State v. Owens
| Decision Date | 09 February 2015 |
| Docket Number | No. 41174.,41174. |
| Citation | 158 Idaho 1,343 P.3d 30 |
| Court | Idaho Supreme Court |
| Parties | STATE of Idaho, Plaintiff–Respondent, v. Dameniel Preston OWENS, Defendant–Appellant. |
Sara B. Thomas, Idaho State Appellate Public Defender, Boise, for appellant. Sally Jane Cooley, Deputy Appellate Public Defender argued.
Hon. Lawrence G. Wasden, Idaho Attorney General, Boise, for respondent. Kenneth K. Jorgensen, Deputy Attorney General argued.
This appeal arose from the Twin Falls County district court's denial of Dameniel Owens's motion for credit for time served. In that denial, the district court specified that Owens would only receive credit for his prejudgment time served in a county jail on one of his eight counts of issuing a check without funds. Owens argues that Idaho Code section 18–309 plainly and unambiguously requires the district court to credit his prejudgment time served to each of his eight counts. Owens contends that we should overrule State v. Hoch, 102 Idaho 351, 630 P.2d 143 (1981), because in that case the Court improperly went beyond the statute's plain meaning to hold that the legislature intended a defendant could not receive credit for each separate crime. We overrule State v. Hoch, vacate the district court's order denying Owens's motion for credit for time served, and remand.
Owens pled guilty to eight counts of issuing a check without funds. On December 17, 2012, the Twin Falls County district court sentenced Owens to unified terms of fifteen months in prison with six months fixed for each charge. The court ordered the eight counts to run consecutively to each other and concurrently with one count of grand theft in Ada County. The court ordered that Owens would receive credit against his sentence for time previously served.
Owens filed a motion for credit for time served. In that motion, Owens specified that he only received credit for prejudgment time served on one of the eight counts of issuing a check without funds. Owens argued that he should have received this credit on each one of the eight counts. Owens acknowledged that Idaho Supreme Court precedent in State v. Hoch held that time served would not be credited for each count. However, he asked the district court to reject Hoch as "manifestly wrong, unjust, or unwise" and credit him his prejudgment time served for each of the eight counts he pled guilty to.
The district court denied Owens's motion on May 22, 2013, noting that Owens would receive credit for time served only on one count of issuing a check without funds. Owens timely appealed.
We exercise free review over statutory interpretation because it is a question of law. State v. Dunlap, 155 Idaho 345, 361, 313 P.3d 1, 17 (2013). Our objective when interpreting a statute is "to derive the intent of the legislative body that adopted the act." Id. (quoting State v. Schulz, 151 Idaho 863, 866, 264 P.3d 970, 973 (2011) ). Statutory interpretation begins with the statute's plain language. Dunlap, 155 Idaho at 361, 313 P.3d at 17. This Court considers the statute as a whole, and gives words their plain, usual, and ordinary meanings. Id. When the statute's language is unambiguous, the legislature's clearly expressed intent must be given effect, and we do not need to go beyond the statute's plain language to consider other rules of statutory construction. Id. at 361–62, 313 P.3d at 17–18.
Idaho Code section 18–309 governs sentencing credit for pre-and postjudgment time served. That statute states:
In computing the term of imprisonment, the person against whom the judgment was entered, shall receive credit in the judgment for any period of incarceration prior to entry of judgment, if such incarceration was for the offense or an included offense for which the judgment was entered. The remainder of the term commences upon the pronouncement of sentence and if thereafter, during such term, the defendant by any legal means is temporarily released from such imprisonment and subsequently returned thereto, the time during which he was at large must not be computed as part of such term.
I.C. § 18–309. This appeal focuses on Idaho Code section 18–309's first sentence, which governs credit for prejudgment time served. That part of the statute requires courts to give a person credit on his sentence for the time he served in jail before he was convicted of or pled guilty to his crime. Law v. Rasmussen, 104 Idaho 455, 457, 660 P.2d 67, 69 (1983).
