People v. Echols
People v. Echols
Opinion
¶ 1 Defendant, Earl Echols, appeals the denial of his motion to dismiss the indictment *1010 for aggravated driving under the influence of a controlled substance. Echols contends that he was denied his constitutional right to a speedy trial when the State failed to produce him for trial until one year after the offense was committed even though he was in State custody during that time. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.
¶ 2 I. BACKGROUND
¶ 3 On the evening of December 25, 2013, Echols was arrested after crashing his vehicle into a fire hydrant, several parked cars, and a building. 1 At the hospital, Echols told the investigating officers that he had "smoked some PCP and passed out." Echols was charged with misdemeanor driving under the influence (DUI) of an intoxicant and appeared in court for his bond hearing the following day. On January 27, 2014, the court granted the State's motion for nolle prosequi and the misdemeanor charges were dropped. Counsel noted, during argument on the motion to dismiss, that it was unclear whether the public defender representing Echols informed him that the misdemeanor charge had been nol-prossed because the State intended to file felony charges at a later time.
¶ 4 Due to the misdemeanor arrest, Echols's probation from a prior offense was revoked on February 28, 2014. 2 Four days later, he was transferred from the custody of the Cook County Sheriff to the Illinois Department of Corrections. On July 28, 2014, a grand jury indicted Echols on five counts of aggravated DUI. The State sent notice of the arraignment court date to Echols's last known address. On August 11, 2014, Echols was not present for arraignment. The State requested a three-week continuance to resend notice of a new court date after indicating that a copy of the indictment letter was missing from its file. At the next hearing on September 2, 2014, Echols was still incarcerated, had not received the notices, and as such did not appear. The court issued an arrest warrant and ordered Echols's bail forfeited based on the State's representations that it had sent proper notice to him of both court dates. 3
¶ 5 Echols remained in custody at Stateville Correctional Center until April 3, 2015. The day after completing his probation revocation sentence, Echols was arrested on the outstanding warrant in this case. He was arraigned on April 6, 2015, and attended a bond review hearing three days later. At the bond review hearing, the State noted for the record that standard operating procedure upon issuing a warrant includes running a computerized custody check. However, when the State ran a local, state, and federal custody check on September 2, 2014, the results failed to reveal Echols's incarceration on his probation revocation. Therefore, the court issued a $50,000 bond and set the next court date.
¶ 6 On April 16, 2015, Echols filed a motion to dismiss the charges arguing that his constitutional right to a speedy trial had been violated. The State tendered a written response the following month. On May 27, 2015, after hearing argument, the court denied the motion and proceeded to *1011 a bench trial. The bench trial was conducted over the course of two days and included testimony from two responding officers and stipulations as to the testimony of the eyewitness to the crash, the nurse who collected the DUI kit from Echols, and the forensic scientist who tested the DUI kit samples. Echols's urine tested positive for phencyclidine (PCP) and morphine. Additionally, vehicle records were entered into evidence showing that he owned the vehicle involved in the crash. The defense rested without presenting any evidence. After brief closing arguments, the court found defendant guilty on all five counts of aggravated DUI.
¶ 7 On October 2, 2015, the court denied Echols's motion for reconsideration or new trial and sentenced him to 18 months in the Illinois Department of Corrections with one year mandatory supervised release. The court noted that the five counts merged into one and denied Echols's oral motion to reconsider the sentence. This appeal followed.
¶ 8 II. ANALYSIS
¶ 9 On appeal, Echols contends that the trial court erred in refusing to dismiss the charges on constitutional speedy-trial grounds. Echols argues that the trial court should have dismissed the charges because there was a 477-day delay in prosecution, he was in State custody for a majority of that delay, the delay was not attributable to him, and he was prejudiced by the lost opportunity to serve concurrent sentences. The State responds that the record does not support finding a 477-day delay, the delay was caused by the State's reasonable belief that Echols was not in custody, and that Echols suffered no prejudice from the delay.
