Wells v. State
| Citation | 836 N.E.2d 475 |
| Decision Date | 31 October 2005 |
| Docket Number | No. 76A03-0504-CR-190.,76A03-0504-CR-190. |
| Parties | Stephen Lewis WELLS, Appellant-Defendant, v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee-Plaintiff. |
| Court | Supreme Court of Indiana |
Lorraine L. Rodts, Special Assistant to the Public Defender, Bloomington, IN, Attorney for Appellant.
Steve Carter, Attorney General of Indiana, Ellen H. Meilaender, Deputy Attorney General, Indianapolis, IN, Attorneys for Appellee.
Appellant-defendant Stephen Lewis Wells appeals the sentence imposed following his guilty plea, asserting that the trial court erroneously sentenced him to eight years on a single count of Operating a Vehicle While Intoxicated Causing Serious Bodily Injury,1 a Class D felony. Wells argues that the sentence must be set aside because an eight-year term on one class D felony exceeds the maximum penalty authorized by law.
Wells also contends that the sentence was inappropriate in light of the nature of the offense and his character, and that the trial court failed to give significant mitigating weight to his decision to plead guilty. Concluding that an apparent scrivener's error resulted in the omission of one count to which he pleaded guilty and the imposition of the sentence, we remand this cause to the trial court for the purpose of allowing the trial court and the parties to correct the clerical error and for further proceedings, if necessary, that are consistent with this opinion. We also find that the sentence was appropriate when considering the nature of the offense and Wells's character.
The facts most favorable to the judgment are that on November 29, 2003, Wells was driving on County Road 50 in Steuben County. Intoxicated at the time, he struck Barbara Green's vehicle. As a result of the accident, Green suffered a fractured pelvis and left arm, facial lacerations, and bruising to the liver, brain, and kidney. On April 13, 2004, the State filed an information, charging Wells with the following offenses: (a) Count I, operating a vehicle while intoxicated causing serious bodily injury, a class D felony; (b) Count II, causing serious bodily injury when operating a vehicle with at least .08 gram alcohol content, a class D felony; and (c) Count III, being a habitual traffic violator (HTV), a class C felony.
During a guilty plea hearing that commenced on November 8, 2004, the parties notified the trial court that they had filed a proposed plea agreement. Pursuant to the terms of the agreement, which was filed with the trial court on October 1, 2004, Wells agreed to plead guilty to Counts I and III in exchange for a term of imprisonment of eight years, with four years suspended and a lifetime suspension of his driver's license. The State also agreed to dismiss Count II, and the trial court took the plea under advisement. When Wells's pre-sentence investigation report was prepared, the probation officer recommended that the trial court reject the plea agreement because it was too lenient in light of Wells's criminal history. Wells had accumulated five prior misdemeanor convictions, including one for driving while intoxicated, and four prior felonies. The felony convictions included burglary, receiving stolen auto parts, and two HTV counts.
Thereafter, during a sentencing hearing that was conducted on March 7, 2005, the parties entered into a modified plea agreement, which provided that Wells would plead guilty to Count I with sentencing left to the trial court's discretion. The agreement did not reference the HTV charge. At the hearing, the following colloquy took place between the trial court and Wells's defense counsel:
Trial Court: I have been advised by counsel in chambers that they are requesting a modification of the plea agreement.
Defense Atty: Yes, Your Honor. If I might approach, Your Honor, at this time I'm requesting that the court accept a new plea agreement that would call for the court to sentence at the court's discretion.
Trial Court: And I'm to consider this as a modification of the agreement you previously had?
Defense Atty: Correct, Your Honor.
Trial Court: Okay. And, Mr. Wells, is that what you want to do?
Defendant: Yes, sir.
Trial Court: You understand that puts you at considerably more jeopardy than your prior plea agreement, which, I think had an eight-year sentence, four years suspended type of arrangement with probation terms involved?
Defendant: Yes, sir.
Trial Court: Okay. And you are asking the court to impose sentence today?
