Opinion ID: 1403222
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Timeliness of Presentation of Recidivist Information

Text: The jury rendered a verdict in this case on July 11, 2008. The State provided limited information regarding its intent to file a habitual criminal information on August 18, 2008, and actually filed an Information of Prior Felony Convictions on September 18, 2008. The Appellant contends that this delay violated West Virginia Code § 61-11-19 (1943) (Repl. Vol. 2005) [11] to the extent that the statute requires the State to immediately inform the court of a defendant's alleged prior felony convictions. The trial court considered the Appellant's motion and entered an order denying the motion to dismiss the recidivist information on December 1, 2008. In its findings, the trial court stated that the Appellant was not deemed convicted until August 18, 2008, when his post-trial motions were denied and he was adjudged guilty. Further, the trial court found as follows: The obvious purpose of the statute is to require that the court be informed of the prior felonies of the Defendant before sentencing is imposed. The word immediately as appears in the statute must be considered not only with the word upon conviction but also the phrase and before sentencing. It is apparent to the court that such information was given to the court immediately after conviction and before sentence by the representations made by the prosecutor on August 18, 2008. The trial court's ruling in this regard is consistent with the prior statements of this Court. In State ex rel. Appleby v. Recht, 213 W.Va. 503, 583 S.E.2d 800 (2002), cert. denied, 539 U.S. 948, 123 S.Ct. 2618, 156 L.Ed.2d 638 (2003), for instance, this Court explained as follows: [T]he immediacy requirement is satisfied if the State files the information before sentencing and prior to the end of the term of court within which the defendant was convicted. To hold otherwise would risk a defendant being able to avoid imposition of a recidivist sentence if the State is unaware at the time of conviction of any predicate offenses. Such an inadvisable result would emasculate [t]he primary purpose of our recidivist statutes, W.Va. Code, 61-11-18 (1943), and W.Va.Code, 61-11-19 (1943), [which] is to deter felony offenders, meaning persons who have been convicted and sentenced previously on a penitentiary offense, from committing subsequent felony offenses[,] Syl. pt. 3, in part, State v. Jones, 187 W.Va. 600, 420 S.E.2d 736 (1992) and to protect society from habitual criminals. . . . State v. Stout, 116 W.Va. 398, 402, 180 S.E. 443, 444 (1935). 213 W.Va. at 510, 583 S.E.2d at 807. In the present case, the State ultimately filed the information on September 18, 2008, and the new term was set to begin on September 23, 2008. See Rule 2.05 of the West Virginia Trial Court Rules (stating that Fifth Circuit Term of Court begins on fourth Tuesday in September). On appeal to this Court, the Appellant contends that the trial court should have granted his motion to dismiss the information of prior felony convictions due to this delay by the State. Based upon this Court's review, however, the State did not violate the statutory language. Limited information was provided as early as August 18, 2008, and the formal information was filed on September 18, 2008. We find no error in the trial court's denial of the Appellant's motion to dismiss.