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State v. Campbell7/6/2004
This criminal cases concerns whether La.Rev.Stat. 14:98 prohibits the State from adjudicating repeat DWI offenders as habitual offenders under La.Rev.Stat. 15:529.1. The district court granted the defendant's motion to quash and dismissed the State's habitual offender bill. The court of appeal affirmed, holding a defendant convicted of a third DWI cannot be sentenced as a habitual offender pursuant to La.Rev.Stat. 15:529.1 for prior felonies. We granted the State's application to resolve the conflict between the DWI sentencing provisions in La.Rev.Stat. 14:98 and the Habitual Offender Statute, codified at La.Rev.Stat. 15:529.1. State v. Campbell, 03-3035 (La.3/12/04), 869 So.2d 802. For the following reasons we affirm.
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
The State charged the defendant, Willie Campbell, Jr., with driving on March 16, 2002 while intoxicated--third offense. The defendant had prior DWI convictions entered in March 1993 and July 1996. After *114 a bench trial, defendant was found guilty as charged.
The State filed an habitual offender bill under La.Rev.Stat. 15:529.1, alleging prior felony convictions for attempted unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling in **2 December 1990 and for simple burglary in July 1996. The defendant moved to quash the bill, arguing the filing of an habitual offender bill under La.Rev.Stat. 15:529.1in relation to a conviction for DWI--Third Offense irreconcilably conflicts with the provisions of La.Rev.Stat. 14:98(D)(1)(a) which states, in pertinent part: "... Thirty days of the sentence of imprisonment shall be imposed without benefit of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence. The remainder of the sentence of imprisonment shall be suspended and the offender shall be required to undergo an evaluation to determine the nature and extent of the offender's substance abuse disorder." After a hearing, the district court granted the motion to quash. The court sentenced the defendant to five years imprisonment at hard labor, thirty days to be served without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence, suspended the remainder of the term, in lieu of which defendant was sentenced to home incarceration, and imposed a two thousand dollar fine. Additionally, the court allowed the defendant to keep his vehicle but ordered him to pay four hundred dollars to the criminal court fund, the amount determined as the value of the car.
The State appealed the district court's grant of the motion to quash, arguing it was not the Legislature's intent to give multiple DWI offenders probated or suspended sentences when they had prior non-DWI felony convictions. The State contended the district court judgment should be reversed and the matter remanded for the sentencing of defendant in accordance with the habitual offender statute, which prohibits probation or suspension of sentence. The court of appeal affirmed the district court's judgment, finding express legislative prohibition in La.Rev.Stat. 14:98 that "circumscribes the district attorney's discretion to seek enhancement under the habitual offender statute." State v.Campbell, 37,485 p. 2 (La.App. 2 Cir. 10/16/03), 859 So.2d 223, 224.
**3 DISCUSSION
Recently, this court addressed the amendments made by the Legislature to the sentencing provisions for third or subsequent DWI offenses in State v. Mayeux, 01-3195 (La.6/21/02), 820 So.2d 526. There we noted "while the new law retains the sentencing ranges provided for third and fourth DWI offenders, it radically changes the way in which the offender serves the sentence imposed by the court." Id., p. 3-4, 820 So.2d at 528.
Before the amendments to La.Rev.Stat. 14:98, a third DWI offender faced a penalty from one to five years with or without hard labor, six months of which ran without suspension
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