COURT OF APPEALS DECISION DATED AND FILED |
NOTICE |
May 20, 1999 |
This opinion is subject to further
editing. If published, the official version will appear in the bound volume
of the Official Reports. |
Marilyn L. Graves Clerk, Court of Appeals of Wisconsin |
A party may file with the Supreme Court
a petition to review an adverse decision by the Court of Appeals. See § 808.10 and Rule 809.62, Stats. |
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STATE OF WISCONSIN |
IN COURT OF APPEALS DISTRICT IV |
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State
of Wisconsin,
Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Fectory
E. Spears,
Defendant-Appellant. |
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APPEAL from a judgment of the circuit court for Dane County: mark a. frankel, Judge. Affirmed.
Before Eich, Vergeront and Deininger, JJ.
PER CURIAM. Fectory Spears appeals his convictions for one count of armed robbery
and two counts of recklessly endangering safety with a dangerous weapon, all as
a repeater and a party to the crime, having pleaded no contest to all three
charges. Spears and three co-assailants
robbed and physically abused four victims during a house robbery. One of the co-assailants fired a gun during
the incident, and some of the victims suffered bleeding head wounds. The surrounding facts suggested that the
crimes resulted from a gone-awry drug transaction. The trial court sentenced Spears to thirteen and one-half years
on the armed-robbery charge, concurrent with an Illinois sentence he was
serving. The trial court withheld
sentence on the remaining two charges, imposing fifteen years’ concurrent
probation on those two and making the probation concurrent to the armed-robbery
sentence.
Spears’ counsel has
filed a no merit report under Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738
(1967). Spears received a copy of the
report and has filed a response.
Counsel’s no merit report discusses two issues: (1) the plea procedures were
inadequate; and (2) the sentence was excessive. In his response, Spears claims that the trial court gave his
three co-assailants dramatically lesser sentences; the shot-firing co-assailant
received two years’ imprisonment, while another received probation and a third
a five-year prison term. Upon review of
the record, we are satisfied that the no merit report properly analyzes the
issues it raises, that Spears’ response raises no meritorious issues, and that
the appeal has no arguable merit.
Accordingly, we adopt the no merit report, affirm the conviction, and
discharge Spears’ appellate counsel of his obligation to represent Spears
further in this appeal.
We first conclude that
the plea procedures were adequate.
Trial courts should not accept pleas unless they are intelligent and
voluntary. See State v.
Bangert, 131 Wis.2d 246, 257, 389 N.W.2d 12, 19 (1986). Here, the trial court followed the proper
procedures to establish that Spears’ plea was intelligent and voluntary. The trial court extensively questioned
Spears about his plea. It ascertained
his knowledge of the proceedings, the elements of the crimes, and the range of
punishments. The trial court also
advised Spears of his constitutional rights and reviewed the factual basis for
the plea. In addition, Spears signed a
written plea questionnaire and waiver-of-rights form that further apprised him
of his constitutional rights, including the right to remain silent, to confront
witnesses, to compel witnesses to testify, to have a jury trial with a
unanimous verdict, and to require the prosecution to prove his guilt beyond a
reasonable doubt. In short, we see no
defects in the plea proceedings.
We also see nothing
excessive in Spears’ combined sentences.
The trial court imposed a thirteen-and-one-half-year prison term, with
fifteen years’ concurrent probation.
The trial court’s sentence was discretionary, dependent on the gravity
of the offense, the character of the defendant, the public’s need for
protection, and the interests of deterrence.
See State v. Sarabia, 118 Wis.2d 655, 673-74, 348
N.W.2d 527, 537 (1984). Here, the trial
court accepted the parties’ joint sentencing recommendation; both thought that
the combined sentences supplied a proportionate sanction for Spears’
crimes. The trial court also took into
account the manifest danger Spears posed to the community and the need for
deterrence of such crimes. The trial
court sought to issue a sentence that gave the public sufficient
protection. We are satisfied that the
sentence was commensurate with Spears’ culpability, the severity of his crime,
the public’s need for protection, and the need to deter Spears and other
like-minded wrongdoers from such crimes.
In sum, we see no misuse of trial court sentencing discretion.
Last, Spears claims in
his response that his co-assailants received dramatically lesser sentences than
he did. He also states that the
prosecutor misinformed the trial court that one co-assailant had received a
fifteen-year sentence for the same incident, and that the co-assailant actually
received probation. Not all sentencing
disparities are unlawful. See State
v. Perez, 170 Wis.2d 130, 144, 487 N.W.2d 630, 635 (Ct. App.
1992). Courts may tailor sentences for
co-assailants’ differences in dangerousness, culpability, criminal records, and
acceptance of responsibility. See
id. at 142-43, 487 N.W.2d at 634-35. In other words, Spears must show some unreasonable or
unjustifiable basis in the record for the disparate sentences. See State v. Macemon,
113 Wis.2d 662, 670, 335 N.W.2d 402, 407 (1983).
Here, the trial court
did not fully explain the differences in sentences. However, the other co-assailants evidently cooperated with
authorities, and this would explain to some extent the more lenient
sentences. In addition, the prosecution
never told the trial court that any co-assailant got a fifteen-year sentence
for this crime. Rather, the prosecution
told the trial court that one co-assailant got a fifteen-year sentence on
“something else” and that the “something else” was disposed of at the same time
as his crimes with Spears. That
“something else” was a conviction for attempted first-degree intentional
homicide arising from another incident.
Read in context, the prosecution’s remarks, though somewhat imprecise,
plainly sought to refer to the co-assailant’s consolidated sentencing
proceedings for both incidents, by which the co-assailant received fifteen
years for the attempted homicide charge and probation for his crimes with
Spears. None of this required the trial
court to give Spears probation.
We note that Spears
agreed to his sentence in advance, and this makes his challenge to his sentence
self-contradictory, if not forfeited altogether. Spears evidently felt that the sentence constituted a fair
exchange for his decision to surrender his right to make a defense, and he must
now stand by the bargain he made. Last,
Spears has not shown that his co-assailants had comparable levels of overall
dangerousness or comparable criminal records.
The trial court was aware of Spears’ extensive criminal record, and the
prosecution considered the sentence lenient when viewed from that standpoint. In short, the trial court’s sentence
deserves a strong presumption of validity, see State v. Setagord,
211 Wis.2d 397, 418, 565 N.W.2d 506, 514 (1997), and we see no basis for
resentencing. Accordingly, we discharge
counsel of his obligation to represent Spears further in this appeal.
By the Court.—Judgment affirmed.