Key v. StateKey v. State
The defendant, David L. Key, faced a series of charges stemming from the armed robbery of a grocery store, including robbery in the first degree, kidnapping in the first degree, assault and related deadly weapons counts. After trial before a Superior Court judge sitting without a jury, Key was convicted of certain of these crimes. On the State’s post-trial motion, Key was also declared an habitual criminal under
I.
On the evening of June 4,1981, Marianne Gillen was working as the cashier at a Stop-N-Go grocery store near Wilmington, Delaware. Her sister, Susan, and another young woman came into the store to visit. Key entered a short time later. He purportedly wanted to cash rolls of pennies and buy a pack of cigarettes. Susan, who had gone behind the counter to wait on him,
At this point Key began to come around the counter. Pulling out a knife, he said, “this is a robbery,” and brandishing the weapon in front of the girls’ faces, ordered them to open the cash register. In response to his demands Marianne pulled the cash drawer out of the register and threw it on the counter. Key started to scoop money from the drawer and stuff it into his pockets.
He then began to use abusive and obscene language, threatening to kill the women. He grabbed Marianne, but the two sisters resisted by holding on to each other. Key struggled with them, saying he was going to take Susan in order to prevent them from calling the police. During the fracas, Susan was slashed in the neck.
Key was indicted for first degree kidnapping (11
DeLC.
At the time of sentence the State sought and obtained a ten day postponement in order to file a motion to have Key declared an habitual criminal. 2 The motion was filed in early June, about a week after it was due, but the trial judge nonetheless accepted and considered it. Key then requested a jury trial on the issue of his status as an habitual criminal. Each side submitted briefs on the question, and in late August the trial judge denied Key’s request. The habitual criminal hearing was held as scheduled in mid-October, and about two weeks later Key was ordered imprisoned for life.
II.
A.
Because of the habitual criminal matter and attendant procedural questions, sentence was imposed about five months after the originally scheduled sentencing date and seven months after Key’s conviction. He now argues that this constitutes a delay violative of the federal and state constitutional guarantees to a speedy trial. 3 The State concedes that Delaware courts have applied a speedy trial analysis to claims such as Key’s. However, it contends that Key caused part of the alleged delay, and in any event, he suffered no prejudice.
The usual case involves a postponement in the start of trial, and the attendant passage of time becomes a general indicator of the need for a full examination of that issue.
Barker,
The State may assert a variety of reasons for delay, but a deliberate attempt to impair or harass the defense or to gain some unfair tactical advantage rarely, if at all, justifies any postponement. Id. However, an event over which the prosecution has no control, e.g., the disappearance or illness of an important witness, supports an appropriate rescheduling of the proceedings. Between these extreme situations lie instances of negligence, overcrowded courts, or excessive caseloads on prosecutors. These factors, while undesirable, are less peremptory in mandating appellate intervention than blatant (or subtle) attempts to distort the fact-finding process of the trial, and an individual prosecutor may have little, if any, control over the ultimate cause of a particular delay. Yet the responsibility for delays resulting from such circumstances properly lies with the State if only because the defendant has no influence over the decisions necessary to reduce a backlog in the courts or the caseloads of individual prosecutors. See id. Judicial tolerance is often appropriate if a delay is caused by occasional inadvertence or excessive demands placed on a part of the criminal justice system, but in any given case the delay or the reason behind it may be intolerable and thus unjustified. See id.
Key argues that the State was unprepared to file habitual criminal proceedings against him in May 1982, and this caused the delay in his sentencing. As he describes it, the State had almost four months (from January to May 1982) to prepare the motion and obtain the necessary supporting records. Furthermore, the State did not file the motion on the day it was due, rather, it was about a week late. Key, however, does not imply that the State was acting in bad faith. Nor does he suggest any rational claim of prejudice as a result of the State’s one week delinquency.
It is inferred that the prosecutor was less than diligent in handling the sentencing aspects of this case, but lack of
An initial failure to demand a speedy trial does not forever bar a defendant from later raising the issue.
Barker,
Key’s sole claim of prejudice is that the delay enabled the State to initiate habitual criminal proceedings, thus leading to an enhanced sentence. While the ultimate result is an important factor in determining whether a defendant was prejudiced by the delay in sentencing, any such prejudice is to be assessed in light of the interests which the speedy trial guarantee was designed to protect.
Barker,
Sentencing delays may result in “undue and oppressive incarceration” of the person whose conviction is reversed on appeal.
Gonzales v. State,
Alaska Supr.,
On this record defendant’s claim implicates only one cognizable interest — the fair and expeditious administration of justice. It might have been better if the prosecutor had acted in a more timely fashion, but that is all hindsight. Whether the subsequent delay in filing the habitual criminal motion was expeditious in the context of crowded dockets and large caseloads is an issue upon which reasonable men could differ. But we can not say, and no one has alleged, that the prosecutor postponed filing the motion to take unfair advantage of Key. That is underscored by Key’s procedural maneuvers
B.
Our analysis of Key’s state constitutional challenge
4
parallels that of his federal claim.
