STATE OF NEBRASKA, APPELLEE, V. JORGE YZETA, APPELLANT.
No. S-22-346
Nebraska Supreme Court
January 6, 2023
313 Neb. 202
Judgments: Statutes: Appeal and Error. To the extent an appeal calls for statutory interpretation or presents questions of law, an appellate court must reach an independent conclusion irrespective of the determination made by the court below. - Speedy Trial: Prisoners.
Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 29-3801 to29-3809 (Reissue 2016) provide a procedure by which a Nebraska prison inmate may assert his or her right to a speedy trial on pending Nebraska charges. - Jurisdiction: Appeal and Error. Before reaching the legal issues presented for review, it is the duty of an appellate court to determine whether it has jurisdiction over the matter before it.
- Final Orders: Speedy Trial: Appeal and Error. The denial of a speedy trial claim governed by
Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 29-3801 to29-3809 (Reissue 2016) is a final, appealable order. - Statutes. Statutory interpretation begins with the text, and the text is to be given its plain and ordinary meaning. A court will not read meaning into a statute that is not warranted by the legislative language or read anything plain, direct, or unambiguous out of a statute.
- Statutes: Intent. When interpreting a statute, a court must give effect, if possible, to all the several parts of a statute and no sentence, clause, or word should be rejected as meaningless or superfluous if it can be avoided.
- Statutes. Statutes relating to the same subject matter will be construed so as to maintain a sensible and consistent scheme, giving effect to every provision.
- Speedy Trial: Prisoners.
Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 29-3801 to29-3809 (Reissue 2016) apply only to a prisoner in the custody of the Department of Correctional Services. Statutes: Legislature: Intent: Appeal and Error. In construing a statute, an appellate court‘s objective is to determine and give effect to the legislative intent of the enactment. - Statutes: Legislature: Intent. Components of a series or collection of statutes pertaining to a certain subject matter may be conjunctively considered and construed to determine the intent of the Legislature so that different provisions of an act are consistent, harmonious, and sensible.
- Constitutional Law: Speedy Trial: Statutes. The constitutional right to a speedy trial and the statutory implementation of that right exist independently of each other.
- Speedy Trial: Prisoners.
Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 29-3801 to29-3809 (Reissue 2016), including the speedy trial provision of§ 29-3805 , cease to apply to a criminal defendant when he or she is discharged from the custody of the Department of Correctional Services. - Trial: Appeal and Error. An issue not presented to or decided on by the trial court is not an appropriate issue for consideration on appeal.
- Appeal and Error. An appellate court is not obligated to engage in an analysis that is not necessary to adjudicate the case and controversy before it.
Appeal from the District Court for Hall County: PATRICK M. LEE, Judge. Affirmed.
Gerard A. Piccolo, Hall County Public Defender, for appellant.
Douglas J. Peterson, Attorney General, and Kimberly A. Klein for appellee.
HEAVICAN, C.J., MILLER-LERMAN, CASSEL, STACY, FUNKE, PAPIK, and FREUDENBERG, JJ.
CASSEL, J.
INTRODUCTION
Jorge Yzeta—relying on the intrastate detainer statutes1—appeals from a criminal case order denying relief under the speedy trial section.2 This appeal raises a novel legal question:
BACKGROUND
HALL COUNTY PROCEEDINGS BEGIN
In December 2020, the State filed a complaint in the county court for Hall County, Nebraska. It charged Yzeta with two felonies, a misdemeanor, and an infraction.
YZETA BECOMES INMATE AND REQUESTS DISPOSITION
After the county court proceeding commenced, Yzeta began serving a sentence imposed in Douglas County, Nebraska, for an unrelated felony offense. Under that sentence, he was committed to a facility operated by DCS.
On September 27, 2021, while Yzeta was still a prisoner in a DCS facility, he exercised his statutory right to request a speedy disposition of the untried Hall County charges. As part of Yzeta‘s request, DCS’ director certified that Yzeta was presently incarcerated and that his sentence would expire no later than December 29.6
HALL COUNTY PROCEEDINGS BEFORE DCS DISCHARGE
In a response dated October 13, 2021, the county attorney acknowledged receipt of Yzeta‘s request and accepted temporary custody of him for an arraignment. The county attorney filed the corresponding documents in the county court on
On December 22, 2021, the two felony charges were bound over to the district court for trial. The county court dismissed the other two charges.
A week later, Yzeta finished serving his unrelated sentence. As anticipated, DCS discharged him from custody on December 29, 2021.
HALL COUNTY PROCEEDINGS AFTER DCS DISCHARGE
On January 5, 2022, the State filed an information in the district court for Hall County. It charged Yzeta with the same four counts as alleged in the original complaint.
On January 18, 2022, the district court arraigned Yzeta on the charges in the information. Upon receiving his plea of not guilty to all the charges, the court set a pretrial conference for April 4 and a jury trial for May 2.
