State v. Walker

851 S.E.2d 507

STATE of West Virginia, Plaintiff Below, Respondent

v.David Hiram WALKER, Jr., Defendant Below, Petitioner

No. 19-0777

Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.

Submitted: October 28, 2020

Filed: November 17, 2020

Samuel P. Hess, Esq., Public Defender Corporation, Kingwood, West Virginia, Counsel for Petitioner.

Patrick Morrisey, Esq., Attorney General, Karen Villanueva-Matkovich, Esq., Deputy Attorney General, Charleston, West Virginia, Counsel for Respondent.

WALKER, Justice:

Petitioner David Hiram Walker, Jr. was convicted of a single count of grand larceny by false pretenses and sentenced to one to ten years’ incarceration. The Circuit Court of Preston County suspended Mr. Walker's sentence in favor of three years’ probation, with the first year to be served on home confinement. After Mr. Walker's probation was revoked in June 2019, he was sentenced to the underlying one to ten years’ incarceration. Soon after, Mr. Walker filed a motion to correct illegal sentence under Rule 35(a) of the West Virginia Rules of Criminal Procedure, arguing that he should be credited for time served on home incarceration as part of his probation.

The circuit court denied Mr. Walker's motion on the basis that West Virginia Code § 62-11B-9(b) (2017) requires that defendants receive credit for time served on home incarceration only if the home incarceration is an alternative sentence to another form of incarceration, and because Mr. Walker's home incarceration was not an alternative sentence, but a condition of probation, he was not entitled to credit for time served. Because we agree with the circuit court that defendants are not entitled to credit for time served on home incarceration where the home incarceration is a condition of probation, we affirm.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

David Hiram Walker, Jr. pled guilty to grand larceny by false pretenses in the Circuit Court of Preston County. On July 27, 2018, the circuit court sentenced Mr. Walker to one to ten years’ incarceration in a state correctional facility. The circuit court suspended the sentence and imposed a three-year period of probation with the condition that the first year be served on home confinement. The order set out several conditions of probation, but did not elaborate on the terms of the home confinement. The parties allege that the typical practice in Preston County is for the probation office to provide one form listing the rules and regulations of probation and another form setting out the terms of home confinement; apparently none of this information is included in the sentencing order.¹

At some point during the first year of probation, Mr. Walker violated his probationary terms. At that time, the circuit court did not revoke Mr. Walker's probation but rather ordered him to be incarcerated for 60 days under West Virginia Code § 62-12-10(a)(2), which enables a court to impose a period of confinement up to sixty days for a probationer's first violation of any condition of supervision. Upon successful completion of that short incarceration, Mr. Walker was returned to probation and home confinement. When Mr. Walker again violated the terms of his probation, the circuit court revoked his probation and ordered him to serve the original one-to-ten-year sentence of incarceration. The circuit court further granted Mr. Walker credit for the sixteen days he spent incarcerated prior to trial.

Soon after the revocation of his probation on June 19, 2019, Mr. Walker filed a motion to correct an illegal sentence under Rule 35(a) of the West Virginia Rules of Criminal Procedure. As basis for this motion, Mr. Walker argued that (1) he should have received credit for time served during the 60-day incarceration; and (2) he should have received credit for time served on home confinement (237 days). The circuit court granted Mr. Walker's request as to the 60-day incarceration. But, as to credit for time served while on home incarceration as a condition of probation, the circuit court found under the plain language of West Virginia Code § 62-11B-9(b) (2017) that defendants receive credit for time served on home incarceration only when the defendant's home confinement was an alternative sentence to another form of incarceration. The circuit court further found that defendants are not entitled to credit for time served under this statute when the home incarceration is imposed as a condition of probation. So, the circuit court denied Mr. Walker's motion for credit for the 237 days that he spent on home incarceration as a condition of probation. This appeal followed.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

