Court Opinion

ID: 9608592
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 03:14:58.900556+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:02:40.201210
License: Public Domain

WINTERSHEIMER, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from the majority opinion and disagree with the dissenting opinion filed by Justice Keller because Stallworth entered his guilty plea freely, voluntarily and knowingly, and was properly convicted and sentenced under the terms of the plea agreement. The sentencing agreement was not coercive and was not fundamentally unfair.
This appeal is from a judgment based on a guilty plea in which Stallworth, a juvenile, pled guilty to fifteen Class D felony and misdemeanor offenses. He was ultimately sentenced to twenty years in prison. The questions presented are whether the trial judge lacked authority to amend Stallworth’s sentence as a condition of shock probation and whether the trial judge forfeited his right to enforce the twenty-year sentence.
The charges relate to a four-month crime spree that ended only when, after previously escaping from a detention center, Stallworth attempted to run over two peace officers with a stolen car. He was transferred to circuit court where he pled guilty to and accepted the sentences for the following crimes: first-degree wanton endangerment (5 years); third-degree criminal mischief (90 days); third-degree burglary (5 years); six counts of theft over $300 (5 years each); five counts of theft under $300 (12 months each); and second-degree possession of a forged instrument (5 years). The plea agreement did not indicate whether the sentences were to be run consecutively or concurrently, but the guilty plea order reflected that the penalty range for these crimes was twenty years and a $40,000 fine. The plea agreement does state that the Commonwealth would not oppose shock probation on the condition that Stallworth pay restitution upon release and that he successfully complete “Teen Challenge,” a privately run rehabilitation program in Arkansas.
At sentencing, the circuit judge ran the two five-year sentences consecutively and the rest of the sentences concurrently for a total of ten years. The sentence was probated with the condition that Stall-worth complete the “Teen Challenge” program. Unfortunately, Stallworth immediately violated his probation when he left the program after one day and his probation was revoked and he was ordered to serve his ten-year sentence. Several months later, he filed a motion for shock probation which the prosecution opposed. The circuit judge entered an order that stated that shock probation would be granted if Stallworth agreed to have his *927sentence amended to ran consecutively for a total of twenty years. He agreed and he was resentenced to twenty years which was probated on the condition that he complete the “Teen Challenge” program. Stallworth again violated his probation by fading to complete the program. Thereafter, his probation was revoked and he was sentenced to twenty years in prison. The essential reason that the majority opinion reverses this case is because it believes that the circuit judge was without jurisdiction.
The legal heart of this case is a conflict between two decisions, one by the Supreme Court, and the other by a panel of the Court of Appeals. Stallworth argues that the trial judge lacked authority to amend the sentence to twenty years instead of ten as a condition of shock probation. He contends that the trial judge never actually changed his sentence to twenty years and was powerless to impose a twenty-year sentence upon revocation. He relies on Galusha v. Commonwealth, Ky.App., 834 S.W.2d 696 (1992). The Commonwealth responds that the trial judge properly sentenced Stallworth to twenty years and that he twice agreed to serve this time. It relies on Myers v. Commonwealth, Ky., 42 S.W.3d 594 (2001). I am persuaded that Myers, supra, stands for the proposition that a defendant may validly agree to an inappropriate sentence if that sentence would otherwise operate to his benefit. Surely, probation is preferable to incarceration for any term of years and thus a benefit to a defendant.
The result here could well be a triumph of clever strategy over fundamental substance. Stallworth agreed to and accepted a twenty-year sentence which this Court has now reduced to ten years. The trial judge did not forfeit his right to enforce the twenty-year sentence as part of the plea agreement. To the extent necessary, I would overrule Galusha, supra, so as to bring it into conformity with Myers.
I would affirm the conviction in all respects.