YZETA‘S MOTION TO DISMISS
On April 22, 2022, Yzeta filed a motion in the district court to dismiss his case for lack of jurisdiction pursuant to the intrastate detainer statutes. He asserted that (1) he requested a speedy disposition of the untried charges on September 16, 2021; (2) the county attorney received notice of and accepted his request no later than October 15; and (3) more than 180 days had passed since October 15. Thus, he requested the court to dismiss the case due to the State‘s failure to bring him to trial within the statutory 180-day time limit.
The district court heard the motion on May 2, 2022—the same date on which the trial had been scheduled. The court heard arguments from both parties and took the matter under advisement.
DISTRICT COURT‘S ORDER
On May 5, 2022, the court overruled the motion. Its written order stated two grounds.
The court explained that under the intrastate detainer statutes, “a defendant must be a ‘committed offender’ at the time of the requested discharge in order to be eligible for relief.”8 It stated: “The Court of Appeals in [State v.] LeFever9 and the Supreme Court in [State v.] Kolbjornsen10 confirmed this position of [State v.] Tucker11 by noting in each opinion language establishing that each defendant ‘at all relevant times’ was a ‘committed offender.‘” The court reasoned that a defendant who is not covered by
Alternatively, the court explained that “even if the rights pursuant to
APPEAL
On May 6, 2022, Yzeta took an appeal from the district court‘s order. The State filed a petition to bypass review by the Nebraska Court of Appeals, which we granted.14
ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR
Yzeta‘s sole assignment of error is that the district court erred in overruling his motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction pursuant to the intrastate detainer statutes.
STANDARD OF REVIEW
[1] To the extent an appeal calls for statutory interpretation or presents questions of law, an appellate court must reach an independent conclusion irrespective of the determination made by the court below.15
ANALYSIS
In Nebraska, there are both constitutional and statutory protections of a criminal defendant‘s right to a speedy trial. Our state‘s constitution confers the right to “a speedy public trial by
[2] We agree with the district court that the crux of this appeal lies in whether the intrastate detainer statutes applied to Yzeta after DCS discharged him from custody. The intrastate detainer statutes provide a procedure by which a Nebraska prison inmate may assert his or her right to a speedy trial on pending Nebraska charges.24
There is no factual dispute. The parties agree that Yzeta was a Nebraska prison inmate when he requested disposition of the untried charges. He does not dispute that DCS discharged him from its custody on December 29, 2021, or that as of that date, fewer than 180 days had elapsed. Instead, he disputes the legal significance of that discharge.
JURISDICTION
[3,4] Although neither party challenges this court‘s jurisdiction, we must briefly consider it. Before reaching the legal issues presented for review, it is the duty of an appellate court to determine whether it has jurisdiction over the matter before it.25 We have said that the denial of a speedy trial claim governed by the intrastate detainer statutes is a final, appealable order.26
Our recent decision that we lack jurisdiction of an interlocutory appeal from the denial of a motion for discharge based on constitutional speedy trial grounds27 has no application here. Yzeta‘s motion was based solely on the intrastate detainer statutes, as was the district court‘s order challenged on appeal. And Yzeta assigns error only on that basis. We have jurisdiction of this appeal. We turn to the parties’ arguments.
PARTIES’ ARGUMENTS
Yzeta argues that intrastate detainer statutes applied throughout the proceedings below, because he was imprisoned when he initially requested a speedy disposition pursuant to
The State argues that even if the intrastate detainer statutes applied to Yzeta during the period in which he was imprisoned, the intrastate detainer statutes ceased to apply when DCS discharged him from custody. The State points to the plain language of
PRINCIPLES OF STATUTORY INTERPRETATION
[5-7] At this point, we recall familiar principles of statutory interpretation. Statutory interpretation begins with the text, and the text is to be given its plain and ordinary meaning. A court will not read meaning into a statute that is not warranted by the legislative language or read anything plain, direct, or unambiguous out of a statute.30 When interpreting a statute, a court must give effect, if possible, to all the several parts of a statute and no sentence, clause, or word should be rejected as meaningless or superfluous if it can be avoided.31 Statutes relating to the same subject matter will be construed so as to maintain a sensible and consistent scheme, giving effect to every provision.32
FOCUS ON INTRASTATE DETAINER STATUTES
The intrastate detainer statutes, read together, focus on a “prisoner” and provide procedures applicable to a “prisoner.” Each section of these statutes, to the extent it focuses on the person accused, does so only to the extent that the person is a “prisoner in the custody” of DCS.
