Court Opinion

ID: 9789721
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 01:40:26.028667+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:24.037534
License: Public Domain

Rose, J.,
with whom Springer, V. C. J., joins,
concurring in part and dissenting in part:
I concur with the majority in upholding the jury verdicts returned against Arajakis but believe that because his request for the assistance of counsel, at the sentencing hearing was not honored, the sentences should be vacated and a new sentencing hearing held.
A defendant has a right to terminate his self-representation and request the assistance of counsel at any critical stage in a criminal proceeding, and a sentencing hearing is such a critical stage. Beals v. State, 106 Nev. 729, 802 P.2d 2 (1990).
At the beginning of the sentencing hearing, Arajakis requested that an attorney be appointed to assist him. The sentencing hearing was the first time Arajakis returned to court after the verdicts were returned against him at the end of the jury trial. His request for counsel was clear and unequivocal:
Your Honor, this is a critical point in this proceeding and I’ve been very inadequate as far as representing myself. I’m talking to a lawyer and trying to get somebody to cover sentencing with me. I have a case in September in No. X and I’m in custody so if we could postpone this long enough that I could get counsel here to represent me.
The district court denied this request because it believed any *986waiver of the assistance of counsel made prior to trial was irrevocable for the entire trial and sentencing proceeding, and it could not be withdrawn. This conclusion by the district court was incorrect. The majority believes the denial of counsel to Arajakis at the sentencing hearing can nevertheless be justified by the fact that his request, which came at the beginning of the sentencing hearing, was untimely.
We should reach the same result in this case as we reached in the Beals case. In that case, Beals, while represented by counsel, pleaded guilty to a felony. At the sentencing hearing, Beals’ attorney sought to withdraw from further representation of Beals because of an alleged conflict of interest, and Beals requested a new attorney. The court refused to grant counsel’s motion to withdraw, and the court declined to continue the sentencing hearing. Rather, the court gave Beals the choice of proceeding with his present counsel or representing himself. Faced with this dilemma, Beals chose to represent himself at the sentencing hearing. After Beals was sentenced, he appealed. We reversed the case and remanded it to the district court with instructions to reconsider Beals’ motion to withdraw his guilty plea; and we instructed the district court that if Beals were to be sentenced, “the sentencing hearing must likewise comport with Beals’ right to be assisted by counsel.” Id. at 732, 802 P.2d at 4. The request made in Beals was similar to the one made in this case by Arajakis, and the result reached should be the same in both cases.
The majority places great reliance on Lyons v. State, 106 Nev. 438, 796 P.2d 210 (1990), but it is misplaced. Lyons permits a “request for self-representation” to be denied where the request is untimely or is made for improper purposes. Lyons, 106 Nev. at 444-46, 796 P.2d at 214-15 (emphasis added). Lyons does not address the issue at hand — where a self-represented defendant makes a request for counsel. Lyons is further distinguishable because we were dealing with a request for self-representation at the beginning of a complex jury trial rather than a request for counsel at a sentencing hearing. Lyons’ jury trial was lengthy, and there were many witnesses subpoenaed to testify. A sentencing hearing is brief and usually no witnesses are called. At Arajakis’s sentencing hearing, no witnesses were called and the entire hearing is transcribed on eleven pages; it could not have taken five minutes to conduct.
Sentencing hearings are often continued to accommodate the probation department, which prepares the pre-sentence report and appears at the sentencing, the attorneys involved in the case, or the defendant. A minimum of inconvenience is caused by rescheduling a sentencing hearing. That part of Lyons which is relevant to this case is our direction: “[W]e encourage district *987courts to accommodate [a defendant’s] requests where this can be done without undue disruption or delay.” Id. at 446, 796 P.2d at 215.
Arajakis asserted a right guaranteed by the United States Constitution, and a minimum of inconvenience would have been caused by continuing the sentencing hearing and appointing counsel for him. I would vacate the harsh sentences imposed in this case and remand to the district court for the appointment of counsel and a new sentencing hearing.