This Court has interpreted Idaho Code section 18–309 as prohibiting a court from crediting prejudgment confinement towards more than one count of a concurrent sentence. State v. Hoch, 102 Idaho 351, 630 P.2d 143 (1981). In Hoch, a defendant argued that he should have been credited 383 days he spent in prejudgment confinement on each of his two consecutive sentences. Id. at 352, 630 P.2d at 144. The Court stated:
A statute is to be construed in consideration of the reason for the statute, its object and purpose and thereby ascertain and render effective the legislative intent. We hold that the purpose of I.C. § 18–309 is clearly to give a person convicted of a crime credit for such time as he may have served prior to the actual sentencing upon conviction. We find no intent of the legislature that a person so convicted should have that credit pyramided simply because he was sentenced to consecutive terms for separate crimes.
Id. (internal citations omitted). Subsequent Idaho Court of Appeals cases have addressed this issue and applied Hoch 's reasoning. See State v. Hernandez, 120 Idaho 785, 792, 820 P.2d 380, 387 (Ct.App.1991) (); See also State v. Vasquez, 142 Idaho 67, 69, 122 P.3d 1167, 1169 (Ct.App.2005) ().
Owens argues that Idaho Code section 18–309 is unambiguous and has only one reasonable interpretation: that a defendant receives credit for prejudgment time served on each sentence for each count. The State contends that Owens asks for credit for more time than he actually spent in prejudgment confinement by multiplying his time by the number of sentences. The State argues this Court should reject Owens's interpretation and continue to follow Hoch because it ensures that a defendant receives credit for time actually served before the court entered a judgment, but not more.
Idaho Code section 18–309's language plainly gives credit for prejudgment time in custody against each count's sentence. The statute does not limit that credit in any way. First, Idaho Code section 18–309 mandates that a court gives a defendant credit for his time served because the statute states that a person "shall" receive credit. Second, section 18–309 specifies that a person "shall receive credit in the judgment for any period of incarceration prior to entry of judgment ..." I.C. § 18–309 (emphasis added). The statute continues to provide that a defendant gets the credit only on a requirement that incarceration was for "the offense or an included offense for which the judgment was entered." The statute has a mandatory directive that specifically conditions credit for time served on the fact that the incarceration was for "the offense" for which the judgment was entered. While the word "offense" is singular, the phrase "if such incarceration was for the offense or an included offense for which the judgment was entered" simply describes the type of incarceration that a defendant gets credit for. This indicates that as long as the defendant's prejudgment jail time was for "the offense" the defendant was convicted of and sentenced for, the court gives the defendant that credit. If the legislature had delineated credit for incarceration for "each case" or another description other than "the offense," the outcome would be different.
Here, Owens was incarcerated before trial. He was in jail for multiple counts of issuing a check without funds before he pled guilty. After Owens was convicted, the court sentenced him for eight different offenses of issuing a check without funds. Thus, he gets credit for the prejudgment time he served on each of the eight separate offenses. We hold Idaho Code section 18–309's plain language unambiguously states that a defendant receives credit for time served on each of his offenses, whether to be served concurrently or consecutively.
Consecutive sentences are served in order, and one sentence does not begin until the other sentence ends. For example, a defendant sentenced to 100 days consecutively for eight counts will serve 800 days in jail. However, if that defendant served 50 days in jail before he was convicted of the eight counts, he gets 50 days credit for each of those 100 day sentences. He then has 50 days left to serve on the first count. When that time is served, he has 50 days left to serve on the second count. And so it continues for each count in the judgment. However, when a defendant is sentenced to a concurrent sentence, he serves all his sentences at the same time. That means that if he is sentenced to 100 days for eight counts, he will serve 100 days total for all eight counts. If that defendant gets 50 days of prejudgment credit, he will get that credit towards all eight counts at the same time. He will then only serve 50 more days in jail. This is how the statute's plain language requires courts to apply credit for time served.
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