Section 29-3802 requires DCS’ director to “promptly inform ... each prisoner in the custody of [DCS]” of any untried indictment, information, or complaint. (Emphasis supplied.) It also requires the director to inform the prisoner
Section 29-3803 implicitly defines a prisoner as “[a]ny person who is imprisoned in a facility operated by [DCS].” (Emphasis supplied.) That phrase uses the present tense of “is imprisoned.”34 This section then authorizes a “prisoner” to request, via the director, “final disposition of any untried indictment, information, or complaint pending against him or her in this state.”35 It goes on to specify procedures regarding the “prisoner[‘s]” request.36
Section 29-3804 empowers a prosecutor to “have a prisoner, ... who is serving a term of imprisonment in any facility operated by [DCS],” made available “in order that speedy and efficient prosecution may be had.” (Emphasis supplied.) Here again, the statute uses the present tense of “is serving.”37
If a prisoner makes the request authorized by
Section 29-3806 specifies a prisoner‘s status during any period of temporary custody by the prosecuting jurisdiction prior to a prisoner‘s discharge. Under this section, “the
Section 29-3807 voids a “prisoner[‘s]” request for disposition of untried charges if he or she escapes from custody. Read together with
Finally,
[8] Our focus on the plain text leads to one conclusion: The intrastate detainer statutes apply only to a prisoner in the custody of DCS. We agree with the State that we cannot disregard the language used throughout these statutes, which effectively defines a “prisoner” as “[a] person who is imprisoned in a facility operated by [DCS].”40
Yzeta tries to avoid this plain meaning by arguing that the language defining “prisoner” does not appear in
Yzeta‘s argument violates principles of statutory interpretation, which we recited above. To the extent he argues that we should disregard the intrastate detainer statutes’ definition of “prisoner,” he asks us not to read the statutes together or, if we do, to ignore the definition. This we cannot do. Moreover,
Yzeta‘s opening brief relies upon four of our prior decisions and a prior Court of Appeals’ decision applying the intrastate detainer statutes.41 But all of those decisions differ fundamentally from the situation here. There, the defendants were prisoners, within the meaning of the intrastate detainer statutes, at all relevant times. In other words, a continuous period from the time of making (or failing to make) a request for speedy disposition to and including the time of filing a motion to dismiss under
[9] Yzeta argues that “if the Legislature wanted the one hundred eighty day ‘clock’ to stop, it could say so in the statute.”42 But in this way, he would have us disregard the words actually used, because, he contends, the Legislature could have used other words. In construing a statute, an appellate court‘s objective is to determine and give effect to the legislative intent of the enactment.43 The plain language persuades us that in enacting the intrastate detainer statutes, the Legislature intended to provide a remedy only to persons imprisoned in the custody of DCS and only during the term of that imprisonment. Expanding our focus to all of Nebraska‘s speedy trial statutes confirms that conclusion.
EXPANDED FOCUS ON ALL SPEEDY TRIAL STATUTES
[10] As we pointed out above, Nebraska has three statutory schemes for the protection of the speedy trial rights of criminal defendants. Components of a series or collection of statutes pertaining to a certain subject matter may be conjunctively considered and construed to determine the intent of the Legislature so that different provisions of an act are consistent, harmonious, and sensible.44 We expand our focus to all three enactments.
[11] The constitutional right to a speedy trial and the statutory implementation of that right exist independently of each other.45 Prior to U.S. Supreme Court decisions applying the 6th Amendment to the states under the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment,46 this court had declared that our state constitutional right to a speedy trial47 was “self-executing and in accordance with” the 6th Amendment.48 We said that “[w]hat is a fair and reasonable time [for trial] in each particular case is always in the discretion of the court.”49
In an evident effort to provide more definitive protection, the Legislature continued to address the perceived problem. Through the interstate Agreement on Detainers statutes, it had already addressed the situation where a prisoner in one state was the subject of an untried indictment, information, or complaint in another state.50 In 1971, it remedied most of the
Other states have interpreted similar intrastate detainer statutes to apply only to defendants who remain in the physical custody of the state. Among other states, Missouri and Kansas have adopted the Uniform Mandatory Disposition of Detainers Act (UMDDA), on which Nebraska‘s intrastate detainer statutes are based.53
In State ex rel. Haynes v. Bellamy,54 the Missouri Court of Appeals held that the UMDDA does not apply to a defendant who was released from custody and placed on parole during the 180-day period. The court first examined the plain language of the statutes, which referred to confined persons and inmates. It explained that this language revealed “the assumption that the parties using the statute would be serving their prison terms before and after the statute was utilized.”55 The court held: “‘Once a prisoner is released, his rights regarding the right to a speedy trial are the same as those of any other individual.‘”56
[12] We agree with the construction placed on similar intrastate detainer statutes by the Missouri and Kansas courts. We hold that the intrastate detainer statutes, including the speedy trial provision of
DEFINITION OF “INDICTMENT, INFORMATION, OR COMPLAINT”
The State also argues that the intrastate detainer statutes did not apply to Yzeta because, according to the State, the charges were not pending against him until an “indictment, information, or complaint” was filed in the district court. The State asserts that Yzeta “jumped the gun by several weeks”60 when he first requested a speedy disposition, because the State had not yet filed the charges “in the court in which they could be tried.”61 Thus, the State suggests, his motion was “at least premature” and “at worst, a nullity.”62
CONCLUSION
We conclude that the speedy trial section of the intrastate detainer statutes ceased to apply to Yzeta when he was discharged from DCS’ custody. We express no opinion regarding Yzeta‘s status under the speedy trial statutes. We affirm the district court‘s order overruling Yzeta‘s motion to dismiss.
AFFIRMED.