This Court reviews a circuit court's decision on a motion under Rule 35 of the West Virginia Rules of Criminal Procedure under this standard:

"[i]n reviewing the findings of fact and conclusions of law of a circuit court concerning an order on a motion made under Rule 35 of the West Virginia Rules of Criminal Procedure, we apply a three-pronged standard of review. We review the decision on the Rule 35 motion under an abuse of discretion standard; the underlying facts are reviewed under a clearly erroneous standard; and questions of law and interpretations of statutes and rules are subject to a de novo review." Syl. Pt. 1, State v. Head , 198 W.Va. 298, 480 S.E.2d 507 (1996).^{[2 ]}

With this standard in mind, we proceed to address the arguments on appeal.

III. DISCUSSION

Mr. Walker's single assignment of error on appeal is that the circuit court should have given him credit for the time he spent on home confinement as a condition of probation. As noted above, the circuit court determined that a plain reading of West Virginia Code § 62-11B-9(b) precluded awarding Mr. Walker credit for time served because his home incarceration was not an alternative sentence. Upon review of the relevant statutes and case law, we agree.

West Virginia Code § 62-11B-4(a) (2017) provides three possible bases under which a court may order participation in a home incarceration program: (1) as a condition of probation; (2) as a condition of bail; or (3) as an alternative sentence to another form of incarceration. It is undisputed that Mr. Walker's home incarceration program was imposed as a condition of probation. West Virginia Code § 62-11B-9 sets forth the procedures that courts must follow when a participant in a home incarceration program has violated the requirements of that program:

(a) If, at any time during the period of home incarceration, there is reasonable cause to believe that a participant in a home incarceration program has violated the terms and conditions of the circuit court's home incarceration order, he or she is subject to the procedures and penalties set forth in [ § 62-12-10 ].

(b) If, at any time during the period of home incarceration, there is reasonable cause to believe that a participant sentenced to home incarceration by the circuit court has violated the terms and conditions of the circuit court's order of home incarceration and the participant's participation was imposed as an alternative sentence to another form of incarceration , the participant is subject to the same procedures involving confinement and revocation as would a probationer charged with a violation of the order of home incarceration. Any participant under an order of home incarceration is subject to the same penalty or penalties, upon the circuit court's finding a violation of the order of home incarceration, as he or she could have received at the initial disposition hearing: Provided , That the participant shall receive credit towards any sentence imposed after finding a violation for the time spent in home incarceration.^{[3 ]}

The circuit court reasoned that under the plain meaning of § 62-11B-9(b), a home incarceration participant would only be entitled to credit for time served while on home confinement if that home confinement were imposed as an alternative sentence to another form of incarceration. And, because Mr. Walker's participation in the home confinement program was not imposed as an alternative sentence, but as a condition of probation, Mr. Walker was not entitled to credit for time served for his time spent in home incarceration.

Mr. Walker argues that we should read § 62-11B-9(b) in two parts: (1) the first sentence establishes that when a participant in a home incarceration program, where the home incarceration is imposed as an alternative sentence, violates the terms of the home incarceration the participant is subject to the same penalties and procedures that apply to probation violations; and (2) the second sentence establishes that any home incarceration program participant, even those whose home incarceration is not an alternative sentence, may receive credit for time served for any time spent on home incarceration. We believe Mr. Walker's suggested interpretation of the statute is not only illogical, but also contrary to its plain language.

We have held that " ‘[w]here the language of a statute is clear and without ambiguity the plain meaning is to be accepted without resorting to the rules of interpretation.’ Syl. Pt. 2, State v. Elder , 152 W. Va. 571, 165 S.E.2d 108 (1968)."⁴ So, we rely on the statute's plain meaning because § 62-11B-9(b) is free from ambiguity. The first sentence of § 62-11B-9(b) provides that subsection (b) applies only where "there is reasonable cause to believe that a participant sentenced to home incarceration by the circuit court has violated the terms and conditions of the court's order of...