Opinion ID: 3149620
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Indictment and Sentence

Text: We now address the defendant’s appeal of the trial court’s denial of his post-trial motion to vacate his sentence and for a new trial. The defendant contends that the State improperly brought the simple assault charge as a class B felony. He contends that the simple assault charge should only have been brought as a class A misdemeanor, and, that therefore, the trial court erred by denying his motion to vacate his sentence and by failing to resentence him. According to the indictment, the simple assault charge was enhanced because, within six years of the July 9 incident, the defendant had been convicted of violating a domestic violence protective order. See RSA 173-B:9, IV. Before the trial began, outside of the presence of the jury, the defendant stipulated that he had previously been convicted of violating a protective order within six years of the July 9 incident. The defendant specifically acknowledged that, because of the stipulation, if he were to be convicted of the simple assault charge, that charge would be recorded as a class B felony and he would be subject to class B felony penalties. Approximately eight months after the trial court sentenced him, the defendant moved to vacate the sentence, arguing that the simple assault charge, in fact, constituted a class B misdemeanor, and, therefore, the trial court erred by sentencing him to incarceration and probation. See RSA 651:2, III (2007) (providing that the sentence for a “person convicted of a class B misdemeanor . . . shall not include incarceration or probation”); see also RSA 625:9, IV(b) (2007) (defining a class B misdemeanor as “any crime so designated” and “any crime outside of this code for which the maximum penalty does not include any term of imprisonment”). The defendant asserted that, because the legislature did not classify simple assault as a class A or 12 class B misdemeanor, it is presumed to be a class B misdemeanor. See RSA 625:9, IV(c) (Supp. 2014). Under RSA 625:9, IV(c), the charge would be deemed a class A misdemeanor only if an element of the offense involved “an act of violence” or “threat of violence,” or if the State had filed “a notice of intent to seek class A misdemeanor penalties on or before the date of arraignment.” Here, the defendant asserted, the charge remained a class B misdemeanor because it did not involve “an act of violence” or “threat of violence,” RSA 625:9, IV(c)(1); see State v. Blunt, 164 N.H. 679, 683-84 (2013), and because the State never filed the statutorily-required notice. See RSA 625:9, IV(c)(2). He contended that, because the simple assault charge constituted a class B misdemeanor, the trial court should have sentenced him accordingly, and that it erred by sentencing him to incarceration and probation. See RSA 651:2, III; see also RSA 625:9, IV(b). The trial court concluded that no notice, other than the class B felony indictment itself, was required by statute, and, thus, denied the defendant’s motion. The defendant concedes that his appellate argument differs from his trial court argument. On appeal, he asserts that the trial court erred by failing to reduce his sentence to a class A misdemeanor penalty. He contends that the felony indictment enhanced the simple assault charge from a class B to a class A misdemeanor, but if the State wanted to charge him with a class B felony, it first had to file the notice required by RSA 625:9, IV(c)(2). Because of the differences between his appellate and trial court arguments, the defendant invokes our plain error rule. See Sup. Ct. R. 16-A. Accordingly, we confine our review to plain error. The plain error rule allows us to consider errors that were not raised in the trial court. State v. Ortiz, 162 N.H. 585, 590 (2011). We apply the rule “sparingly, its use limited to those circumstances in which a miscarriage of justice would otherwise result.” Id. (quotation omitted). To reverse a trial court decision under the plain error rule: “(1) there must be an error; (2) the error must be plain; (3) the error must affect substantial rights; and (4) the error must seriously affect the fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial proceedings.” Id. (quotation omitted). We need not decide whether the State erred by charging the defendant with simple assault as a class B felony, and, likewise, whether the trial court erred by imposing a class B felony penalty for that charge because we hold that the second criterion of the plain error rule is not met. Thus, the defendant has failed to demonstrate that the trial court committed plain error by allowing the class B felony indictment and penalty to stand. “For the purposes of the plain error rule, an error is plain if it was or should have been obvious in the sense that the governing law was clearly settled to the contrary.” Id. at 591 (quotation omitted). “When the law is not clear at the time of trial and remains unsettled at the time of appeal, a decision 13 by the trial court cannot be plain error.” Id. (quotation omitted). “‘Plain’ as used in the plain error rule is synonymous with clear or, equivalently, obvious.” Id. (quotation omitted). Here, the trial court’s error was neither clear nor unequivocally obvious because this case is one of first impression, id., and because the statutes at issue are not clear on their face as to how they