State v. Rodriguez
Annotate this CaseBased on his guilty plea, Orlando Rodriguez was convicted for reckless vehicular homicide for an incident in which Rodriguez was an active participant in a drive-away theft of gasoline. Rodriguez was not driving the car when the accident occurred. Rodriguez appealed, claiming (1) he received ineffective assistance of counsel because there was no factual basis to support his plea; and (2) the district court imposed an illegal sentence by levying a $125 law enforcement initiative surcharge. The court of appeals affirmed Rodriguez's conviction but vacated his sentence with respect to the surcharge. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding (1) a passenger can be responsible as a party to the crime under a joint criminal conduct theory; (2) this case had a factual basis to support Rodriguez's plea, and Rodriguez's counsel was not ineffective for failing to challenge it; and (3) the district court had no statutory authority to apply a fine for a law enforcement initiative surcharge to vehicular homicide.
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