Court Opinion

ID: 9591813
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:07:54.836712+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:13:50.928495
License: Public Domain

HUNTER, Robert C., Judge,
dissenting.
After careful review of the colloquy between defendant and the trial court during sentencing, I detect no indication of improper motivation by the trial court judge in imposing defendant’s sentence. Accordingly, I respectfully dissent from the majority’s holding in this case.
The majority aptly states that, according to well-established principles of North Carolina law: (1) “a trial judge does not err by simply engaging in a colloquy with a criminal defendant for the purpose of ensuring that the defendant understands and fully appreciates the nature and scope of the available options”; (2) “a mere reference to a defendant’s refusal to enter a guilty plea as the basis for determining the defendant’s sentence, does not necessitate an award of appellate relief’; and (3) “adverse comments on the strength of the defendant’s evidence at trial or on the credibility of specific comments made by the defendant during the sentencing hearing do not amount to an impermissible consideration of the defendant’s decision to exercise his or her right to a trial by jury, even if those comments include incidental references to the defendant’s failure to accept a proffered *505guilty plea.” However, “explicit comments by trial judges that a defendant will receive a more severe sentence if he or she goes to trial and is convicted than he or she will receive if a proposed negotiated plea is accepted” will result in reversible error.
The majority and I agree that there was nothing improper about the trial court’s statements to defendant during a pre-trial hearing, which was requested by defense counsel. During the hearing, the trial court sought to ensure that defendant understood the plea offered and the potential term of imprisonment should he reject that offer. The State proposed that if defendant, a Class III offender, pled guilty to all charges, the State would request that the trial court consolidate the convictions and sentence defendant to one Class B1 felony, which would have resulted in a sentence of 269 to 413 months imprisonment. If defendant was convicted by a jury of any one of the felonies charged, he would have faced a prison sentence of 336 months to 413 months. The trial court informed defendant that if he proceeded to trial and was convicted óf all charges, he could face 178-and-a-half years to 219-and-a-half years imprisonment. The trial court asked defendant: “Do you fully understand what the offer was and what your exposure to prison would have been had you pled guilty?” Defendant responded: “Yes.” The trial court then asked defendant: “Do you fully understand what your exposure to prison is if you’re found guilty of all of these charges?” Again, defendant answered affirmatively. Defendant made it clear that he was knowingly rejecting the plea offer.8
It appears that the majority and I also agree that the trial court judge did not err when he commented upon defendant’s allocution, during which defendant apologized to the victim’s family and stated that he “loved [them] all.” The trial judge responded: “[I]f you had truly cared — if you had one ounce of care in your heart about that child — you wouldn’t have put that child through this.” As the majority correctly states, this reflexive comment by the trial judge should be treated as a mere expression of the trial court’s reticence to trust the sincerity of defendant’s allocution, as similarly seen in State v. Tice, 191 N.C. App. 506, 513-15, 664 S.E.2d 368, 373-74 (2008), and State v. Person, 187 N.C. App. 512, 527-28, 653 S.E.2d 560, 570 (2007), rev’d in part on other grounds, 362 N.C. 340, 663 S.E.2d 311 (2008).
However, the majority specifically takes issue with the trial judge’s subsequent statement that “I’m not punishing you for not *506pleading guilty” and that “I would have rewarded you for pleading guilty.” The majority states: “[I]t is difficult for us to read the trial court’s comment that he would have rewarded Defendant for pleading guilty as anything other than an acknowledgment that Defendant’s sentence was heavier than it otherwise would have been had Defendant not exercised his right to trial by jury.” The majority goes on to conclude “that the trial court erred by impermissibly considering Defendant’s decision to decline to accept the negotiated plea that was offered to him prior to trial in imposing sentence.” I disagree with this holding, in part, because I see nothing improper about the trial judge’s acknowledgment that he would have “rewarded” defendant for pleading guilty. Clearly, every plea bargain serves to reward the defendant for admitting his or her guilt and saving the State the time and expense of trial. The reward is, in actuality, offered by the State, not the trial court. In approving the bargain reached between the State and the defendant, the trial court is then, in effect, rewarding the defendant with a sentence that is presumably less than it would have been had the defendant been convicted by a jury. Once the State has proceeded to try the defendant and he is convicted of the crimes charged, the State no longer seeks to reward the defendant. At that point, the trial court has heard all of the evidence presented, which resulted in a conviction by the jury, and is responsible for sentencing defendant for the crimes he committed; in this case, ten counts of sexual crimes against a child. At this stage in the trial process, it would be illogical to expect the trial judge to reward defendant and I see no impropriety in the trial judge making the truthful assertion that defendant would have been rewarded had he agreed to the State’s bargain.
Certainly a trial judge is not permitted to threaten a defendant with a harsher penalty if he or she does not accept the plea bargain offered by the State; however, I see no error in the trial court’s comment, which took place after trial, that had defendant accepted the plea bargain, he would have been rewarded. If the scenario were reversed, and defendant had accepted the plea bargain prior to trial, there would have been no objection to a statement by the trial court that it was rewarding defendant for pleading guilty.
