State of Washington v. James Thomas Cardon, 39193-1

James Thomas Cardon was convicted by jury of 11 felonies related to domestic violence, including second degree assault, eight counts of violating a no-contact order, and two witness tampering charges.
Cardon's offenses were against his long-term partner, Jamie Whiteman, and involved an assault on Richard Temple, a family friend, with an aluminum bat, violating an existing no-contact order.
While in jail, Cardon made numerous calls to Whiteman in violation of court orders and attempted to have her and Temple influence testimony.
At sentencing, Cardon received 75 months for assault (including the deadly weapon enhancement) and 60 months concurrently on other counts, plus an additional 10-year no-contact order regarding Whiteman and a $500 victim penalty assessment (VPA).
Cardon appealed his convictions and sentence, raising issues about prosecutorial misconduct, ineffective assistance of counsel, right to allocution, length of the no-contact order, and the VPA.

Issue	Cardon's Argument	State's Argument	Held
Prosecutorial misconduct/ineffective counsel – closing argument	Prosecutor’s comments on undisputed evidence improperly shifted burden and referenced silence; counsel erred not objecting	Comments proper as “undisputed evidence;” counsel not deficient	No misconduct; counsel not ineffective
Ineffective counsel – no limiting instruction for prior convictions	Counsel was deficient for not seeking instruction to prevent prejudice from prior record	Tactical decision to not emphasize prior convictions; not deficient	Counsel not deficient; presumed tactic
Right to allocution	Court failed to allow allocution before sentencing	Issue not preserved due to lack of timely objection	Not addressed due to lack of preservation
10-year no-contact order	Order exceeded statutory max of 5 years for class C felonies	10-year order justified by connection to class B felony	10-year order exceeded statutory max for DV; vacated and remanded
VPA assessment	Should not have been imposed due to statutory amendments	No argument detailed in the excerpt	Not addressed in summary outcome

State v. Slater, 197 Wn.2d 660 (sets the standard for prosecutorial misconduct)
State v. Crossguns, 199 Wn.2d 282 (standards for reviewing prosecutorial comments in context)
State v. Cheatam, 150 Wn.2d 626 (prosecutors generally cannot comment on lack of defense evidence)
State v. Brett, 126 Wn.2d 136 (prosecutor may note undisputed facts as long as not referencing defendant's silence)
State v. McFarland, 127 Wn.2d 322 (articulates presumption of effective assistance of counsel)
Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (articulates the two-pronged test for ineffective assistance of counsel)