State v. Coven, 1 CA-CR 16-0315-PRPC

Daniel S. Coven was convicted after trial of resisting arrest and disorderly conduct; the resisting arrest count was designated a misdemeanor and he received concurrent one-year probations.
Coven appealed his conviction and this Court affirmed; a separate probation-revocation proceeding resulted in a short jail term and that ruling was also affirmed on appeal.
On February 2, 2016, Coven filed a notice requesting post-conviction relief more than five months after the mandate in his conviction and over fifty days after he says he received fifteen pages of documents from a former attorney.
His filing alleged ineffective assistance of counsel generally, and more specifically complained about his last pretrial attorney’s timing/handling of a motion to withdraw, withholding the fifteen pages, late motions, billing and communication issues; he did not attach the fifteen pages to his notice.
The superior court summarily dismissed the petition as untimely and not falling under any Rule 32.1 exception; Coven sought review in this Court challenging only the timeliness dismissal.
The Court granted review but denied relief, finding no abuse of discretion: Coven gave no adequate reason for delay and failed to make a colorable showing that the purportedly newly discovered documents were material or likely to change the result.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Timeliness of Rule 32 notice	Coven argued his notice was timely because he only recently received 15 pages from a former attorney that purportedly support an ineffective-assistance claim	Respondent (State) argued the notice was untimely and no Rule 32 exception applied because Coven knew or should have known of the claims earlier and gave no excusable reason for delay	Court held the notice was untimely; dismissal affirmed for lack of adequate excuse for delayed filing
Newly discovered evidence exception (Rule 32.1(e))	Coven contended the fifteen pages constituted newly discovered evidence that justified relief	State argued pages were not shown to be material nor likely to alter the verdict, and Coven failed to present facts establishing a colorable newly discovered-evidence claim	Court held Coven failed to plead sufficient facts to show relevance or likelihood to change outcome; exception not met, dismissal proper

State v. Coven, 236 Ariz. 393 (App. 2015) (appellate affirmance of Coven's original conviction)
State v. Jenkins, 193 Ariz. 115 (App. 1998) (standard: appellate review of a superior court's denial of post-conviction relief is for abuse of discretion)
State v. Bilke, 162 Ariz. 51 (1989) (factors required for a colorable newly discovered evidence claim)