Commonwealth v. Monahan

860 A.2d 180, 2004 Pa. Super. 384, 2004 Pa. Super. LEXIS 3383
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedOctober 1, 2004
StatusPublished
Cited by34 cases

This text of 860 A.2d 180 (Commonwealth v. Monahan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Commonwealth v. Monahan, 860 A.2d 180, 2004 Pa. Super. 384, 2004 Pa. Super. LEXIS 3383 (Pa. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

KLEIN, J.:

¶ 1 William Monahan appeals from the judgment of sentence for institutional vandalism, imposed by the Court of Common Pleas of Wyoming County on March 8, 2004. Monahan argues his sentence is excessive and the trial judge did not state sufficient reasons on the record to justify a sentence above the aggravated range.1 Following acceptance of Monahan’s guilty plea, the trial court sentenced him to the statutory maximum of 12 to 24 months’ incarceration, and ordered that it run consecutive to the sentence Monahan was then serving on unrelated charges.

[182]*182¶ 2 On the record before us, it is impossible to ascertain what the trial judge was thinking when he imposed a sentence twice the aggravated range for the offense to which the defendant pled guilty. Therefore, we vacate the judgment of sentence and remand for re-sentencing and supplementation of the record.

¶ 3 Very likely, the trial judge had more than adequate reasons for his sentence, and we will be privy to such once he explains his reasoning and the record is complete. As we said in Commonwealth v. Walls, 846 A.2d 152, 154 (Pa.Super.2004), although sentencing judges have broad discretion, they do not have unfettered or unchecked discretion. See also Commonwealth v. Gause, 442 Pa.Super. 329, 659 A.2d 1014 (1995). Therefore, when a sentence exceeds the aggravated range of the guidelines and there is an allegation of excessiveness, this Court must review the record to determine whether there was an abuse of discretion. That is only possible if the reasons for the deviation are clearly stated on the record and we can determine that the trial judge assessed all factors of sentencing, not just the seriousness of the crime.

¶4 That is not the case here. The reasons stated for the sentence imposed are cryptic at best, referring mostly to the nature of the crime, which is generally contemplated by the guidelines in any event. Despite an alleged pre-sentence investigation, in reality there is no indication anywhere in the record of the character and background of the defendant.

¶ 5 The facts of the case are the following. While a prisoner at the Wyoming County Correctional Facility, Monahan and another prisoner damaged an air vent in the prison library. The Commonwealth maintained that this happened when they removed the air vent from the ceiling during an escape attempt gone awry. Mona-han claimed he was attempting suicide. There was no plea to attempted escape, only a guilty plea to the charge of institutional vandalism.

¶ 6 The summary of the facts during the guilty plea to institutional vandalism made no mention of the reason for the damage, and in fact the Commonwealth’s theory of attempted escape does not officially appear of record. The assistant district attorney stated:

[Monahan] did while in the Wyoming County Correctional Facility damage a ceiling vent with an estimated value of $182.00 The Commonwealth contends this is Institutional Vandalism and that it is a governmental institution.

(N.T. 2/11/04, pp. 10-11).

¶ 7 The trial judge stated:

If the charge of Institutional Vandalism went to court the Commonwealth would have to prove beyond a reasonable [sic] that you damaged a portion of the Wyoming County Correctional Facility which is certainly a municipal building or a county or government building and you did so knowingly or intentionally.

(Id. at 11-12). Thereafter, rather than anyone discussing or even implicating an attempted escape, Monahan’s counsel stated that the institutional vandalism “was in regards to a suicide attempt.” (Id. at 14).

¶ 8 During the guilty plea colloquy, which immediately preceded sentencing, the trial judge stated, “I’m sufficiently familiar with your [Monahan’s] background so that we [will] skip the informational part of this and go right to the offers of proof.” Id. at 10. The trial judge may well be familiar with Monahan’s background, but we are not. Statements like that, with no amplification, make it impossible for an appellate court to carry out its duty of reviewing Monahan’s background to determine whether or not the court [183]*183abused its discretion in imposing an excessive sentence.

¶ 9 In his one-and-one-half-page Pa. R.A.P.1925(a) opinion, the trial judge noted his belief that the incident was just as likely a failed escape attempt than it was a failed suicide attempt, and apparently based his sentence in part upon an attempted escape, to which Monahan never pled guilty and, in fact, denied. The trial judge’s legal discussion, in its entirety, consists of the following:

At sentencing this Court relied on a pre-sentence investigation report which has been made part of the record.2 The reasons for sentence were stated at the time of sentencing, including the reasons for imposing a sentence in excess of the “aggravated range” of the sentencing guidelines. The Defendant’s only apparent contention is that the sentence was not within the “standard range” guidelines.

(Opinion, 3/19/04, 2).

¶ 10 Therefore, it is necessary to turn to what was expressed at sentencing. Unfortunately, however, the sentencing notes of testimony reveal little more. The trial judge offered the following for imposing the statutory maximum sentence:

With respect to Institutional Vandalism, however, the sentence is beyond the aggravated range — in fact, is a statutory minimum and maximum, the court believes that any lesser sentence would depreciate the seriousness of his conduct. The incident occurred while he was incarcerated for multiple offenses and acted in total disregard to the consequences of his acts and to the criminal justice system. He is already incarcerated in a state correctional institution for other matters. And as I said the court believes that any lesser sentence would depreciate the seriousness of his conduct.

(N.T. 2/11/04, pp. 16-17). This scarcely aids our evaluation of the reasonableness of the sentence, and, moreover, seems to indicate that the sentence is based on what the judge perceived to be an attempted escape, a crime to which the defendant never pled guilty and, in fact, denied. The crime which “should not be depreciated” is damage to a ceiling vent valued at $182.00, certainly not a horrendous crime.

¶ 11 It is not enough to focus only on the offense and say it is a bad crime; that is already taken into consideration by the sentencing guidelines. Rather, the trial judge must explain why this particular offense is more severe than the normal crime of this type. Commonwealth v. Caraballo, 848 A.2d 1018, 1020 (Pa.Super.2004).

¶ 12 What is captioned “Pre-sentence Investigation” report in the record — assuming what is in the record encompasses the entire pre-sentence report — adds little. It merely indexes Monahan’s prior crimes, without providing any detail or background information concerning the offenses. It also appears that the sentencing guideline form is flawed due to an arithmetical error.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
860 A.2d 180, 2004 Pa. Super. 384, 2004 Pa. Super. LEXIS 3383, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-monahan-pasuperct-2004.