State v. Frinell
State v. Frinell
Opinion of the Court
*298Defendant caused a traffic accident in which two people were killed and one person was seriously injured. In connection with the accident, he was charged and convicted of manslaughter, assault, heroin possession, DUII, and reckless endangerment. On appeal from the judgment, defendant asserts five assignments of error. We reject his first three assignments of error without discussion. For the reasons that follow, we conclude that defendant's fourth and fifth assignments of error, which relate to sentencing and attorney fees, are meritorious. Accordingly, we reverse the attorney fee award and remand for resentencing. Otherwise, we affirm.
After ingesting heroin and methamphetamine, defendant fell asleep while driving his car, crossed the center line of a road, and collided head-on with another vehicle. The two men in the other vehicle died at the scene. Defendant's girlfriend, who was a passenger in his car, suffered serious injuries. Defendant was charged with numerous crimes. After a jury trial, he was convicted of two counts of manslaughter in the second degree, ORS 163.125 (Counts 1 and 2); assault in the third degree, ORS 163.165 (Count 3); possession of heroin, ORS 475.854 (Count 4); driving under the influence of intoxicants, ORS 813.010 (Count 5); and recklessly endangering another person, ORS 163.195 (Count 6).
*432In line with the state's sentencing recommendation, the court sentenced defendant to a term of 75 months' imprisonment on Count 1; 75 months' imprisonment on Count 2; 18 months' imprisonment on Count 3; six months' imprisonment on Count 4; six months' imprisonment on Count 5; and six months' imprisonment on Count 6. All of the terms were to be served consecutively, except that the term for Count 6 was to be served concurrently with that for Count 3. The sentence on Count 4 was a dispositional departure.
In his fourth assignment of error, defendant asserts that the trial court erred in sentencing him to six months' imprisonment on Count 4. As he did below, defendant argues on appeal that it was error for the court to impose a dispositional departure sentence on Count 4 without advance notice, as provided in ORS 136.765, that the state intended to rely on enhancement facts to increase his sentence. The state concedes that it did not give any notice of enhancement facts to defendant, but it contends that no notice was required under ORS 136.765.
As a starting point to address ORS 136.765, it is necessary to understand the line of United States Supreme Court cases that underpins it, beginning with Apprendi v. New Jersey ,
Four years later, in Blakely v. Washington ,
Soon thereafter, our own Supreme Court addressed the effect of Apprendi and Blakely on Oregon's presumptive sentencing scheme. In short, it recognized that Blakely precludes judicial factfinding in support of upward departure sentences, unless the defendant effectively waives the right to have the jury find the aggravating facts. State v. Dilts ,
In 2005, in response to Blakely , the Oregon legislature enacted a statutory mechanism, codified at ORS 136.760 to 136.792, for notifying a defendant that the state intends to use "enhancement facts" to increase a sentence beyond the presumptive sentence *433under the sentencing guidelines and for submitting those facts to the jury. Or. Laws 2005, ch. 463; see State v. Roberts ,
As to notice, ORS 136.765 provides:
"In order to rely on an enhancement fact to increase the sentence that may be imposed in a criminal proceeding, the state shall notify the defendant of its intention to rely on the enhancement fact by:
"(1) Pleading the enhancement fact in the accusatory instrument; or
"(2) Providing written notice to the defendant of the enhancement fact, and the state's intention to rely on it, no *301later than 60 days after the defendant is arraigned on an indictment, waives indictment or is held to answer following a preliminary hearing, or 14 days before trial, whichever occurs earlier, unless the parties agree otherwise or the court authorizes a later date for good cause shown."
Thus, if a fact is "constitutionally required" to be found by a jury rather than a judge, it is an enhancement fact, ORS 136.760(2), and the state must give the defendant advance notice that it intends to rely on that fact to increase the defendant's sentence, ORS 136.765.
In State v. Buehler ,
Three years after Buehler , the United States Supreme Court decided Oregon v. Ice ,
In this case, it is undisputed that the state did not provide any notice of enhancement facts to defendant. And it is undisputed that the trial court found the facts relevant to *434defendant's dispositional departure sentence on Count 4. The state concedes that, under Buehler , the trial court therefore erred. The state argues, however, that our reasoning in Buehler is no longer sound in light of Ice . It argues that the same two considerations recognized in Ice , i.e. , historical practice and respect for state sovereignty, suggest that we should "overrule Buehler in light of Ice and hold that dispositional departure sentences are not subject to the Apprendi rule and thus are not subject to the statutory procedure for establishing 'enhancement facts.' " As with consecutive sentences, the state argues, "[j]udicial factfinding under a presumptive-probation rule does not encroach on the historical authority of juries, and a presumptive-probation rule is a type of modern mitigating rule that states are free to develop without being constrained by a requirement for jury findings." We disagree and, for the reasons that follow, adhere to Buehler .
Although the Court in Ice relied on historical practice and respect for state sovereignty in declining to extend Apprendi to consecutive sentencing, the Court also recognized in Ice a critical distinction between the administration of multiple sentences and the imposition of sentence for a discrete crime. See Cuevas ,
As articulated by the Court, the question presented in Ice was as follows:
"When a defendant has been tried and convicted of multiple offenses, each involving discrete sentencing prescriptions , does the Sixth Amendment mandate jury determination of any fact declared necessary to the imposition of consecutive, in lieu of concurrent, sentences?"
In discussing Cunningham , the Court in Ice reiterated Apprendi 's "core concern: a legislative attempt to 'remove from the province of the jury' the determination of facts that warrant punishment for a specific statutory offense."
The distinction made by the Court in Ice is critical here. Deciding whether to impose a term of probation or a term of imprisonment "involve[s] sentencing for a discrete crime"
*435and requires "the determination of facts that warrant punishment for a specific statutory offense." Id . at 167, 170,
Under Buehler , the state was required to give notice to defendant, as provided in ORS 136.765, that it intended to rely on enhancement facts to increase his sentence on Count 4 from probation to imprisonment, and those findings had to be made by a jury. The state failed to comply with ORS 136.765. We therefore agree with defendant that the trial court erred and remand for resentencing.
In his fifth assignment of error, defendant contends that the trial court committed plain error when it imposed court-appointed attorney fees in the amount of $4,600 without any evidence in the record that defendant has the ability to pay them. The state concedes the error. We agree that the court erred in that regard, and that the error is plain. See, e.g. , State v. Chavez ,
Portion of judgment requiring defendant to pay attorney fees reversed; remanded for resentencing; otherwise affirmed.
"A sentence that imposes probation when the presumptive sentence is prison, or vice versa , is known as a 'dispositional departure.' " State v. Burns ,
In doing so, the Court reversed our Supreme Court, the majority of which had held that the rule of Apprendi applied "because the imposition of consecutive sentences increased 'the quantum of punishment' imposed." Ice ,
In the alternative to its argument regarding Ice , the state reiterates the same argument it made in Buehler regarding how the statutory maximum sentence should be understood. We reject that argument without discussion, for the same reasons that we rejected it in Buehler .
The state notes that at least one jurisdiction, South Dakota, has concluded that the Sixth Amendment jury trial right does not attach to findings necessary to impose imprisonment rather than probation. See State v. Anderson ,
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.