¶ 10 Both the federal and state constitutions guarantee the right to a speedy trial. See U.S. Const., amend. VI ; Ill. Const. 1970, art. I, § 8. The sixth amendment right to a speedy trial in the federal constitution is fundamental and is applicable to the states by the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment. See
Klopfer v. North Carolina
,
¶ 11 Our supreme court has adopted the four-factor balancing test outlined in
Barker v. Wingo
,
*1012 ¶ 12 A. Length of Delay
¶ 13 The parties disagree on the length of time Echols was deprived of a speedy trial and whether the delay was sufficient to raise a constitutional question. Echols argues he suffered 477 days of delay from the offense date to the date he filed his motion to dismiss. 4 The State contends that the delay was no more than 250 days commencing from either the issuance of the indictment or the arrest warrant to Echols's actual arrest on that warrant. 5 To resolve this disagreement, we must determine the effect of nol-prossing charges on a defendant's constitutional right to a speedy trial.
¶ 14 1. The Effect of Nolle Prosequi
¶ 15 Echols contends that the six-month delay between the State's motion to nol-pros the misdemeanor charges and the subsequent felony indictment must be considered as a delay affecting his right to a speedy trial. The State responds that the speedy-trial right accrued either when Echols was formally indicted on felony charges or when the arrest warrant was issued.
¶ 16 "The right to a speedy trial guaranteed by the sixth amendment ( U.S. Const., amend. VI ) applies only within 'the confines of a formal criminal prosecution,' that is, once a defendant has been arrested or charged."
People v. Totzke
,
¶ 17 In
Totzke
, the Appellate Court, Second District addressed the effect of
nolle prosequi
in the context of a claimed speedy-trial constitutional violation.
¶ 18 On review, the appellate court found that the trial court erred in its application of due process and speedy-trial principles. Id. ¶ 37. The court observed that the effect of nolle prosequi in Illinois left no criminal charges pending against the defendant. Id. ¶ 23. Where no formal charges were pending, a speedy-trial analysis is inapplicable. Id. ¶ 25. "[A]ll of the *1013 time that the defendant is facing charges on the same matter" are, however, subject to a speedy-trial analysis. (Emphasis in original.) Id. ¶ 31. Accordingly, the appellate court calculated the length of delay from the defendant's initial arrest in January 2008 through her motion to dismiss on speedy-trial grounds, excluding the 285-day delay when no charges were pending. Id. ¶ 33. Thus, the court vacated the dismissal and remanded for reconsideration of the different periods of delay under the appropriate constitutional analysis. Id. ¶ 37.
¶ 19 Following the reasoning in Totzke , we determine that 295 days 6 of delay elapsed between Echols's initial arrest and the date that he first moved to dismiss on constitutional speedy-trial grounds. Consistent with Totzke , our calculated length of delay excludes the 182 days 7 between the misdemeanor nolle prosequi and the subsequent felony indictment.
¶ 20 2. Presumptively Prejudicial
¶ 21 The State argues that Echols's constitutional challenge should fail at the outset because the length of delay he suffered was not presumptively prejudicial. Generally, a speedy-trial inquiry is not triggered unless the complained-of-delay crosses the threshold from ordinary to presumptively prejudicial.
Crane
,
¶ 22 Here, by our calculation, Echols suffered a 295-day delay or approximately 10 months. This period of delay falls short of the one-year threshold for triggering a constitutional analysis. Generally, when the complained-of delay does not meet the threshold, a full
Barker
analysis is not warranted. See,
e.g.
,
People v. Beard
,
*1014 ¶ 23 B. Reason for Delay
¶ 24 Echols argues that the State has not provided justification for the 477-day delay. Echols contends that he did nothing to cause these delays and they are attributable to, and should weigh heavily against, the State. 8 The State responds that there is no evidence that the State deliberately caused any delay in order to gain an advantage against Echols. Rather, the State contends that it performed its due diligence 9 and the delay was justifiable.
¶ 25 We assign different weight to the reasons offered to explain the delay.
