Opinion ID: 1587472
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: pfo enhancement.

Text: Appellant next argues that his sentence must be vacated because the trial court erroneously permitted count 5 of the indictment to be amended to change the charge from PFO second-degree to PFO first-degree. Defense counsel raised the issue by way of objection to the proposed penalty phase instructions immediately prior to commencement of the penalty phase of the trial. Although the caption of the indictment reflected that count 5 charged PFO first-degree, the body of count 5, in fact, charged PFO second-degree, viz: COUNT 5: THE GRAND JURY CHARGES: That the above-named defendant, Freeland Riley, who is more than 21 years of age, has previously committed and been convicted for the following prior felony and is now charged as being a Persistent Felony Offender in the Second Degree; (1) That on or about July 22[sic], 1994, the defendant, Freeland Riley, appeared in the McCracken Circuit Court, McCracken County, Kentucky, a court of general criminal jurisdiction, pursuant to indictment No. 93-CR-00217, and was convicted of the offenses of Trafficking in a Schedule II Non-Narcotic, three counts of Trafficking in Marijuana less than Eight Ounces, and three counts of Trafficking in Marijuana Over Eight Ounces, and sentenced to thirteen (13) years, in the Department of Corrections of Kentucky; (2) That on or about December 17, 1987, the defendant, Freeland Riley, appeared in the Ballard Circuit Court, Ballard County, Kentucky, a court of general criminal jurisdiction, pursuant to Indictment No. 87-CR-00010, and was convicted of the offense of Third-Degree Burglary and Theft by Unlawful Taking, and sentenced to five (5) years probation, in the Department of Corrections of Kentucky. (Emphasis added.) The trial judge found that the PFO second-degree charge within the body of count 5 was a clerical error (the scrivener may have copied from the wrong form) and effectively corrected the error and thereby modified the body of the indictment by instructing the jury on PFO first-degree. Strictly speaking, the caption of the indictment itself, and the facts recited therein are not part of the finding of the grand jury. 41 Am.Jur.2d, Indictments and Informations § 71 (1995). Thus, in case of a variance between the language of the caption and the language of the body of an indictment, the language of the body controls. United States v. Martinez, 981 F.2d 867, 872 (6th Cir.1992) (The charging language is in the body of [the indictment] ....); People v. Williams, 37 Ill.2d 521, 229 N.E.2d 495, 497 (1967); State v. Trueax, 315 Or. 396, 845 P.2d 1291, 1293 (1993) (en banc) (where caption indicated charge was sodomy in second degree but body charged sodomy in the third degree, conviction of sodomy in the second degree reversed); Thibodeaux v. State, 628 S.W.2d 485, 487 (Tex.Ct.App.1982). Thus, the issue becomes whether the trial judge erred in allowing the indictment to be effectively amended to change the charge in count 5 from PFO second-degree to PFO first-degree. Criminal Rule 6.16 permits an indictment to be amended any time before verdict or finding if no additional or different offense is charged and if substantial rights of the defendant are not prejudiced. If justice requires, however, the court shall grant the defendant a continuance when such an amendment is permitted. Appellant does not claim that he did not have notice of the grand jury's intent to charge him as a PFO first-degree. In addition to the recitation in the caption of the indictment, Appellant was served on the day of his arraignment, January 21, 2000, with both a warrant on the indictment and a criminal summons, each reflecting that he had been indicted as a PFO first-degree. The transcript of the grand jury proceedings, which had been made available to Appellant in response to a discovery request, RCr 5.16(3), reflects that the grand jury voted to charge Appellant as a PFO first-degree. Count 5, itself, recites that the charge is premised upon two prior felony convictions as opposed to only one. Compare KRS 532.080(3) with KRS 532.080(2). Finally, the videotape of the pretrial conference held on March 31, 2000, reveals a sidebar discussion between the prosecutor and defense counsel in which the prosecutor clarified to defense counsel that Appellant was charged as a PFO first-degree. Thus, Appellant was aware of the clerical error in the indictment and was neither surprised nor precluded from adequately preparing his defense. He did not request a continuance. Therefore, we conclude that his substantial rights were not prejudiced. The only remaining issue is whether the amendment charged an additional or different offense. PFO is a status, not a criminal offense. Hardin v. Commonwealth, Ky., 573 S.W.2d 657, 661 (1978). In Luna v. Commonwealth, Ky.App., 571 S.W.2d 88 (1977), the defendant admitted during his own testimony at his trial for trafficking in a controlled substance that he had previously been convicted of another trafficking offense. The trial judge then allowed the Commonwealth to amend the indictment to charge second-offense enhancement under then KRS 218A.990(2) (repealed 1992 Ky. Acts, ch. 441, § 30). The Court of Appeals affirmed, holding that KRS 218A.990(2) did not define a separate offense but only permitted the introduction of evidence necessary to determine the penalty range for the charged offense. Id. at 89. It also held that the amendment did not affect the defendant's substantial rights because he was aware of his own criminal record and even admitted to the prior conviction. In no way was he prevented from preparing his defense more adequately, nor were there any surprises. Id. Other jurisdictions have reached the same conclusion under similar circumstances. Baumgarner v. State, 316 Ark. 373, 872 S.W.2d 380, 384 (1994) (amendment of indictment to add habitual offender allegation did not charge additional offense but only authorized evidence relative to punishment upon defendant's conviction of indicted offense); Howard v. State, 268 Ind. 589, 377 N.E.2d 628, 629 (1978) (amendment of information to add habitual criminal count did not charge separate offense but only provided a more severe penalty for the indicted offense); State v. Whitten, 622 A.2d 85, 86 (Me.1993) (amendment to criminal complaint to charge prior DUI conviction for enhancement purposes did not charge additional offense); see also 41 Am.Jur.2d, supra, at § 175 (Changing the severity of the punishment upon conviction does not change the degree of the crime, and such an amendment is permissible.). We conclude that the trial judge did not abuse his discretion in permitting the amendment.
