State v. Barrett, 2005 UT 88

Summary

The Utah Supreme Court considered consolidated petitions for extraordinary relief challenging a district court’s reduction of first-degree felonies with gang enhancements to second-degree felonies without enhancements. The court held that removing the gang enhancement effectively constitutes a one-degree reduction, making the combined reduction impermissible without prosecutorial consent under Utah Code section 76-3-402. The court also clarified that extraordinary relief under Utah Rule of Civil Procedure 65B(d) may be available upon a showing of abuse of discretion, including a mistake of law.

Holdings

1. A gang enhancement operates to raise the degree of the underlying offense; an enhanced first degree felony is a crime of a higher degree than a simple first degree felony.
2. Reducing an enhanced first degree felony to an unenhanced second degree felony is a two-degree reduction and is impermissible absent the prosecutor's written or on-the-record consent.
3. Extraordinary relief under Rule 65B(d) may be granted upon a showing that a lower court abused its discretion, including through a mistake of law; a gross and flagrant abuse is not required.

Questions Presented

1. Whether reducing an enhanced first degree felony to an unenhanced second degree felony constitutes a prohibited two-degree reduction under Utah Code section 76-3-402.
2. Whether the district court abused its discretion by making that reduction without the prosecutor's consent.
3. Whether extraordinary relief under Utah Rule of Civil Procedure 65B(d) was appropriate to correct the district court's statutory error.

Disposition

vacated