Crane
,
¶ 26 As previously discussed, we determined that Echols experienced 295 days of delay rather than 477 days. These 295 days fall within three distinct time periods, which we will discuss separately in order to determine the validity of the State's reason for each period of delay. The first 33 days of delay commenced from the time of defendant's initial arrest and for the period leading up to and concluding with the State's
nolle prosequi
of the misdemeanor charges. In most circumstances, a decision to nol-pros a case will not be held against the State unless it was used to circumvent the defendant's statutory speedy-trial right or gain some tactical advantage.
10
People v. Castillo
,
¶ 27 Next, there was a delay of 250 days between the formal indictment and Echols's arrest under the indictment. For 249 days of the 250-day delay, Echols was incarcerated in the Illinois Department of Corrections on an unrelated probation revocation sentence. The State erroneously believed that Echols was not in custody and had failed to appear to answer the charges.
¶ 28 The State attempts to justify this delay by asserting its reasonable reliance on the computerized custody check that informed its belief that Echols was not in custody. Further, the State suggests that Echols's criminal history, which reflected prior uses of aliases and false identifying information, contributed to the erroneous custody check results and therefore the reason for the delay should be weighed against Echols. We acknowledge that we have held the use of an alias, which actively interferes with the police's and the State's attempts to locate a defendant, creates delay attributable to the defendant. See
People v. Rievia
,
¶ 29 In
Singleton
, the State was found negligent in failing to prosecute the defendant for the four years following his formal indictment despite the fact that the defendant had entered state custody four times during the intervening period.
¶ 30 Similarly, we find that the State's failure to bring Echols before the court after he was indicted, despite his incarceration within the state of Illinois, constituted negligence attributable to the State. There is no contention that Echols was not actually in custody, nor did the State provide an explanation for the erroneous custody check. Thus, there is no valid justification for the 250-day delay between the indictment and subsequent arrest after Echols was released from state custody.
¶ 31 However, the lack of justification does not weigh heavily against the State. Our supreme court in
Crane
noted that tolerance of the negligence varies inversely with the length of the delay caused and its threat to the fairness of the defendant's trial.
Crane
,
*1016
Id.
at 47,
¶ 32 Lastly, the 12-days between defendant's felony arrest and his motion for dismissal are not attributable to, nor do they weigh against, either party. This time period does not demonstrate a lack of diligence by the State in prosecuting Echols. Echols did not draw out the delay and promptly raised the issue by filing his motion to dismiss through counsel.
¶ 33 C. Assertion of Right; Waiver of Right
¶ 34 Having considered the reasons for the delay, we turn to Echols's assertion of his right to a speedy trial. The record reveals that Echols did not make a speedy-trial demand at any time before he filed his motion to dismiss. He nonetheless argues that this factor should weigh against the State because it had a duty to advise him of the charges while he was in State custody. He also argues, without citation to authority, that his motion to dismiss was an assertion of his right to a speedy trial.
¶ 35 We disagree. Typically, a failure to assert the right to a speedy trial weighs heavily against a defendant unless he or she was unaware of the charges. See
Doggett
,
¶ 36 D. Prejudice
¶ 37 Echols next argues that he suffered severe prejudice when he lost the opportunity to serve concurrent sentences for the aggravated DUI and his probation revocation. The State responds that without showing some manner of impact to his defense, Echols cannot demonstrate prejudice warranting dismissal of the charges.
¶ 38 In assessing whether the delay caused prejudice to the defendant, courts must consider the defendant's interests that the speedy-trial right was designed to protect: (1) preventing undue and oppressive pretrial incarceration, (2) minimizing the anxiety and concern that accompanies public accusations, and (3) limiting the possibility that the defense will be impaired.
Barker
,
¶ 39 As Echols was incarcerated due to an unrelated probation revocation during the claimed delay, we cannot say that he was subjected to undue and oppressive pretrial incarceration. Regardless of whether these charges were pending, he would have been incarcerated. Thus, the restraint on his liberty was not due to the State holding him to await trial in this *1017 case. Further, Echols cannot demonstrate any anxiety or concern about the pending charges because he was unaware of the indictment against him. Lastly, Echols did not present any argument that his defense was impaired by the delay. He did not lose access to any witnesses, there was no evidence that witness memories had faded, nor was any evidence lost during the intervening time.
