Buddy Lee Wright v. State of Indiana (mem. dec.) ( 2019 )

MEMORANDUM DECISION
Pursuant to Ind. Appellate Rule 65(D), FILED
this Memorandum Decision shall not be
regarded as precedent or cited before any
Nov 06 2019, 10:54 am
court except for the purpose of establishing CLERK
Indiana Supreme Court
the defense of res judicata, collateral Court of Appeals
and Tax Court
estoppel, or the law of the case.
ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE
A. David Hutson Curtis T. Hill, Jr.
Hutson Legal Attorney General of Indiana
Jeffersonville, Indiana
Ian McLean
Supervising Deputy Attorney
General
Indianapolis, Indiana
IN THE
COURT OF APPEALS OF INDIANA
Buddy Lee Wright, November 6, 2019
Appellant-Defendant, Court of Appeals Case No.
19A-CR-1237
v. Appeal from the
Clark Circuit Court
State of Indiana, The Honorable
Appellee-Plaintiff Bradley B. Jacobs, Judge
Trial Court Cause No.
10C02-1504-F5-61
Vaidik, Chief Judge.
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Case Summary
[1] Buddy Lee Wright pled guilty to Level 5 felony dealing in marijuana, and the
trial court sentenced him to three years, with eighteen months executed on
community corrections and eighteen months suspended to probation. When
Wright later violated the terms of his community-corrections placement, the
trial court ordered him to serve all three years (minus credit for time served) in
the Indiana Department of Correction. Wright now appeals, arguing that the
trial court erred in ordering him to serve all three years in the DOC because it
mistakenly believed that this was its only option. Because the record shows that
the trial court did not believe that its only option was to commit Wright to the
DOC for all three years, we affirm.
Facts and Procedural History
[2] In April 2015, the State charged Wright with several marijuana-related offenses,
including Level 5 felony dealing in marijuana. Wright was released on his own
recognizance. Appellant’s App. Vol. II p. 3. On December 16, 2015, Wright
failed to appear for a status conference, and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
[3] As it turned out, the reason Wright did not appear for the status conference on
December 16 was because the State of Kansas charged him on December 8
with felony distributing marijuana. Id. at 66. Wright was convicted, and in
March 2016 a Kansas trial court sentenced him to eighteen months in prison
and twenty-four months of probation. Id. at 30, 66. Thereafter, Wright asked
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the State of Indiana to extradite him so that he could resolve this case. Id. at 30.
In May 2016, the trial court ordered the Clark County Sheriff to transport
Wright from the Stockton Correctional Facility in Stockton, Kansas, to the
Clark County Jail. Id. at 32.1 After Wright was returned to Indiana, the
warrant for his arrest was recalled, and he bonded out at some point. Id. at 33,
42.
[4] Thereafter, in January 2017, Wright and the State entered into a plea
agreement, which provided that Wright would plead guilty to Level 5 felony
dealing in marijuana, and the State would dismiss the remaining charges. The
agreement also provided that Wright’s sentence would be three years, with
eighteen months executed to be served on “Home Incarceration through
Community Corrections” and eighteen months suspended to probation. Id. at
43. The following month, the trial court accepted Wright’s guilty plea, entered
judgment of conviction, and set sentencing for August 2017. Id. at 47.
[5] After numerous continuances, the sentencing hearing was reset to May 30,
2018. The day before, Wright requested a continuance because he had been
injured in a car accident in Louisville in which two people were killed. The
sentencing hearing was reset to August 9. At the sentencing hearing, the trial
court, in accordance with the plea agreement, sentenced Wright to three years,
with eighteen months executed on “Home Incarceration through Clark County
1
It appears that Wright was discharged from parole in the Kansas case in June 2018. Appellant’s App. Vol.
II p. 66.
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Community Corrections” and eighteen months suspended to probation. Id. at
81, 83.
[6] At a review hearing a few days later, Wright was granted a furlough until
August 29 so that he could continue his medical treatment. Id. at 13. On
September 10, the State filed a petition to revoke Wright’s community-
corrections placement for failing “to report to Community Corrections for
executed sentence after being granted furlough from court on 8/13/2018.” Id.
at 86. A warrant was issued for Wright’s arrest, and Wright was arrested
approximately three months later on December 12, 2018. At the initial hearing
on the revocation petition, the trial court released Wright on his own
recognizance, ordered him to report to community corrections the next day,
and set a revocation hearing for January 22, 2019. Tr. pp. 7-8.
[7] Wright, however, did not appear at the January 22 revocation hearing because
he was arrested on December 21 on “reckless homicide” charges that had been
filed against him in Kentucky for the May 2018 car accident that killed two
people. Id. at 9, 13, 19-20. The court issued a warrant for Wright’s arrest.
[8] Although the details aren’t clear, it appears that on March 30, 2019, Wright was
extradited from Kentucky to resolve this case. Id. at 10, 19. An updated risk
assessment was completed, and Clark County Community Corrections
determined that Wright did not qualify for community corrections because of
his high-risk score on the assessment; his “failed attempts with community-
based placement,” including unpaid fees of $965; and the fact that he had a
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“pending warrant out of Floyd County Superior Court II.”2 Appellant’s App.
