Alturo Juan Pasco v. State

• Court: Court of Appeals of Georgia
• Decided: November 7, 2025
• Docket: A26A0428
• Status: Published

Opinion

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia

ATLANTA,____________________ November 07, 2025

The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order:

A26A0428. ALTURO JUAN PASCO v. THE STATE. In 2005, after a jury found Alturo Juan Pasco guilty of armed robbery, the trial court sentenced him as a recidivist to life imprisonment. Pasco appealed and this Court affirmed in Pasco v. State, 281 Ga. App. 5 (635 SE2d 269) (2006). In 2012, Pasco filed a motion to modify his allegedly void sentence, which the trial court denied. Pasco filed an untimely notice of appeal from that ruling and, based on the untimeliness, this Court dismissed that appeal for lack of jurisdiction. See Pasco v. State, Case No. A13A0354 (Oct. 24, 2012). In 2025, Pasco again filed a motion to correct void sentence, arguing that his sentence was unlawful because it was enhanced by convictions for which he was unrepresented and had not waived his right to counsel. The trial court denied the motion and Pasco filed a notice of appeal. We lack jurisdiction. Our 2012 dismissal of Pasco’s appeal regarding the legality of his sentence is the law of the case and Pasco is not entitled to relitigate this issue. See Paradise v. State, 321 Ga. App. 371, 373 (740 SE2d 238) (2013) (although a void sentence may be challenged at any time, such a challenge is nevertheless subject to the equally well-established principles of res judicata and the law-of-the-case rule); compare Howard v. State, 289 Ga. 207 (1) (710 SE2d 761) (2011). Pasco’s current appeal “involves the exact same subject matter as his previous appeal, which we dismissed for being untimely filed.” Ross v. State, 310 Ga. App. 326, 327 (713 SE2d 438) (2011). “In this respect, it matters not that the dismissal of [Pasco’s] previous appeal did not reach the merits of [Pasco’s] claim because the dismissal, nevertheless, constitutes binding law of the case.” Id. And though “our Supreme Court has carved out an exception to the law-of-the-case rule when the evidentiary posture of the case changes, it is inapplicable here because the evidentiary posture of the case sub judice has not changed from that presented in the prior proceeding.” Id. at 328 (punctuation and citation omitted). Accordingly, we lack jurisdiction to consider this appeal, which is hereby DISMISSED.

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia Clerk’s Office, Atlanta,____________________ 11/07/2025 I certify that the above is a true extract from the minutes of the Court of Appeals of Georgia. Witness my signature and the seal of said court hereto affixed the day and year last above written.

, Clerk.