¶ 40 Although we find that Echols was not subjected to undue and oppressive pretrial incarceration, we agree with Echols that a defendant who is already imprisoned can be injured by trial delay that prevents him from receiving a sentence at least partially concurrent with the one he was receiving.
People v. Howell
,
¶ 41 In
Howell
, the defendant was arrested for rape in Illinois after escaping from federal custody in Florida.
¶ 42 In
Harflinger
, the defendant was indicted in 1972 but prosecution did not begin until 1975, when he was paroled from federal custody and transferred to Illinois to answer the outstanding arrest warrants.
¶ 43 In both Howell and Harflinger , the court held that the defendant's speedy-trial right was not violated despite the lost opportunity to secure concurrent sentences. Neither defendant addressed the primary concern under the speedy-trial analysis by demonstrating an impact on the ability to prepare his defense. Viewed in combination with the other Barker factors, the lost opportunity for concurrent sentences did not create significant prejudice to the defendants. Thus we acknowledge Echols's contention that his lost opportunity to secure a concurrent sentence demonstrates some prejudice to him, but *1018 we decline to find that it weighs heavily against the State without any evidence of impairment to his defense.
¶ 44 We acknowledge that the length of delay can affect the importance of finding prejudice to the defendant. Protracted delay can make it unnecessary for a defendant to show actual prejudice because excessive delay presumptively comprises a trial in way that neither party can identify or prove.
Doggett
,
¶ 45 E. Cases Cited by Echols
¶ 46 Defendant cites
People v. Kilcauski
,
¶ 47 Defendant's reliance on
Belcher
,
¶ 48 III. CONCLUSION
¶ 49 Here, viewing the reason for delay in Echols's case in conjunction with the other Barker factors, the length of the delay was not extremely protracted and did not present a threat to the fairness of Echols's trial. At most, Echols lost the opportunity to serve a partially concurrent sentence. In our review, the prejudice suffered by Echols due to the State's delay in producing him for court on the felony charges does not, on balance, warrant a finding that his speedy-trial right was violated. As such, the trial court was correct in denying Echols's motion to dismiss. For the reasons stated, we affirm the trial court's denial of Echols's motion to dismiss on constitutional speedy-trial grounds.
¶ 50 Affirmed.
Justices Howse and Lavin concurred in the judgment and opinion.
The building was empty at the time, and no one was physically injured by the crash other than Echols.
It is unclear from the record whether Echols had been released from custody on January 27, 2014, and taken back into custody on February 28, 2014.
Copies of these notices are not provided in the common law record; however, the report of proceedings indicates that copies were shown to the trial court prior the issuance of the arrest warrant.
Approximately 16 months from December 25, 2013 to April 16, 2015.
Approximately 7 to 8 months starting from either July 28, 2014, or September 2, 2014, to April 4, 2015.
Approximately 10 months from December 25, 2013, to January 27, 2014, and July 28, 2014, to April 16, 2015.
Approximately six months from January 27, 2014, to July 28, 2014.
Echols further summarily argues that he suffered additional, unnecessary confinement totalling 216 days awaiting trial and sentencing in this case. We do not address this length of delay or the reasons for this delay in our review of whether the motion to dismiss, at the time it was considered, was improperly denied.
The State cites an unpublished federal case ( United States v. Smith , 1993 U.S. App. Lexis 39655, *11-12) in support of the proposition that its actions constituted due diligence.
Although Echols does not argue a statutory speedy-trial violation, the issue of
nolle prosequi
is more commonly discussed under a statutory speedy-trial analysis because of its effect on tolling the speedy-trial period. See
People v. Decatur
,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Earl ECHOLS, Defendant-Appellant.
- Cited By
- 6 cases
- Status
- Published