should be construed together “so that they do not contradict each other, and so that they will lead to reasonable results” and effectuate their legislative purpose. State v. Cheney, 165 N.H. 677, 682 (2013) (quotation omitted). The two statutes at issue are RSA 173-B:9, IV and RSA 625:9, IV(c). RSA 173-B:9, IV allows the State to enhance a defendant’s subsequent offense “involving abuse” when it occurs “within 6 years” of a conviction “under RSA 173-B:9, III.” Under RSA 173-B:9, IV(c), “[i]f the subsequent offense would otherwise constitute a class A misdemeanor, it may be charged as a class B felony.” Under RSA 173-B:9, IV(d), “[i]f the subsequent offense would otherwise constitute a class B misdemeanor, it may be charged as a class A misdemeanor.” The defendant does not dispute that “he had a qualifying conviction within six years that can serve to enhance a simple assault charge.” RSA 625:9, IV (Supp. 2014) provides that, when a misdemeanor is committed by an individual, it is either a class A or class B misdemeanor. It also provides that, when, as in the instant case, the Criminal Code does not designate a crime as either a class A or class B misdemeanor, see RSA 631:2-a, it “shall be presumed to be a class B misdemeanor unless: (1) [a]n element of the offense involves an ‘act of violence’ or ‘threat of violence’ . . . ; or (2) [t]he state files a notice of intent to seek class A misdemeanor penalties on or before the date of arraignment.” RSA 625:9, IV(c). In the trial court, the defendant contended that the two statutes require the State to file the notice described in RSA 625:9, IV(c)(2) whenever it seeks any penalty other than class B misdemeanor penalties for an unclassified misdemeanor. The lack of notice, the defendant argued, meant that his simple assault charge remained a class B misdemeanor, notwithstanding that the indictment charged simple assault as a class B felony. On appeal, the defendant posits a different interpretation. He now argues that, even without the notice described in RSA 625:9, IV(c)(2), the State could obtain class A misdemeanor penalties for the simple assault charge pursuant to RSA 173-B:9, IV. The defendant asserts that the lack of notice under RSA 625:9, IV(c)(2) meant that, because of RSA 173-B:9, IV, his simple assault charge became a class A misdemeanor, but did not become a class B felony. He argues that, had the State wanted to elevate the simple assault charge to a class B felony, it was required to issue the notice under RSA 625:9, 14 IV(c)(2) and to charge him by indictment with simple assault as a class B felony. The State posits still another interpretation. The State contends that an unclassified misdemeanor may be elevated to a class B felony pursuant to RSA 173-B:9, IV, regardless of whether the State provides the notice described in RSA 625:9, IV(c)(2). To the State, it is unclear from the language of either statute how the legislature intended RSA 173-B:9, IV and RSA 625:9, IV(c)(2) to be construed so that they are “consistent with each other[,] . . . . do not contradict each other, and so that they will lead to reasonable results and effectuate [their] legislative purpose.” Cheney, 165 N.H. at 682 (quotation omitted). As the State observes, while RSA 173-B:9, IV expressly precludes the State from elevating an unclassified felony, it is silent with regard to unclassified misdemeanors. See RSA 173-B:9, IV(a). The State interprets this silence as “implying that such offenses should be construed under thenexisting law,” which allowed an unclassified misdemeanor to be elevated to a class B felony without any notice other than the indictment itself. Because the State concludes that “RSA 625:9, IV(c) is clearly ambiguous when read in conjunction with RSA 173-B:9, IV(c),” the State examines the legislative history of RSA 625:9, IV(c), observing that the purpose of that provision was “to save money by forcing prosecutors to decide before arraignment . . . whether they would seek . . . jail time, because failure to affirmatively state that decision by filing the [required] notice . . . would mean that the defendant . . . would not be entitled to appointed counsel.” That purpose, the State argues, would not be fulfilled if we were to construe RSA 173-B:9, IV and RSA 625:9, IV(c) as allowing the State to elevate unclassified misdemeanors to class A misdemeanors, but not to class B felonies. This is so, the State explains, “[b]ecause defendants charged with either class A misdemeanors or class B felonies are entitled to appointed counsel.” Therefore, the State reasons that, consistent with the purpose of RSA 625:9, IV(c), an unclassified misdemeanor may be elevated to a class B felony without the notice set forth in RSA 625:9, IV(c). Such a ruling, the State argues, promotes justice, see RSA 625:3 (2007), and complies not only with the intended purpose of RSA 625:9, IV(c), but also with “the purpose of RSA 173-B:9, which at the time it was passed plainly contemplated that unclassified misdemeanors could be elevated to class B felonies.” Given these varied and, arguably, reasonable interpretations of the interplay between RSA 625:9, IV(c) and RSA 173-B:9, IV, we cannot say that, even if the trial court’s statutory interpretation were error, its error was plain. Any error was not “plainly evident” from the statutory language. State v. Henderson, 154 N.H. 95, 98 (2006). Accordingly, we find no plain error here. 15