440.

C. Paul Jones, Public Defender and Evalynn Welling, Asst. Public Defender, Minneapolis, for Jonason.

Thomas J. Ryan and Max J. Ruttger, III, Brainerd, for Olson.

Heard, considered, and decided by the court en banc.

KELLY, Justice.

Defendant Olson was sentenced to imprisonment of up to five years with the Commissioner of Corrections for aggravated assault. Defendant Jonason was sentenced to one year in the county jail for aggravated robbery. Execution of these sentences, however, was stayed and the defendants placed on probation on certain conditions. The State seeks writs of mandamus compelling the sentencing judge in each case to comply with the mandatory minimum sentencing law for certain crimes in which a firearm is used, as stated in Minn.Stat. § 609.11, subd. 1 (1978) and Minn.Stat. § 609.135, subd. 1 (1978). In addition, the State in the Jonason matter seeks a writ of mandamus to require the trial court to rescind its order compelling Chisago County to pay Jonason's costs at a private institution where Jonason had completed a treatment program as a condition of probation. On certain conditions, stated subsequently, the writs of mandamus will issue.

Michael Duane Olson fired a shotgun or rifle at one Richard Price outside the Emily Bar in Emily, Minnesota, on October 25, 1977. Price was injured by flying debris caused by the shooting. Olson was later tried and found guilty by a jury of aggravated assault, his first offense of this type. As a result of his conviction, he was sentenced to the Department of Corrections for up to five years. Execution of this sentence was stayed, however, and Olson was placed on probation to the Department of Corrections on conditions that he pay a $1,000 fine, spend 9 months in county jail with possible Huber¹ privileges after 45 days, refrain from using drugs or alcohol over the period of probation, and sign a probation agreement.

The State thereafter moved for an order vacating the stay of execution of sentence, and for the resentencing of the defendant to a minimum of a year and a day in prison. This motion was denied by the district court.

Kelly Charles Jonason entered Chisago Lakes Hospital in Chisago, Minnesota, on May 2, 1978, held a nurse at gunpoint, and forced her to put certain drugs, which he intended to steal, into a bag. He was apprehended by an officer before he left the hospital. In connection with the incident, he pleaded guilty to the crime of aggravated robbery. The district court judge stayed imposition of sentence for the crime, and put Jonason on probation on the condition that he successfully complete a program at Bremer House, a private treatment center.

The State thereafter moved to vacate the stay of imposition, and to have Jonason sentenced to at least a year and a day in prison. The district court, in ruling on the motion, vacated its stay of imposition. The court, however, did not sentence Jonason to a year and a day in prison, but to a year in the county jail. The execution of his sentence was stayed, and the defendant was put on probation under the same conditions as before. The court also ordered Chisago County to pay for Jonason's treatment at Bremer House.

The issues presented for review are:

1. Should a writ of mandamus issue requiring vacation of the order compelling Chisago County to pay for Jonason's treatment at Bremer House?

2. Should writs of mandamus issue requiring the sentencing judges in both cases to sentence the defendants, as first offenders, to at least a year and a day in prison for their offenses in which they used a firearm?

1. In State v. Osterloh, 275 N.W.2d 578 (Minn.1978), this court ruled that a trial court had no sentencing power, in the absence of statutory authorization, to order a county to pay for a probationer's treatment in a private institution. Since there is no meaningful distinction between the facts in Osterloh and the facts in the instant case,² the writ of mandamus will issue compelling the trial court to rescind its order.

2. The State contends that, in light of Minn.Stat. § 609.11, subd. 1 (1978) and Minn.Stat. § 609.135, subd. 1 (1978), the trial courts in both cases did not have discretion to place the defendants on probation and were required to sentence the defendants to at least a year and a day with the Commissioner of Corrections. Section 609.11, subd. 1, reads in relevant part:

All commitments to the commissioner of corrections for imprisonment of the defendant are without minimum terms except when sentence is to life imprisonment as required by law and except that any commitment following the defendant\'s first conviction of an offense wherein the defendant or an accomplice had in possession a firearm or used a dangerous weapon at the time of the offense shall be for a term of not less than one year plus one day, nor more than the maximum sentence provided by law for the offense for which convicted. * * * The offenses for which mandatory minimum sentences shall be served before eligibility for probation or parole as herein provided are: aggravated assault, burglary, kidnapping, manslaughter, murder in the second or third degree, robbery, criminal sexual conduct in the first, second or third degree, escape while under charge or conviction of a felony, or discharge of an explosive or incendiary device, or any attempt to commit any of these offenses.

This statute has been in substantially the same form since 1975, when a clause specifically allowing the alternative of probation for first offenders for crimes in which a firearm was used was deleted. Act of June 4, 1975, ch. 378, § 8, 1975 Minn.Laws 1278. Although the legislature in 1975 apparently intended by that amendment to end judicial discretion regarding minimum sentences for crimes in which a firearm is used,³ it failed to amend Minn.Stat. § 609.135, subd. 1 (1974) (authorizing stay of execution or imposition of sentence in certain cases) to spell out clearly that imposition or execution of the mandatory year and a day minimum sentence for first offenses in which a firearm had been used could not be stayed.

Construing the law as it applied in 1975, this court ruled that a sentencing judge was still authorized to stay the execution or imposition of sentence in a firearms case because nothing in section 609.135 precluded it. State v. Moose, 266 N.W.2d 521 (Minn.1978). See also State v. Zaitz, 254 N.W.2d 381 (Minn.1977).

The Minnesota legislature, apparently reacting to trial judges placing defendants guilty of a crime in which a firearm was used on probation,⁴ amended section 609.135, subd. 1, in 1977 to read:

Except when a sentence of life imprisonment is required by law, or when a person is convicted of one of the crimes specified under 609.11, subdivision 1, and had in his possession a firearm or used another dangerous weapon, any court * * * may stay imposition or execution of sentence and place the defendant on probation * * *. (Emphasis added).

Act of May 27, 1977, ch. 349, § 1, 1977 Minn.Laws 739. This court in Moose stated that the 1977 amendment "conclusively eliminates the possibility of probation in cases coming under the minimum-sentence statute." 266 N.W.2d at 525-6.

We reaffirm our position in Moose. Minn.Stat. § 609.095 (1978) provides that "no other or different sentence or punishment shall be imposed for the commission of a crime than is authorized by this chapter or other applicable law." Judicial sentencing must strictly adhere to statutory authorization. See State ex rel. Ahern v. Young, 273 Minn. 240, 141 N.W.2d 15 (1966); State v. Meyer, 228 Minn. 286, 37 N.W.2d 3 (1949). For instance, a judge has no inherent authority to suspend sentences and impose probation. State v. Osterloh, 275 N.W.2d 578 (Minn.1978). Even though sentencing statutes of this type must be strictly construed against the minimum term, see State v. Simmons, 258 N.W.2d 908 (Minn.1977), we hold that the legislature has clearly mandated a minimum sentence without stay of execution or imposition for crimes involving firearms in every case specified under section 609.11, subd. 1.

Section 609.11, subd. 1, provides that "any commitment" for a listed first offense in which a firearm was used requires a minimum year and a day sentence. Section 609.135, subd. 1, specifically withdraws authorization for a stay of the execution or imposition of that sentence. If "any commitment" for this type of crime must be for at least a year and a day, it follows the commitment must be to the Minnesota Corrections Department. See Minn.Stat. § 609.105, subd. 1 (1978).

Defendant Jonason, however, argues that a certain amount of judicial...