Opinion of the Court by Chief Justice MINTON.
A circuit court jury convicted Anthony Wayne Fagan of theft by unlawful taking
On review, we find that Fagan's convictions do not violate double jeopardy; and the statutory cap is not applicable to the trial court's restitution order. But we agree that the trial court lacked authority to amend the final judgment more than ten days after its entry. So we affirm Fagan's convictions and sentence. But we vacate the trial court's amended judgment and remand to the trial court to reinstate the final judgment as originally entered.
VMV is a Kentucky-based shop that rebuilds and refurbishes locomotives. In January 2010, the plant manager at VMV discovered that someone cut and removed the copper cables from thirty-four locomotives at the shop. To protect against further theft, VMV hired off-duty police officers to watch the property at night. And a few nights after discovering the vandalized locomotives, a security guard notified the authorities when he observed two subjects walking along VMV's fence. The subjects went under the fence and disappeared behind several locomotives, where the police confronted them. Both subjects fled to the fence and began climbing it, throwing items over as they went. They entered the woods, where police eventually found Fagan lying at the base of a tree. Police also located a flashlight, wrenches, and a cable-cutting tool at the site where Fagan and his cohort climbed the fence.
At trial, Fagan's cousin testified that in the fall of 2009, Fagan paid her to help him sell scrap metal. In January, she noticed that the color of the metal changed from dark to bright silver. Around this time, Fagan called her more often and paid her more to deliver the metal.
Fagan removed over $30,000 worth of cable from the locomotives. Of the damaged locomotives, First Union owned three, GATX owned twenty-four, and NRE owned seven. The repairs to the locomotives cost much more than just the $30,000 worth of cable because it was not possible to splice the high-voltage cables. The cost of repair for the locomotives owned by GATX and First Union totaled over $400,000.
The McCracken County grand jury indicted Fagan for one count of theft by unlawful taking over $10,000, thirty-three counts of first-degree criminal mischief, one count of second-degree criminal mischief, and being a first-degree persistent felony offender (PFO 1). At the close of the Commonwealth's case-in-chief, the thirty-three counts of first-degree criminal mischief were merged into three counts, one for each victim. And before the penalty phase of the trial began, the Commonwealth abandoned the PFO 1 charge.
The jury convicted Fagan of theft by unlawful taking over $10,000 and all three counts of first-degree criminal mischief. The jury recommended a punishment of five years' imprisonment on each charge, to run consecutively for a total of twenty years' imprisonment. The trial court sentenced Fagan in accordance with the jury's
The Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides, in pertinent part, that no person shall "be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb." Section 13 of the Kentucky Constitution is nearly identical to, and provides protections that parallel those provided in, the Fifth Amendment.
Fagan argues that his convictions for theft by unlawful taking over $10,000 and first-degree criminal mischief violate double jeopardy because in order to accomplish the theft, it was necessary for him to damage the locomotives.
Kentucky uses the Blockburger
Through his course of conduct, Fagan violated the two distinct statutes of theft by unlawful taking over $10,000 and first-degree criminal mischief. So we must look at the elements of these two offenses to determine whether each requires proof of an additional fact that the other does not.
A person commits theft by unlawful taking over $10,000 when he (1) unlawfully (2) takes or exercises control over movable property of another (3) with the intent to deprive the owner; and (4) the value of the property taken is $10,000 or more.
A person is guilty of first-degree criminal mischief when (1) having no right to do so (or any reasonable ground to believe that he has such right) (2) he intentionally or wantonly (3) defaces, destroys, or damages
Applying the Blockburger test, theft by unlawful taking over $10,000 requires intent to deprive the owner of the property; but first-degree criminal mischief does not. And first-degree criminal mischief requires the property be defaced, destroyed, or damaged; but theft by unlawful taking over $10,000 does not. So each statute requires proof of a fact that the other does not.
And we note that the jury instructions also required the jury to find different elements for each conviction.
"A defendant is entitled to have his prison sentence reduced by the amount of time he spent in custody before sentencing related to the crime for which he has been sentenced."
The trial court entered the final judgment in Fagan's case on November 23, 2010. The judgment awarded Fagan 305 days of jail-time credit for time served.
Generally, "a trial court lacks power to amend a judgment ten days after" it is entered.
"[A] clerical error is an error in the entry or recording of a judgment."
So a clerical error occurs when a trial court erroneously records the jail time credit that the court credited at sentencing.
In contrast, a judicial error is "the result of erroneous judgment or a misapplied judicial or quasi judicial discretion."
Here, there is no clear indication on the record as to what caused the mistake in Fagan's jail-time credit. The amending order states the Department of Corrections brought the error to the court's attention but does not directly explain what caused the erroneous grant in the first place. The only suggestion on the record of the error's source comes from the court's statement in the amending order that "McCracken 09-CR-00515 received 132 days credit at final sentencing on June 10, 2010." At sentencing, the trial court granted Fagan's motion to run the current sentence concurrent with a sentence of 6 months' imprisonment that he received in McCracken Circuit Court Case Number 09-CR-00515. Fagan stated on the record that by running the sentences concurrently he should gain approximately another six months of jail-time credit on his current, twenty-year sentence.
So the amending order appears to suggest that the jail-time credit error occurred when the court carried over the credit from Fagan's prior conviction. But this still does not elucidate whether the error was clerical or judicial. We know that the trial court did not just mistakenly record the oral judgment because the court did not mention Fagan's jail-time
This situation is similar to that in Wides v. Wides,
We likewise hold that because there is no indication in the record about how the error in jail-time credit came to be, the presumption is that the written judgment's custody credit award is the court's judicial determination on the subject. RCr 10.10 is an exception to the general rule that the trial court lacks power to amend a judgment ten days after the judgment's entry. This exception should only apply where the circumstances are clear that the mistake is a clerical error.
So any error in the amount of jail-time credit that the trial court awarded Fagan in the written judgment must be considered a judicial error. And the trial court lacked the power to amend the judgment more than ten days after its entry.
Before sentencing Fagan, the trial court held a restitution hearing. After reviewing the victims' damages, the trial court ordered Fagan to pay a total of $181,264 in restitution. Of that amount, the trial court awarded $20,956 to First Union, $60,299 to NRE, and $100,000 to GATX. Fagan argues that the trial court erred in its restitution order because the total amount exceeded $100,000, violating KRS 533.030(3).
KRS 533.030(3) provides, in pertinent part,
This Court recently held that "the $100,000.00 limitation applies only to restitution that is imposed along with a sentence of probation or conditional discharge."
For the foregoing reasons, we affirm Fagan's convictions and sentence. But we vacate the trial court's amended judgment and remand to the trial court to reinstate the final judgment as originally entered.
All sitting. All concur.
While the jury instructions for the three counts of first-degree criminal mischief required the jury to find, beyond a reasonable doubt: