STATE of Louisiana
v.
Joseph HAYES, Jr.
Supreme Court of Louisiana.
*1324 William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Harry F. Connick, Dist. Atty., Louise Korns, Harold J. Gilbert, John H. Craft, Asst. Dist. Attys., for plaintiff-appellee.
Clyde Merritt, New Orleans, for defendant-appellant.
WATSON, Justice.[*]
Defendant, Joseph Hayes, Jr., was charged in separate bills of information with possession of heroin, LSA-R.S. 40:966, and possession of a firearm following a previous felony conviction, LSA-R.S. 14:95.1. He pleaded guilty to both charges and received concurrent hard labor sentences of four years for heroin possession and three years for the firearm offense. Subsequently, he was declared a fourth felony multiple offender.[1] The trial court imposed the minimum sentence, twenty years at hard labor without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence. LSA-R.S. 15:529.1.[2] Defendant has appealed from his adjudication and sentencing as a fourth offender, filing four assignments of error.
ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NUMBER ONE
Defendant alleges the trial courts in Orleans Parish failed to comply with Boykin v. Alabama,
State v. Bolton,
This assignment lacks merit.
ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NUMBER TWO
Defendant contends that the 1972 aggravated battery conviction is invalid because he was not adequately informed of his right against self-incrimination.
The transcript of the 1972 proceeding in which Hayes entered a plea of guilty to aggravated battery shows that the trial judge referred to defendant's right against self-incrimination in the following terms:
"Q. You have the right to remain silent, if you choose; do you understand that right?"
Immediately preceding this question, defendant had been informed of his right to a jury trial and his right to confront the witnesses against him. The bill had been amended from first degree murder to aggravated battery. Accompanied by counsel, defendant pleaded guilty to the latter, apparently as a result of a plea bargain. There was meager but adequate compliance with Boykin v. Alabama,
There is no merit to this assignment.
ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NUMBER THREE
Defendant pleads double jeopardy due to the prosecution's use of his 1972 aggravated battery conviction as both an element of his felon-firearm conviction and as a predicate for his multiple offender adjudication.
The Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment, applicable to the states through the Fourteenth, provides that no person shall "be subject for the same offenses to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb." Art. 1, § 15 of 1974 Louisiana Constitution contains a similar guarantee. Separate statutory crimes need not be identicaleither in constituent elements or in actual proofin order to be the same within the constitutional prohibition. Brown v. Ohio,
Designed to embody the protection afforded by the common-law,[4] the double jeopardy guarantee serves principally as a restraint on courts and prosecutors. The legislature remains free to define crimes and fix punishments. Once the legislature has acted, a court may not impose more than one punishment for the same offense and the prosecution ordinarily may not attempt to secure that punishment in more than one trial. Brown v. Ohio,
Under these precepts, defendant has not been twice put in jeopardy of life or limb for the same offense. He has been punished once for aggravated battery, once as a felon with a firearm, and once for heroin possession. The habitual offender statute does not create new or separate *1326 offense based on the commission of more than one felony but merely provides for imposition of an increased sentence for persons convicted of second and subsequent felonies. State v. Sanders,
This assignment lacks merit.
ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NUMBER FOUR
Defendant contends the trial judge erred in adjudicating him as a fourth felony offender without a hearing or guilty plea. A defendant is entitled to a hearing in a multiple offender proceeding. LSA-R.S. 15:529.1(D). State v. McCallister,
This assignment lacks merit.
DECREE
For the foregoing reasons, the conviction and sentence of defendant, Joseph Hayes, Jr., are affirmed.
AFFIRMED.
KLIEBERT, J. ad hoc, concurs in the result.
CALOGERO, J., dissents and assigns reasons.
DENNIS, J., dissents with reasons.
DENNIS, Justice, dissenting.
I respectfully dissent.
I agree that the effort to comply with Boykin v. Alabama was meager. It was, in fact, deficient.
In State v. Martin,
Unlike the present case, the record of the predicate pleas in those cases was not completely silent as to the defendant's knowledge and voluntary waiver of his right to stand trial without being forced to testify against himself and his right to confront the witnesses against him. In those cases there was a written waiver form, previous court appearances, and attorneys' written certification of advisement of rights, and other matters of record from which a majority of this court could reasonably infer that the accused had made a knowing and intelligent waiver of his constitutional *1327 rights in pleading guilty. In the present case there is no evidence of record whatsoever to support an inference that the defendant knowingly and intelligently waived his right not to testify against himself.
CALOGERO, Justice, dissenting.
I dissent from the majority opinion being of the view that this case is indistinguishable from State v. Martin,
Therefore, for this reason, as well as the reasons assigned in dissent by Justice Dennis, I dissent from the majority opinion.
NOTES
Notes
[*] Judge Ned E. Doucet, Jr., of the Court of Appeal, Third Circuit, and Thomas J. Kliebert and Robert J. Klees of the Court of Appeal, Fourth Circuit, participated in this decision as Associate Justices Ad Hoc, joined by Chief Justice Dixon and Associate Justices Calogero, Dennis, and Watson.
[1] The four predicate felonies charged by the state are:
(1) June 12, 1961, guilty plea to theft in violation of LSA-R.S. 14:67;
(2) January 14, 1964, guilty plea to armed robbery in violation of LSA-R.S. 14:64;
(3) September 21, 1972, guilty plea to aggravated battery in violation of LSA-R.S. 14:34;
(4) May 7, 1980, guilty plea to possession of heroin in violation of LSA-R.S. 40:966.
[2] Following denial of the motions to quash on June 24, 1980, defendant's application for writs was denied by this court on grounds that alleged defects in the multiple bill proceedings are prematurely raised prior to sentencing on the multiple bill. After denial of his writ application, the trial court sentenced defendant.
[3] Defendant has the burden of proving that the plea was involuntary and may do so in the enhancement proceedings only by the colloquy at the time of the plea of guilty, which must affirmatively show a substantial defect in this regard. Bolton, supra, at 723.
[4] United States v. Wilson,
