When a defendant and the defense attorney reach a plea agreement with the DA’s office and that defendant pleads guilty to a crime, there is always a verbal warning given that the judge is not bound by the plea agreement. Chase Day said he understood that when he pleaded guilty to writing bad checks or issuing a draft without sufficient money or credit,
Part of Day’s plea agreement stipulated that he was required to pay restitution for the bad checks or drafts. Day’s public defender, Matt Stermitz, said the plea agreement contemplated that once Day paid restitution in full, he would be allowed to withdraw his guilty plea to the felony and plead to a gross misdemeanor instead.
Day told the judge that he and his family were living in Utah and that he had a job there. He said he would complete payments on the restitution amounts he owed, if he was allowed probation.
The situation was complicated by two other convictions Day had in the past for non-sufficient funds checks or drafts. In each of those cases, Day was also ordered to pay restitution in full and did not.
Even if Judge Montero had been disposed to give Day probation, he would not have been able to transfer that probation to Utah, where he had been living. The interstate compact required for such a probation transfer would have been denied, due to two prior dishonorable discharges.
Day received a dishonorable discharge from a previous probation for failure to pay the restitution ordered after a non-sufficient funds conviction in 2008. He received another dishonorable discharge, this time from parole, after serving a term in prison in a 2014 non-sufficient funds case – also because he failed to pay the ordered restitution.
“I know I owe the money,” Day said. “I regret the actions that led up to it and I will pay it back as soon as possible. I want to clean up the mess I made in the last eight months of my life.”
The judge pointed out that this was the third case in which an amount of restitution was owed, while Day had not paid the restitution in the two former cases. He noted that Day’s sentencing date for the current charges had even been continued for six additional months to give him the opportunity to receive his tax return so he could pay the restitution.
Stermitz produced a receipt showing that Day had paid $500 toward restitution from his tax return but Montero said it was unclear which order of restitution the $500 went toward.
Montero pronounced Day guilty of the category D felony. In addition to a $25 administrative assessment, $3 DNA collection fee and a $250 public defender fee, Day was sentenced to 19-48 months in prison.
“Considering your history with restitution, which is dismal at best, I’m not convinced that granting you probation would, in any way, make these victims whole,” Montero said, before turning Day over to the sheriff’s department for transfer to prison.
