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STATE OF MICHIGAN COURT OF APPEALS

PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN, Plaintiff-Appellee, v RONALD LEE FOX, Defendant-Appellant.

UNPUBLISHED May 19, 2009

No. 284498 Bay Circuit Court LC No. 06-010247-FH

Before: Fitzgerald, P.J., and Talbot and Shapiro, JJ. PER CURIAM. Defendant appeals as of right from his jury trial convictions of third-degree fleeing and eluding, MCL 257.602a(3)(a), operating a motor vehicle with a revoked license, MCL 257.904(1)(b), and operating a motor vehicle without insurance, MCL 500.3102.1 Defendant was sentenced as a third habitual offender, MCL 769.11, to 93 days in jail for the operating without insurance conviction and one year in jail for the remaining two offenses. We affirm. This appeal has been decided without oral argument pursuant to MCR 7.214(E). Defendant asserts that he was denied his Sixth Amendment right to counsel. Specifically, defendant contends the trial court misconstrued his request for out-of-state counsel as a petition for self-representation. Defendant argues that he did not unequivocally ask to represent himself and lacked the mental capacity to knowingly and intelligently waive counsel. While engaging in a de novo review of the record, we review a trial court's findings regarding whether a defendant's waiver of counsel was knowing and intelligent for clear error, People v Williams, 470 Mich 634, 640; 683 NW2d 597 (2004), and the trial court's decision to permit a defendant to represent himself for an abuse of discretion. People v Hicks, 259 Mich App 518, 521; 675 NW2d 599 (2003). While the constitutional right to counsel encompasses the right of a defendant to choose retained counsel, US Const, Am VI; US Const, Am XIV; 1963 Const, art 1,

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