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Baker v. State4/15/2005
120 days in jail. In the 1980s, Baker accumulated approximately 12 misdemeanor offenses. Most of these offenses are for driving without an operator's license or for driving while his license was suspended. In 1990, Baker was convicted of his second felony offense, making a false statement on a title application. Baker was sentenced to 1 year suspended and placed on 3 years' probation. But his probation was revoked in 1992 and Baker was ordered to serve 1 year of imprisonment. In September 1991, Baker was convicted of misconduct involving a weapon in the first degree, then a class C felony. He was sentenced to 3 years with 1 year suspended.
In 1997, Baker committed his first driving while intoxicated offense. In this case, Baker was involved in a motor vehicle collision. Less than a month later, Baker was convicted of his second driving while intoxicated offense and for driving while his license was suspended. Two months later, Baker again drove while his license was suspended. Baker's Kenai offenses occurred April 5, 1999 and his Anchorage offenses occurred less than 30 days after.
Sentencing on the Anchorage Case
The State gave notice of several aggravating factors: that Baker had previously been convicted of a more serious class of felony offense, that Baker had three or more prior felony convictions, that Baker's conduct in the driving while intoxicated offense was among the most serious conduct included in the definition of the offense, that Baker was on release on another felony charge, and that Baker had a prior history of similar offenses. Baker only contested the most serious conduct aggravator. But Judge Motyka found all five aggravating factors.
In sentencing Baker, Judge Motyka considered Baker's prior criminal history. He concluded that Baker was a worst offender with poor prospects for rehabilitation. He pointed out that Baker had consistently failed on probation. He considered Baker's actions and his sentence at that time (6 years). He pointed out, at the time that Baker committed the Anchorage offenses, he had just been released on felony driving while intoxicated and refusal charges knowing that he faced a substantial sentence in the Kenai case. Yet he had committed similar offenses in Anchorage. He concluded that this sequence of events showed that Baker was completely out of control. Judge Motyka imposed a sentence of 5 years for felony driving while intoxicated, 5 years for felony refusal to take the chemical test, 1 year for license revoked and 6 months for criminal mischief in the third degree. Judge Motyka imposed these sentences consecutively to each other for a composite sentence on the Anchorage case of 111/2 years of imprisonment.
Why we conclude that, as a matter of law, Baker's Anchorage sentence is concurrent with his Kenai sentence In his written judgment in the Anchorage case, Judge Motyka expressly provided that Baker's sentence of 111/2 years of imprisonment was to be served consecutively to the sentence in the Kenai case. Since the Kenai sentence, after Judge Link revised it, totaled 5 years of imprisonment, this would result in Baker receiving a composite sentence of 161/2 years of imprisonment.
But Baker argues that Judge Motyka never stated that the Anchorage sentence would be served consecutively to the Kenai sentence in his oral sentencing remarks. Baker points out that the Alaska Supreme Court and this court have repeatedly held that a judge's oral sentencing remarks control over any conflicting provision in the written judgment.
Baker contends that because Judge Motyka did not explicitly state during his sentencing remarks whether he intended to impose the Anchorage sentence consecutive
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