Defendant: Yes, sir.
Trial Court: Okay. The court would accept the plea agreement, then as a modification of the agreement previously filed.
Tr. p. 31-32 (emphasis added).
Prior to imposing the sentence, the trial court commented as follows:
Let me begin by saying that the original plea agreement was just not appropriate [or] commensurate with the offense. There's not enough time. And I'm pleased that both counsel came to the position that they did where they recognized that that was an insufficient amount of time in jail as a consequence of what's happening here and the devastating injuries that Ms. Green has suffered. So we're here on your stipulation to an open sentencing.
Tr. p. 43 (emphasis added). The trial court ultimately accepted the modified plea agreement, and stated, "I think it's appropriate that you do the eight years." Tr. p. 45. In the end, the trial court sentenced Wells to eight years of imprisonment. However, the judgment of conviction and the abstract of judgment only reflected that a judgment was entered for the offense of driving while intoxicated as a class D felony. On the other hand, both documents showed that an eight-year sentence had been imposed. And at the close of the hearing, when the State moved to dismiss the counts that Wells did not plead guilty to, the trial court showed a dismissal of Counts II and III. Wells now appeals, initially claiming that the sentence cannot stand because eight years exceeds the maximum penalty allowed for a class D felony.
Wells argues that the sentence cannot stand because the trial court erroneously imposed a sentence that exceeds the statutorily authorized maximum penalty for a Class D felony. In essence, Wells argues that by imposing an eight-year executed sentence for a Class D felony, the trial court violated Indiana code section 35-50-2-7, which establishes the maximum penalty for a Class D felony as a three-year term of imprisonment. The State, on the other hand, claims that the trial court made an apparent clerical error. To be sure, the State maintains that it is clear from the record that the parties intended for Wells to plead guilty to Counts I and III and, therefore, the only modification to the original plea was to allow open sentencing by the trial court.
In this case, the trial court unequivocally expressed the view that Wells should receive a greater sentence than eight years with four suspended, which had been called for in the original agreement. Tr. p. 43. It is apparent that sometime after the rejection of the original plea offer, the HTV charge was inadvertently omitted from the plea agreement. Hence, that error gave rise to the inconsistent results as to both the judgment of conviction and the abstract of judgment.
When the sentencing hearing commenced, Wells's counsel asked the trial court to accept a "modification of the agreement" that had previously been filed. Tr. p. 31. The specific modification was that, rather than having a prescribed eight-year sentence with four years suspended, sentencing would be left entirely to the trial court's discretion. At no point was there any mention of a modification to any of the remaining terms of the agreement. Just as compelling, Wells acknowledged that the modified plea agreement placed him in "considerably more jeopardy" than the original plea agreement, under which he would have received only eight years with four suspended. Tr. p 31-32. And defense counsel even recommended to the trial court that it impose an eight-year sentence with two years suspended. Tr. p. 39. Given these circumstances, there is nothing in the record to show that the parties intended for Wells to plead guilty only to Count I. Were we to conclude otherwise, the trial court's remark that Wells "should do the eight years," tr. p. 45, and the colloquy quoted above, would be rendered meaningless.
That said, the trial court and the parties should be afforded the opportunity to correct the clerical error that occurred, and not be compelled to accept an agreement into which none of them intended to enter. Hence, this cause should be remanded so that the trial court may correct the plea agreement, judgment of conviction, and abstract of judgment to accurately reflect the terms of the intended plea agreement. Alternatively, on the off chance that the parties' intent is not manifested once the scrivener's error is corrected, the agreement should be vacated in its entirety, and the parties should renegotiate a plea and enter into an agreement that mirrors their intent. Hence, we remand this case for that purpose.
Assuming that the correction of the clerical error will cure the defect on remand, we go on to address Wells's remaining arguments as to whether the trial court failed to give significant weight to the fact that he pleaded guilty and whether the sentence was appropriate in light of the nature of the offense and Wells's character.
In addressing Wells's claim that the trial court failed to consider his...
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