Case Title: State v. Turgeon

Citation: 165 Vt 28, 676 A.2d 339

Docket Number: 

State: vermont

Court: Vermont Supreme Court

Date: 1996-03-08T00:00:00Z

Document:
State v Turgeon  (94-683); 165 Vt 28; 676 A.2d 339

[Opinion Filed 08-Mar-1996]

       NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to motions for reargument under
  V.R.A.P. 40 as well as formal revision before publication in the Vermont
  Reports.  Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions,
  Vermont Supreme Court, 109 State Street, Montpelier, Vermont 05609-0801 of
  any errors in order that corrections may be made before this opinion goes
  to press.


                                 No. 94-683


State of Vermont                                  Supreme Court

                                                  On Appeal from
    v.                                            District Court of Vermont,
                                                  Unit No. 1, Windsor Circuit

John P. Turgeon                                   November Term, 1995


Paul F. Hudson, J.

M. Patricia Zimmerman, Windsor County State's Attorney, White River
  Junction, for plaintiff-appellee

William J. Donahue, White River Junction, for defendant-appellant


PRESENT:  Allen, C.J., Gibson, Dooley, Morse and Johnson, JJ.


       MORSE, J.   Defendant John Turgeon appeals his conviction on nine
  criminal charges, including attempted aggravated murder, contending that
  the trial court erred in: (1) failing to instruct the jury on attempted
  voluntary manslaughter; (2) failing to enter judgment of acquittal on the
  charge of escape; (3) instructing the jury on the use of reasonable force
  in arrest; and (4) failing to grant a mistrial after a juror collapsed. 
  Defendant also contends that his right to a speedy trial was violated, and
  that his sentence was wrongfully increased.  We reverse the conviction for
  escape, but otherwise affirm.

       On October 6, 1990, defendant had an altercation with his estranged
  wife, Tammy Turgeon, outside Bucky's Foodstop in Windsor, Vermont.  When
  defendant attempted to leave, his wife held onto the door of his truck and
  was injured as he drove away.

       After defendant left Bucky's, he went to his rooming house and
  returned armed with a handgun in a shoulder holster and a shotgun.  He
  drove past Bucky's, honking the horn and waving at police and rescue
  personnel who had responded to the scene of his wife's accident.

 

       Officer Morse of the Windsor Police pursued defendant, who drove
  erratically, slamming on the brakes, weaving, and hitting parked cars. 
  Defendant fired his shotgun at Officer Morse's cruiser twice, shattering
  the windshield.  Two more cruisers joined the chase.  They followed
  defendant onto Main Street in Windsor, where he got out of his truck and
  again fired the shotgun at Officer Morse.  The shots missed him, but a
  pellet struck Marilyn Morse-Jette, a pedestrian, in the head.

       Defendant then fled on foot through a residential area.  He was
  apprehended at the Union Street Market by Officer Cloud and Trooper Leahy
  who told him that he was under arrest, and to "freeze."  When defendant
  tried to run away, a bystander tripped him.  Defendant got up, and,
  ignoring the officers' demands that he surrender, shot Trooper Leahy in the
  abdomen.  He left the scene and spent the night in the woods before being
  apprehended by the Vermont State Police the following morning.

       In addition to nine state offenses, defendant was charged with two
  federal firearms violations.  In June 1991, defendant and the State entered
  a plea bargain whereby the State agreed to dismiss three charges and
  defendant agreed to plead guilty to the remaining six.  The State further
  agreed to recommend a maximum sentence of twenty-five years.  Judge Hudson
  sentenced defendant to fifteen to twenty-five years for attempted
  aggravated murder, with sentences for the other state offenses to run
  concurrently.  It was the intent of the parties that the state sentence
  would run concurrently with any federal sentence imposed for the firearms
  violations.

       In March 1992, defendant was sentenced to two consecutive 120-month
  terms on the federal firearms charges, the first of which was not to begin
  until defendant had served ten years of his state sentence, or had been
  released from state custody, whichever came first.  Defendant subsequently
  filed a motion to correct his state sentence, contending that because the
  maximum allowable term for aggravated attempted murder was twenty years, he
  could not be sentenced

 

  to fifteen to twenty-five.  Defendant also noted that though the maximum
  allowable term for aggravated assault was five years, he had been sentenced
  to six years on that charge.  Judge Hudson corrected the sentences, but
  ordered that they run consecutively so that they totalled eighteen to
  twenty-five.  Thus the court effectively increased defendant's sentence.

       In August 1992, defendant appealed to this Court, arguing that in
  accepting the plea bargain, he had relied on the condition that his state
  and federal sentences would run concurrently.  We vacated the state
  sentences, holding that where a trial court cannot impose the sentence
  recommended by a plea agreement, the proper remedy is to allow the
  defendant to withdraw his plea and proceed to trial.  State v. Turgeon, 
  161 Vt. 561, 561, 641 A.2d 88,