See also Shockley v. State,
Del.Supr.,
The long delay in bringing the defendant to trial was the direct result of the defendant’s own actions. This is not said by way of criticism. Every defendant is entitled to insist upon every safeguard that the law throws around the conduct of a criminal cause. But if he elects to file motions raising preliminary legal questions he cannot reasonably say that the prosecution is delaying his trial.
See Garner v. State,
Del.Supr.,
III.
A.
Delaware law provides two separate and unrelated standards for determination of habitual criminal status. One is applicable to a person previously convicted of three felonies and later convicted of a fourth.
Citing
United States v. Maroney,
B.
It is now axiomatic that habitual criminality is a status, not a separate criminal offense. The hearing required under section 4215(b) is held solely to determine the factual existence of prior convictions which will justify enhanced punishment.
Gibbs v. State,
Del.Supr.,
We also decline to interpret
Specht v. Patterson
as mandating an extension of the right to a jury trial in habitual criminal proceedings.
Specht
only says that a person facing habitual criminal proceedings must have reasonable notice of the State’s intent to seek additional punishment, “be present with counsel, have an opportunity to be heard, be confronted with witnesses against him, have the right to cross-examine, and to offer evidence of his own. And there must be findings adequate to make meaningful any appeal that is allowed”.
IV.
A.
Key was indicted for the first degree robbery of Susan Gillen because of his display of a knife during commission of the
Key argued that unlawful imprisonment was not a lesser included offense of first degree kidnapping since the former required the victim to have been held under circumstances exposing her to the risk of serious physical injury. According to Key, no such element exists in the crime of kidnapping. He also contended that the restraint necessary for unlawful imprisonment had to be done knowingly, while no
B.
A defendant may be convicted of an offense not charged in the indictment or information if that crime is included in an offense that is charged.
Mackie v. State,
Del.Supr.,
Unlawful imprisonment requires the defendant to have acted knowingly, and he must do so with respect to all elements of the offense.
We also conclude that the display of a deadly weapon, as alleged in Key’s indictment for first degree robbery, necessarily exposed the victim to the risk of serious physical injury, an element of first degree unlawful imprisonment. A deadly weapon is obviously capable of causing death or serious physical injury, and the display of one when using or threatening an immediate use of force creates a risk that the victim will be killed or seriously injured. To establish the existence of such circumstances in this case, the State only had to prove that Key unlawfully restrained the victim under the circumstances which the record amply demonstrates involved a “risk of serious physical injury” to her. The trial judge’s findings are supported by the evidence, and he properly concluded that first degree unlawful imprisonment was a lesser included offense of first degree kidnapping.
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AFFIRMED.
Notes
. During trial, the State entered a nolle prose-qui on the weapons charge related to one of the robbery counts. •
. Because Key had three previous convictions for robbery, the State argued that he was subject to mandatory life imprisonment without parole under
. The sixth amendment states in relevant part, “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial....” Article I, section 7 of the Delaware Constitution, using similar language, says, “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused hath a right ... to have ... a speedy and public trial....”
. He relies on the speedy trial provision of article I, section 7 of the Delaware Constitution, quoted in note 3, supra.
. “Conviction” is defined by
.Though the Attorney General files the motion, the Superior Court judge may
sua sponte
ask that habitual criminal proceedings be initiated.
. Under
A person is guilty of robbery in the first degree when he commits the crime of robbery in the second degree and when, in the course of the commission of the crime or of immediate flight therefrom, he or another participant in the crime:
(1) Causes physical injury to any person who is not a participant in the crime; or
(2) Displays what appears to be a deadly weapon; or
(3) Is armed with and uses or threatens the use of a dangerous instrument.
A person commits second degree robbery when, in the course of committing theft, he uses or threatens the immediate use of force upon another person with intent to:
(1) Prevent or overcome resistance to the taking of the property or to the retention thereof immediately after the taking; or
(2) Compel the owner of the property or another person to deliver up the property or to engage in other conduct which aids in the commission of the theft.
A dangerous instrument is “any instrument, article or substance which, under the circumstances in which it is used, attempted to be used or threatened to be used, is readily capable of causing death or serious physical injury”.
. The kidnapping statute,
A person is guilty of kidnapping in the first degree when he unlawfully restrains another person with any of the following purposes:
(1) To hold him for ransom or reward; or
(2) To use him as a shield or hostage; or
(3) To facilitate the commission of any felony or flight thereafter; or
(4) To inflict physical injury upon him, or to violate or abuse him sexually; or
(5) To terrorize him or a third person; and the actor does not voluntarily release the victim alive, unharmed and in a safe place prior to trial.
An unlawful restraint is one that is “contrary to law or ... not permitted by law”.
. A person commits first degree unlawful imprisonment “when he knowingly and unlawfully restrains another person under circumstances which expose that person to the risk of serious physical injury”.
. An offense is also included if:
It consists of an attempt to commit the offense charged or to commit an offense otherwise included therein; or
It involves the same result but differs from the offense charged only in the respect that a less serious injury or risk of injury to the same person, property or public interest or a lesser kind of culpability suffices to establish its commission.
11 DelC. § 206(b)(2), (3).