Andrew Carlos Hegranes, petitioner, Appellant,

This opinion will be unpublished and
may not be cited except as provided by
Minn. Stat. § 480A.08, subd. 3 (2018).

STATE OF MINNESOTA
IN COURT OF APPEALS
A18-0014

Andrew Carlos Hegranes, petitioner,
Appellant,

vs.

State of Minnesota,
Respondent.

Filed December 10, 2018
Affirmed
Ross, Judge

Ramsey County District Court
File No. 62-K2-03-002833

Cathryn Middlebrook, Chief Appellate Public Defender, Erik I. Withall, Assistant Public
Defender, St. Paul, Minnesota (for appellant)

Lori Swanson, Attorney General, St. Paul, Minnesota; and

John J. Choi, Ramsey County Attorney, Thomas R. Ragatz, Assistant County Attorney,
St. Paul, Minnesota (for respondent)

Considered and decided by Florey, Presiding Judge; Ross, Judge; and Reyes, Judge.
U N P U B L I S H E D O P I N I O N
ROSS, Judge
Andrew Hegranes shot two men, killing one, while attempting to rob them in 2003.
He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and two counts of assault with a firearm in
exchange for a reduced prison sentence. The district court sentenced him to 308 months in
2
prison on the murder conviction and 36 months on each assault conviction. After 13 years,
Hegranes unsuccessfully moved the district court to correct his sentences on the assault
convictions. Because Hegranes’s challenge is untimely, we affirm.
FACTS
Hegranes and two associates lured three men from North Dakota to St. Paul in July
2003, promising to sell them marijuana. The Hegranes crew did not really intend to sell
drugs, however, but to ambush and rob the visitors. But when t he would-be buyers
suspected trouble, they tried to flee. Hegranes fired his handgun at their car. One bullet
fatally struck the driver in the head and another hit a passenger in the shoulder.
The state charged Hegranes with second- degree murder and two counts of second-
degree assault with a firearm. He faced up to 684 months in prison, but he negotiated a
much lighter sentence by agreeing to testify against his co- defendants. The district court
accepted his plea and sentenced him in 2004 to serve 308 months on the murder count and
36 months on each assault count.
In 2017 Hegranes moved to correct his assault sentences. He argued that they are
illegal because he never waived his right to have a jury decide whether he used a gun in
the assaults. The district court denied the motion, and Hegranes appeals.
D E C I S I O N
Hegranes contends that his assault sentences are illegal because he did not waive
his right to have a jury find that he used a firearm to commit his crimes, relying on Blakely
v. Washington, 542 U.S. 296, 313, 124 S. Ct. 2531, 2543 (2004). We generally review de
novo whether a defendant’s sentence violates Blakely. State v. Dettman, 719 N.W.2d 644,
3
648–49 (Minn. 2006). But the state correctly argues that, because Hegranes ’s now-
challenged sentence resulted from his negotiated plea agreement, his challenge falls under
a long-past deadline.
Hegranes’s sentence challenge is one in name only. W here, as here, a defendant
moves ostensibly to correct a sentence to which he agreed as part of a plea deal, we will
treat his motion instead as a petition for postconviction relief because the challenge
essentially attacks the entire plea arrangement, not just the sentence. State v. Coles, 862
N.W.2d 477, 481–82 (Minn. 2015). A challenger must petition for postconviction relief
within two years after the entry of his sentence, except in circumstances not relevant here.
Minn. Stat. § 590.01, subd. 4 (2018). Hegranes’s petition is a dozen years tardy. He also
filed a supplemental brief pro se, but the brief includes no timely argument that merits
discussion.
Affirmed.