State v. Manzanares

• Decision Date: 20 May 1996
• Docket Number: No. 23267,23267
• Parties: STATE of New Mexico, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Ventura MANZANARES, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: New Mexico Supreme Court

Page 714

918 P.2d 714

121 N.M. 798

STATE of New Mexico, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Ventura MANZANARES, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 23267.

Supreme Court of New Mexico.

May 20, 1996.

Tom Udall, Attorney General, Ann M. Harvey, Assistant Attorney General, Santa Fe, for Appellant.

T. Glenn Ellington, Chief Public Defender, Karl Erich Martell, Assistant Appellate Defender, Santa Fe, for Appellee.

OPINION

RANSOM, Justice.

1. The State appealed to the Court of Appeals from the district court's dismissal of criminal proceedings against Ventura Manzanares for violation of his right to a speedy trial. The district court had concluded that because almost eleven months passed since the indictment of Manzanares, his right to a speedy trial was presumptively violated. The Court of Appeals deemed the appeal to present a significant question of law under the New Mexico Constitution, namely whether this Court's grant of an extension of time for trial beyond the six-month limit of SCRA 1986, 5-604 (Repl.Pamp.1992) prohibits a lower court from reviewing a claim of violation of the right to a speedy trial. The Court of Appeals consequently certified the appeal to this Court pursuant to NMSA 1978, Section 34-5-14(C)(1) (Repl.Pamp.1990) and SCRA 1986, 12-606 (Repl.Pamp.1992). We hold that the grant of an extension by this Court does not preclude a lower court's review of the right to speedy trial, and the district court's findings being supported by substantial evidence, we weigh those findings de novo, see Zurla v. State, 109 N.M. 640, 642, 789 P.2d 588, 590 (1990), and we affirm the ruling of the district court.

2. Proceedings. On August 13, 1993, Manzanares was involved in a head-on automobile collision that resulted in the death of Stacy Kern Hill. On November 8, the Rio Arriba County grand jury indicted Manzanares on charges of vehicular homicide, driving while intoxicated, and driving recklessly. Manzanares was arraigned and released on December 2, 1993. The arraignment started the six-month period within which Rule 5-604 provides that trial must be commenced. The trial was set for April 11, 1994. Due to an insufficient juror pool, the April 11 trial date was vacated. On April 19, the State filed for a Rule 5-604 extension from the district court, seeking an extension to November 2, 1994. The Supreme Court has given the district court power to grant extensions of up to four months. This would have allowed the district court to grant an extension to October 2, not November 2. However, on May 23 the district court purported to grant an extension to November 2.

3. At a hearing on April 28, the district court entered an order setting the trial for August 8. The court noted that there was an extension in the case until November 2, even though the grant of that extension was not entered of record until May 23. Manzanares objected to the August court date and requested that the trial be set for an earlier date. The trial was then scheduled for May 31. At a pretrial conference on May 13, the court suggested that the trial be set for early June, but the parties were unable to agree on a date. On May 25, two days after the order granting the November 2 extension was entered, the district court set October 3 as the date for jury trial. October 3 was one day beyond the four-month-extension period that was within the power of the district court to grant. On August 17, the State filed a petition with this Court requesting an extension. Defense counsel was apparently on vacation at this time, and the petition incorrectly stated that Manzanares had stipulated to the extension. We granted an extension to November 11. Manzanares petitioned this Court for reconsideration, and we denied the motion.

4. On August 22, before we had granted the extension and before he was even aware that the State's petition had been submitted to us or, apparently, that the district court had entered an extension order, Manzanares moved to dismiss the indictment against him on grounds that the district court no longer had jurisdiction. A hearing was held on this motion on September 26, the date that we denied Manzanares's motion for reconsideration. The court, noting our decision, denied the motion to dismiss. Manzanares specifically raised the issue of speedy trial and on September 29 he filed another motion to dismiss, citing his right to a speedy trial. This motion was denied on October 3, on grounds that the court was without authority to "overrule" the Supreme Court's extension and dismiss the action. Manzanares moved for reconsideration, and the court granted the motion to dismiss on October 6. Specifically, the court found that the granting of an extension by the Supreme Court, without a showing that the Court expressly considered speedy-trial issues, did not preclude review of speedy-trial claims by lower courts. The court found the case to be a "simple" one and held that the eleven-month delay from indictment to trial was in violation of Manzanares's right to a speedy trial.

5. Issues. This appeal presents us with two issues. First, does the grant of an extension by the Supreme Court pursuant to Rule 5-604 preclude a lower court from subsequently reviewing speedy-trial claims by the criminal defendant? Second, was dismissal for violation of constitutional speedy-trial rights proper in this case?

6. Rule 5-604 extensions. The State argues that our grant of an extension under Rule 5-604 was an implicit finding by this Court that Manzanares's right to speedy trial had not been violated. This is a mischaracterization of the role of the Court in the grant of extensions, and a misreading of Rule 5-604, which is not intended or designed as an implementation of the constitutional right to speedy trial. See, e.g., State v. Mendoza 108 N.M. 446, 450, 774 P.2d 440, 444 (1989) ("[W]e should avoid engrafting principles of constitutional analysis onto the operation of the rule." Ransom, J., specially concurring). The rule is a case-management tool and only incidentally may its implementation turn on factors determinative of constitutional rights. This Court annually considers well in excess of 1000 petitions for rule extensions. Signed stipulations for extensions are seldom, if ever, questioned. When the nonmoving party is said to concur, or simply enters no written objection to a petition, we will set the shortest period of extension consistent with the circumstances, mindful of the apparent complexity of the case. We nonetheless expect, whether the extension is granted under stipulation or concurrence, express or tacit, that the court will proceed expeditiously with trial. The limit on an extension is not the target for a trial. Where a written objection is interposed, we consider the merits of the request--with little regard for "press of other business" or "congested court dockets," it being the resolution of such conflicts in a manner compatible with the rule that we wish to encourage--and we rule accordingly, often seeking from the trial court an early definite setting on which to base an extension. We do not resolve factual issues, and ordinarily we would not weigh the factors implicated in constitutional speedy-trial analysis.

7. An appropriate motion to protect constitutional speedy-trial rights, requiring the weighing of factors that are factually based, must be presented in the first instance to the trial court and not to this Court under Rule 5-604. We affirm State v. Garcia, 110 N.M. 419, 422, 796 P.2d 1115, 1118 (Ct.App.), cert. denied, 110 N.M. 282, 795 P.2d 87 (1990), to the effect that our ruling on a Rule 5-604 motion is not determinative of a subsequent speedy-trial motion except in the unlikely...