Court Opinion

ID: 9529718
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:53:38.36212+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:27:54.103865
License: Public Domain

SHEPARD, Justice.
This is a consolidated appeal from an order of the district court revoking probation and committing defendant-appellant Rocque to the custody of the Board of Corrections and from a conviction of the crime of escape. We affirm the order revoking probation and reverse the conviction of escape.
In March, 1977, defendant-appellant, Joseph Napoleon Rocque, pleaded guilty to and was convicted of the crime of burglary in the first degree. Thereafter the district court entered an order sentencing Rocque for a term not to exceed ten years “provided, however, that this judgment shall be and is hereby suspended and defendant be placed on probation for ten years * * Among the terms and conditions of probation, Rocque was “remanded to the sheriff’s office of Ada County for a period not to exceed six months, work release program,” required to make restitution and refrain from the use of alcohol.
Rocque entered into the “work release” program and, insofar as the sparse record before us indicates, he spent nights in the Ada County jail and was released during the daytime. The record indicates he was *446released from the jail in the mornings, provided his own transportation and worked as a sheetrock drywall installer. From his wages he was required to pay “fees” which in part were to defer the costs of his lodging at the jail. After approximately three months, Rocque left the jail one morning ostensibly to go to work. He did not return to the jail that evening, but rather left Ada County and the State of Idaho for Spokane, Washington.
On his arrival in Spokane, he enrolled himself voluntarily in a 90-day alcohol therapy program, which he successfully completed. Thereafter he enrolled in a community college program and was employed at the alcohol rehabilitation center as a counselor. Some time later, he was stopped for a minor traffic infraction and when the authorities learned of his fugitive status, he was detained for extradition. Rocque resisted extradition and the Washington authorities offered to assume Rocque’s probationary supervision through the interstate compact on transfer of probationers and parolees. That offer was evidently refused by the Idaho authorities. After additional travels to Montana and Oregon, Rocque was ultimately extradited to Idaho.
In April of 1979, the order of March, 1977, which had suspended execution of sentence and placed Rocque on probation, was revoked. The previous sentence of ten years was commuted to seven and one-half years and Rocque was committed to the Board of Corrections.
Meanwhile, in February, 1979, following a preliminary hearing, an information had been filed against Rocque charging him with the crime of escape under the provisions of I.C. § 18-2505, to-wit: “That the said defendant, Joseph N. Rocque, on or about the 23rd day of June, 1977, in the County of Ada, State of Idaho, did while convicted of a felony, and while working outside the walls of the Ada County jail, escape from the Ada County jail.” Following trial at which he was found guilty, Rocque was convicted and sentenced to the custody of the State Board of Corrections for a period of two years, to commence at the completion of the sentence he was then serving.
Rocque filed this appeal pro se from the order of the district court revoking probation and from his conviction for the crime of escape. Rocque has pursued the appeal pro se without the assistance of counsel. Although Rocque initially appealed from the order of the district court revoking probation, he, in his brief, concedes that such order was correct and we do not consider that assignment of error.
As to the conviction for the crime of escape, under the unusual circumstances presented here we deem the evidence insufficient to support that conviction and hence reverse. Rocque’s “confinement” in the jail during evening hours was the result of a voluntary probation agreement and consequently when he failed to return to the jail he was in breach of the terms of his probation. However, his failure to return to the jail was not an “escape” from custody since he had not been sentenced. This result obviates any need for discussion of the law pertaining to custody or any disposition of Rocque’s assertions of error.
Reversed and remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
BAKES and BISTLINE, JJ., McFADDEN, J. (Ret.), and MeQUADE, J. Pro Tern., concur.