Ward v. State

• Citation: 435 N.E.2d 578
• Decision Date: 27 May 1982
• Docket Number: No. 3-881A205,3-881A205
• Parties: Allen WARD, Defendant-Appellant, v. STATE of Indiana, Plaintiff-Appellee.
• Court: Indiana Appellate Court

Page 578

435 N.E.2d 578

Allen WARD, Defendant-Appellant, v. STATE of Indiana, Plaintiff-Appellee.

No. 3-881A205.

Court of Appeals of Indiana, Third District.

May 27, 1982.

Wendell W. Goad, Merrillville, for defendant-appellant.

Linley E. Pearson, Atty. Gen., Palmer K. Ward, Deputy Atty. Gen., Indianapolis, for plaintiff-appellee.

GARRARD, Judge.

This is an appeal by the defendant, Allen Ward, from a conviction for theft, a Class D felony, and from the trial court's failure to dismiss that indictment.

The facts relevant to our decision are that on October 2, 1978, Ward was arrested and charged with theft. However, Ward was subsequently incarcerated in the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in Chicago, Illinois. On November 14, 1978 the Superior Court of Lake County, Indiana issued a detainer for Ward in order to try him on the charges of October 2, 1978.

On April 26, 1979 Ward sent a letter to the prosecuting attorney of Lake County, Indiana stating his term and place of confinement and requesting that pending charges be speedily dealt with pursuant to the Interstate Agreement on Detainers Act (IAD). IC 35-2.1-2-4. This letter was also given to his case manager at the MCC. Subsequently Ward was transferred to the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Lexington, Ky. Having received no response to his April 26, 1979 letter, Ward contacted the warden at the FCI through a case manager pursuant to the requirements of the IAD, art. 3(b). The warden then made the appropriate request and provided the required information to the Lake County officials on August 6, 1980. This resulted in the beginning of a trial on January 12, 1981.

Ward moved for dismissal asserting the state had failed to bring him to trial within 180 days after his April 26, 1979 letter. This motion was denied. As a result of the evidence, Ward requested that the jury be instructed on criminal conversion as a lesser included offense of theft. This request was also denied. On February 4, 1981 a jury found Ward guilty of a Class D felony, theft, and he was sentenced to a term of two years to run consecutively with the term he was currently serving.

Ward raises three issues on appeal:

1. Whether the trial court erred in not dismissing the charge because of a failure to bring the defendant to trial within 180 days after notice under the IAD, IC 35-2.1-2-4.

2. Whether the trial court erred by not giving the defendant's tendered instruction on criminal conversion as a lesser included offense of theft.

3. Whether the evidence was sufficient to support a conviction.

Due to our resolution of the first issue, there is no need to address the second and third issues.

Ward argues that his letter dated April 26, 1979 to the District Attorney's Office of Lake County was sufficient compliance with the terms of IC 35-2.1-2-4 to make effective his request for a speedy trial and to trigger the running of the 180 day time limit. He also argues that when he sent that letter while incarcerated at the MCC in Chicago, his case manager there had notice of the letter, which was placed in his file at the MCC, and that notice was sufficient to fulfill the requirement of IC 35-2.1-3-4, art. 3(b) that the request be sent to "the warden, commissioner of correction or other official having custody." Ward argues that art. 9 of the IAD, which calls for a liberal construction of the agreement to effectuate its purposes, provides the authority to give effect to his efforts as substantial compliance.

Art. 3(b) of the IAD specifically sets forth the procedure for causing written notice of a request for final disposition to be delivered to the appropriate officials. ¹ Keeping in mind the dual function of the IAD to afford a procedure for obtaining custody of defendants confined in other states and to protect the defendants' constitutional right to a speedy trial, West AIC 35-2.1-2-4 (Indiana Criminal Law Study Commission Comments at 494), we do not find these procedural requirements to be merely technicalities. In fact, they serve an important function. Since local prosecuting officials make important decisions based on the information required to be forwarded to the official and the court, that information needs validation which a direct letter from a defendant does not present. This furthers the IAD's purpose to afford prosecutors custody of defendants incarcerated out of state.

Second, and more importantly, the custodial official needs notice of any request for a final determination since a detainer becomes void if the defendant is not tried within 180 days after an appropriate request is made. IC 35-2.1-2-4, art. 5(c). This is for the defendant's benefit as it protects his right to a speedy trial. Additionally, the detainer system often works a harshness in that a prisoner with other criminal charges pending against him may find the duration of his existing imprisonment increased or that he thereby faces harsher conditions of confinement. Smith v. Hooey (1969), 89 S.Ct. 575, 393 U.S. 374, 89 S.Ct. 575, 21 L.Ed.2d 607. Notice to the custodial official is important so that these negative effects are as limited as possible. Therefore, even when the statute is liberally construed so as to effectuate its purposes, we find that the procedural method outlined is essential, and that Ward's attempt to directly notify the prosecuting officials personally was insufficient to begin the 180 day time limit.

However, Ward further argues that he did comply with the statutory requirement to notify the proper custodial official while incarcerated at the MCC. Ward testified that his only...