State v. Andersen, 123802

Dakota Andersen was convicted by a jury of multiple felonies, including aggravated kidnapping, and sentenced to 246 months in prison.
After conviction, a Van Cleave ineffective-assistance hearing was held; the trial court found counsel not ineffective and this court affirmed that ruling on direct review.
Andersen later filed a pro se motion to correct an illegal sentence, arguing the State’s charging document only charged simple kidnapping (or charged intent to harm) and therefore the court lacked authority to sentence him for aggravated kidnapping.
The trial court summarily denied the motion; Andersen appealed, arguing the court should have liberally construed the filing as a K.S.A. 60-1507 ineffective-assistance claim.
The Court of Appeals affirmed, holding the motion was properly treated as one to correct an illegal sentence, the charging document did allege bodily harm was inflicted, jury instructions were proper, and the sentence was not illegal.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether the trial court should have construed Andersen’s pro se filing as a K.S.A. 60-1507 ineffective-assistance claim	Andersen: the district court should liberally construe the motion as a 60-1507 ineffective-assistance claim	State: the motion plainly sought correction of an illegal sentence and did not raise ineffective-assistance facts	Court: properly construed the filing as a motion to correct an illegal sentence; converting it to 60-1507 would rewrite the motion; Andersen offered no ineffective-assistance specifics
Whether the charging document omitted the element that bodily harm was inflicted, rendering the aggravated-kidnapping sentence illegal	Andersen: the complaint only alleged intent to inflict bodily harm, not actual infliction, so aggravated kidnapping was not charged	State: the second amended complaint alleges "with bodily harm being inflicted," and the jury was instructed on actual infliction	Court: the complaint adequately alleged that bodily harm was inflicted; jury instructions matched the charge; sentence was not illegal

State v. Van Cleave, 239 Kan. 117 (1986) (remand for an ineffective-assistance hearing)
State v. Pencek, 224 Kan. 725 (1978) (sentencing for aggravated kidnapping reversed where charging document failed to allege required element)
State v. Smith, 245 Kan. 381 (1989) (grammatical parallelism in an indictment can make it allege intent rather than actual infliction)
State v. Ditges, 306 Kan. 454 (2017) (construction of pro se pleadings is a legal question reviewed de novo)
State v. Alford, 308 Kan. 1336 (2018) (illegal-sentence statute has limited applicability)
State v. Redding, 310 Kan. 15 (2019) (appellate court has discretion to construe an improper illegal-sentence motion as a 60-1507 motion)
State v. Barnes, 37 Kan. App. 2d 136 (2007) (procedural timeliness: appeals from denials of illegal-sentence motions treated as 60-1507 when filed more than 14 days after sentencing)