Court Opinion

ID: 9678608
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 06:25:33.942899+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:06.010764
License: Public Domain

OPINION

KELLER, Judge.
This is a post-conviction application for writ of habeas corpus filed pursuant to Article 11.07, V.A.C.C.P. In a single proceeding Applicant was convicted of murder and aggravated robbery in cause numbers 23706 and 23707, respectively, following a plea bargain by which a single capital murder indictment was dismissed. Pursuant to that plea bargain, punishment was assessed at life imprisonment for each offense, with the sentence in 23707 to run consecutively with that assessed in 23706. The cumulation of the sentences was part of the plea agreement. There was no appeal.
Applicant challenges that part of the plea bargain which requires 23707 to run consecutively under LaPorte v. State, 832 S.W.2d 597 (Tex.Crim.App.1992), because he was tried in a single criminal action for offenses arising out of the same criminal episode. See V.T.C.A. Penal Code, §§ 3.01, 3.02 and 3.03. Applicant contends that his pleas of guilty should be withdrawn and both parties should be returned to their positions prior to the pleas of guilty. The trial court has made no findings of fact and conclusions of law pursuant to the present writ application.
Pursuant to a previous writ application, however, the trial court entered findings of fact and conclusions of law in which it was found:
The Court finds it conducted a single hearing on the matter on March 1, 1990. The Court further finds that after the Defendant signed stipulations of evidence, and waived indictment and trial by jury in both causes, the Court accepted both pleas of guilty, contemporaneously, at this same hearing. Based on the recommendation of the State’s attorney, the Court imposed a life sentence in Cause #23706, and a life sentence in Cause # 23707 to run consecutive. Based on the recommendation of the State’s attorney, on March 1, 1990, this Court signed an order dismissing the Capital Murder charges pending against the Defendant.
We agree that the cumulation orders are improper under §§ 3.01, 3.02, and 3.03 and the reasoning set out in LaPorte.
In Ex parte Sims, 868 S.W.2d 803 (Tex.Crim.App.1993), we held that where the record reflects a plea bargain for the possibility of improper consecutive sentences, reformation to delete the “stacking” order was not the proper remedy. Rather, “[t]he parties must be returned to their positions prior to the plea of guilty.” Sims, 868 S.W.2d at 805. In Sims the plea bargain was for the possibility of consecutive sentences whereas in the instant case the plea bargain was for consecutive sentences.
In Sims we also stated that if we were simply to delete the cumulation order, only the State would be bound detrimentally to that aspect of the plea agreement. Sims, 868 S.W.2d at 805. That is because a cumu-lation order is obviously to the State’s benefit and to Applicant’s disadvantage. We concluded that deletion of the order requiring consecutive sentences would be neither logical nor fair. Id.
The State has not filed a reply to the present writ application, and has not informed this Court that it would forebear and relinquish that benefit of the plea agreement of which the State will be deprived if the cumulation order is held to be invalid. Specific performance is not possible, deletion of the cumulation order would unfairly inure to *298Applicant, and the State has not expressed its desire to forebear and relinquish that aspect of the plea agreement that requires that the sentences run consecutively. Consequently, the judgments in cause numbers 23706 and 23707 from the 13th Judicial District Court of Navarro County are set aside and it is ordered that Applicant be returned to the custody of the Navarro County sheriff to answer the charging instruments in these causes.
Copies of this opinion shall be sent to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Institutional and Pardons and Paroles Divisions.