Vol. II p. 111.
[9] The revocation hearing was held in April. At the beginning of the hearing,
defense counsel told the trial court that Wright was going to admit to violating
the terms of his community-corrections placement. The court then advised
Wright as follows:
Alright, Mr. Wright you understand that when you admit to the
violation, I can revoke all of your time and refer you to DOC, or
I can send you back to Community Corrections. That’s where
you were and that’s really my only two options, releasing you to
probation is not an option today. You understand that without
an agreement I can do anything in that range there . . . .
Tr. p. 16. After Wright acknowledged what the court said, he admitted that he
violated the terms of his community-corrections placement. Id. at 18. The
hearing then turned to sanctions. The State requested “full revocation of
[Wright’s] sentence” because of Clark County Community Corrections’
determination that he no longer qualified. Id. Defense counsel then presented
testimony from Wright, who explained that he didn’t report to community
corrections in August 2018 because he “misunderstood” when he was supposed
to report back. Id. at 21. He testified that he knew a warrant had been issued
2
On August 2, 2018, Wright was charged with Class A misdemeanor driving while suspended (elevated due
to a previous conviction). See 22D02-1808-CM-1567. He pled guilty in August 2019 and was sentenced to
thirty days.
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for his arrest in September, but he decided to go back to work in order to “get
money together for counsel.” Id. at 20. But when that plan didn’t work out, he
turned himself in on the warrant in December 2018. Finally, Wright
acknowledged that the reckless-homicide case against him was still pending in
Kentucky.3 Defense counsel asked the trial court to give Wright “another
chance in Community Corrections.” Id. at 22. In response to this request, the
trial court observed that Wright had not been “sincere about getting stuff
straightened out.” Id. at 23. The court elaborated:
He was in custody. We cut him loose. And from what we’ve
seen he’s consistently . . . fallen short. I’m not gonna order him
back to Community Corrections over the objection of
Community Corrections. That would be irresponsible. Mr.
Wright I’ve got you with [three years] left to serve. What I’m
gonna do is order that . . . the [three years] be served in custody.
But I’ll give you credit time . . . .
Id. at 23-24. When defense counsel started calculating credit time, the trial
court interjected:
If you give me the dates I’ll approve as generous as I can with the
direction of the State, but I can’t do anything other than impose
the order of executed sentence to be sent to the Department of
Correction[]. When everything else gets straightened out I’m
gonna order purposeful incarceration.
3
We do not know the current status of the Kentucky case. On appeal, Wright does not acknowledge that he
was charged in Kentucky for the May 2018 car accident.
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Id. at 24.
[10] Wright now appeals.
Discussion and Decision
[11] Wright contends that the trial court’s decision to order him to serve all three
years in the DOC was based on its “misinterpretation” of Indiana Code section
35-38-2.6-5 that its “only option” was “to order him to serve the entirety of both
the community corrections portion of his sentence and the suspended portion of
his sentence.” Appellant’s Br. p. 8. Wright asserts that had the trial court
known that it could have ordered him to serve less than all three years in the
DOC, it might have done so.
[12] Indiana Code section 35-38-2.6-5 authorizes a community-corrections director
to choose among the following courses of action when a defendant, like Wright,
violates the terms of his placement:
(1) Change the terms of the placement.
(2) Continue the placement.
(3) Reassign a person assigned to a specific community
corrections program to a different community corrections
program.
(4) Request that the court revoke the placement and commit the
person to the county jail or department of correction for the
remainder of the person’s sentence.
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Here, the record shows that the trial court did not believe that its only option
was to commit Wright to the DOC for all three years; rather, the court
determined that three years was an appropriate sanction given the facts of the
case.
[13] At the revocation hearing, when defense counsel told the trial court that Wright
was going to admit to violating community corrections, the trial court advised
Wright that without an agreement, it could revoke “all” of his time and send
him to the DOC, send him back to community corrections, or do “anything in
that range.” Tr. p. 16. This is a clear indication that the trial court knew that it
had options other than ordering Wright to serve all three years in the DOC.
After Wright testified and requested that he be returned to community
corrections, the trial court said no because Wright had not been “sincere about
getting stuff straightened out.” Id. at 23. The court elaborated, “He was in
custody. We cut him loose. And from what we’ve seen he’s consistently . . .
fallen short.” Id. As detailed above, the record confirms that Wright has
“fallen short.” Since Wright was released on his own recognizance in April
2015 in this case, he has been charged with crimes in two other states and Floyd
County, served time in prison in Kansas, and been incarcerated in Kentucky.
Notably, Wright does not acknowledge any of these events on appeal. Because
the record reflects that the trial court ordered Wright to serve all three years in
the DOC not because of a misunderstanding of its options but rather because of
the facts in this case, we affirm the trial court.
[14] Affirmed.
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Riley, J., and Bradford, J., concur.
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