Furthermore, the fact that a defendant would have received a reward for pleading guilty does not automatically mean that a defendant is punished for going to trial. The majority seems to reach the opposite conclusion. The majority states that if my “logic” is adopted, “it would... eviscerate the rule against punishing convicted *507criminal defendants for exercising their federal and state constitutional right to trial by jury by allowing a prohibited end to be achieved indirectly.” That is simply not the case. As seen here, a criminal defendant is usually informed by the trial court that he will be exposing himself to a longer term of imprisonment if he goes to trial and is convicted. A harsher penalty is a risk that the defendant bears when he elects to reject a plea bargain and proceeds to trial. That harsher penalty is not a punishment for rejecting the plea. The trial judge is entitled to sentence the defendant to a term of imprisonment for each crime he is convicted of, and, in his discretion, to run those sentences concurrently or consecutively. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-1340.15(a) (2009). I support reversal of a sentence where the trial judge makes explicit statements prior to trial that he will give defendant a harsher penalty if he does not accept the plea bargain, or the trial judge’s statements at the sentencing hearing clearly establish that he is punishing the defendant for not accepting the plea bargain offered by the State. Neither of these situations are present here.
With regard to this case, I see nothing in the trial judge’s comments that would lead me to believe that he was punishing defendant for going to trial. To the contrary, the trial judge specifically stated that he was not punishing defendant for going to trial, and I see no reason to disbelieve him. The trial court proceeded to sentence defendant within the presumptive range to five consecutive sentences for the five counts of first degree sex offense. The trial court then consolidated defendant’s convictions for five counts of taking indecent liberties with a child. The trial court was statutorily permitted to impose this sentence, it is “presumed regular and valid,” State v. Boone, 293 N.C. 702, 712, 239 S.E.2d 459, 465 (1977), and I see no improper basis for the sentence.
The majority finds the trial judge’s comments in the case sub judice to be similar to the comments made in State v. Haymond, - N.C. App. —-, -, 691 S.E.2d 108, 123 (2010); State v. Hueto, 195 N.C. App. 67, 77-78, 671 S.E.2d 62, 68 (2009); State v. Young, 166 N.C. App. 401, 411-13, 602 S.E.2d 374, 380-81 (2004), disc. review denied, 359 N.C. 326, 611 S.E.2d 851 (2005); and State v. Pavone, 104 N.C. App. 442, 445-46, 410 S.E.2d 1, 3 (1991). I disagree and find the trial court’s comments to be, in substance, most similar to those seen in Tice. As in the present case, the trial judge in Tice informed the defendant at a pre-trial hearing that the defendant ran the risk of a “significant increase” in his sentence if he were to be convicted at trial. 191 N.C. App. at 512, 664 S.E.2d *508at 373. Once the defendant was convicted by a jury, the trial court made the following statement at sentencing:
Mr. Tice, I imagine you’ve got to be feeling awfully dumb along right now. You’ve had ample opportunities to dispose of this case. The State has given you ample opportunity to dispose of it in a more favorable fashion and you chose not to do so. And I’m not sure if you thought that you were smarter than everybody else or that everybody else was just dumb.
Id. at 513, 664 S.E.2d at 373 (emphasis added). In Tice, this Court rejected the defendant’s argument “that the trial judge’s language during sentencing indicate[d] that defendant received the sentences that he did because he chose to exercise his right to a jury trial rather than, in the words of the judge, ‘dispose [of the case] in a more favorable fashion.’ ” Id. at 514, 664 S.E.2d at 374. Though the judge’s comments in Tice do not mirror the comments made in the case at bar, it is clear that the trial judges in both situations were commenting on the defendants’ missed opportunity to “dispose” of their cases in a “more favorable fashion.” Id.; see also State v. Crawford, 179 N.C. App. 613, 618, 634 S.E.2d 909, 913 (2006) (holding that trial court did not err in stating “I just want to make sure you understand that so in the event you are convicted, I don’t want you to think that no one gave you an opportunity to mitigate your losses”), disc. review denied, 361 N.C. 360, 644 S.E.2d 363 (2007). The trial judge in this case characterized that missed opportunity as a reward that defendant did not act upon. Again, I see no impropriety in that characterization.9
In sum, I would hold that the trial court’s sentencing was free from error and affirm the judgment entered because the trial court’s remarks did not overcome the presumption that the trial court’s sentence was valid. The fact that the trial judge stated that he would have rewarded defendant for pleading guilty is an accurate statement of fact given the inherent nature of our plea bargaining system which, in effect, rewards criminal defendants for admitting guilt, thereby avoiding a lengthy and expensive trial by jury. After trial, there was noth*509ing for which to reward defendant. Defendant was found guilty by a jury of all ten charges and the trial judge, after hearing the evidence regarding the horrible crimes perpetrated by defendant, sentenced defendant to a term of imprisonment that he determined was appropriate. I find no reason to disbelieve the trial judge’s assertion that he was not punishing defendant with the sentence he imposed.

. We note that defendant was 68-years-old at the time of trial.

. The majority points out that the analysis in Tice focused heavily on the fact that the trial judge was commenting on the defendant’s presentation of false testimony. That is true; however, the trial court’s statements, as quoted supra, directly relate to the defendant’s decision to reject the more favorable plea offer. The defendant specifically objected to that statement, and this Court did not find any impropriety. Naturally, every colloquy between a defendant and the trial judge is going to be unique; however, I contend that the statements made in Tice are most similar to those made in the case at bar, and this Court found no error.