Facts: Petitioner Robert Gonzalez was convicted of assault and robbery in the Superior Court for Grant County and sentenced to prison and ordered to pay restitution to his victim through Washington’s crime victims compensation program in order to compensate them for medical expenses resulting from injuries inflicted by Gonzalez during the robbery. As Gonzalez’s victim accrued additional medical expenses following the issuance of the restitution order, the respondent state of Washington subsequently moved to amend the order. The trial court granted the state’s motion. Gonzalez appealed the increase in the amount of restitution he was liable for to the Supreme Court of Washington, asserting that the state was prohibited from amending the order more than two years after it was issued insofar as it violated the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution’s prohibition against double jeopardy as well as Washington Revised Code §9.94A.753, which prohibits restitution orders from being modified more than 180 days after they are issued absent a showing of good cause.

Question(s): Did the amended restitution order violate the constitutional prohibition against double jeopardy?

If not, did the amended restitution order violate §9.94A.753?

Conclusion: Justice Fairhurst’s opinion for the Court concluded that the amended restitution order did not violate the prohibition against double jeopardy as Gonzalez did not have a legitimate expectation of finality insofar as §9.94A.753(4) permits such orders to be modified under certain circumstances. The Court also held that the amended order was proper under §9.94A.753(4) as the statute permitted the total amount of restitution, rather than simply the monthly payment amount, to be amended for good cause and that the state had made such a showing given the additional medical expenses incurred by Gonzalez’s victim.

Docket No. 81525-9 (from Grant Case No. 03-1-00617-6)

Petitioner: Robert Gonzalez

(Counsel: Jeffrey Goldstein)

Respondent: State of Washington

(Counsel: D. Angus Lee and Teresa Chen)

Briefs:

Argument: Tuesday, March 24, 2009 10:00am

[Source: TVW, http://tvw.org]

Decided: Thursday, February 18th, 2010

Prevailing Party: State of Washington (Respondent)

Vote: 7-2

Citation: Pending

Court: Madsen1 Court (2010-)

Alexander

Johnson

Madsen

Sanders
(Dissent)

Chambers

Owens

Fairhurst
(Majority)

Johnson

Stephens