Appellant next argues that his sentence must be set aside because the 1994 McCracken Circuit Court conviction that was used for PFO first-degree enhancement was invalid. Specifically, while the 1994 judgment recites that Appellant's conviction was of trafficking in a controlled substance in the first degree, a Class C felony, KRS 218A.1412(2), the 1993 indictment on which that judgment was premised, did not charge him with that offense but with trafficking in a schedule II non-narcotic, a Class D felony. KRS 218A.140(1) (amended, 1992 Ky. Acts, ch. 441, § 5); KRS 218A.990(2)(a) (repealed, 1992 Ky. Acts, ch. 441, § 30). The error probably relates to the facts that the Controlled Substances Act was substantially amended by the 1992 General Assembly, 1992 Ky. Acts, ch. 441, effective July 14, 1992, and that some of the offenses charged in the 1993 indictment were committed before July 14, 1992, and others were committed after that date. The trafficking offense was committed on July 7, 1992, which explains why the indictment was under the subsequently repealed statutes. Appellant is obviously correct in his assertion that the 1994 judgment recites a conviction for an offense for which he was not indicted. Nevertheless, (1) the sentence imposed for that conviction was five years imprisonment, which falls within the penalty range for either a Class D or Class C felony, KRS 532.060(2)(c) and (d); (2) the same judgment also contains two additional felony convictions for trafficking in marijuana (more than eight ounces, less than five pounds), Class D felonies, KRS 218A.1421(3)(a) (offenses committed after July 14, 1992), the validity of which Appellant does not contest; and (3) a prior judgment of conviction is valid until set aside by the court that entered it and cannot be collaterally attacked in a PFO proceeding. Webb v. Commonwealth, Ky., 904 S.W.2d 226, 229 (1995). Thus, even if Appellant's 1994 conviction of trafficking in a controlled substance in the first degree were invalid (an issue we do not reach), such does not affect the validity of the PFO first-degree enhancement of his present conviction. In fact, the trial judge did not instruct the jury at the penalty phase of the trial sub judice that it could find Appellant to be a PFO first-degree on the basis of his 1994 conviction of trafficking in a controlled substance in the first degree but only on the basis of his conviction in the same judgment of trafficking in marijuana (more than eight ounces, less than five pounds). The only remaining issue in this respect is whether Appellant could have been prejudiced by the prosecutor's reference to Appellant's prior conviction for trafficking in a controlled substance during his opening remarks at the penalty phase. The trial court cured any possible error by giving the following admonition: A moment ago, [the prosecutor] stated in his opening statement that Mr. Riley had among his convictions, a conviction for, I think he said, first-degree trafficking in a controlled substance. That was not correct. He did not have that conviction. You will be given the evidence here in a minute of what his actual convictions were. Regardless, even though the 1993 indictment charged Appellant with trafficking in a schedule II non-narcotic, the actual name of the offense was trafficking in a controlled substance, KRS 218A.140(1) (now amended), and the identification of the substance as a schedule II non-narcotic only affected the penalty to be imposed upon conviction of that offense. KRS 218A.990(2)(a) (now repealed). See, e.g., Palmore & Cooper, Kentucky Instructions to Juries (Criminal) §§ 7.16, 7.17 (4th ed. Anderson (interim rev.) 1990).