State v. Bentley

185 So. 3d 254, 15 La.App. 3 Cir. 598, 2016 La. App. LEXIS 177, 2016 WL 429899
Louisiana Court of Appeal·Decided February 3, 2016·No. No. 15-598·Published·Cited by 2 cases

Opinions

THIBODEAUX, Chief Judge.

| ¶After a jury convicted Defendant Asa N. Bentley of second degree kidnapping, the State filed a habitual offender bill of information pursuant to La.R.S. 15:529.1(A)(1), alleging that Defendant had previously been convicted of forgery. Accordingly,.the State asserted that.Defendant should be sentenced within .the range of twenty to eighty years as required by the habitual offender statute. After a hearing, the trial court sentenced Defendant to seventy years at hard labor without benefit of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence. Defense counsel objected to the sentence and subsequently filed a motion to ■ reconsider sentence on the basis that Defendant’s habitual offender sentence denied him parole eligibility for longer than it allowed for -his conviction for second-degree kidnapping. The court denied the motion.

For the following reasons, we vacate Defendant’s sentence and remand to the trial court for resentencing.

FACTS

-Defendant and his co-defendants forced the victim, Jessica Guillot, into, his vehicle where Defendant beat and strangled her. She has been missing since and is presumed dead. As noted above, after conviction, Defendant received a second-felony offender sentence of. seventy years, at hard labor without benefit of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence.

ISSUE

We shall consider whether the trial court erred in denying Asa Bentley’s Motion to Reconsider Sentence because his habitual offender sentence Udenied him parole eligibility for longer than is allowed for his conviction for second degree kidnapping.

LAW AND DISCUSSION

Defendant argues that his sentence should have been determined by reference to- both the underlying statute and the habitual offender statute. He concedes that his seventy-year sentence is “statutorily permissible” but that the parole restrictions placed thereon are not. Relying on State v. Tate, 99-1483 (La.11/24/99), 747 So.2d 519, he argues that the habitual offender law does not permit imposition of an enhanced - sentence that would “deny parole eligibility for, a. second offender term for a period longer than what the ‘reference statute’ allows.” ' He then rea[256] sons that the statute'.for second degree kidnapping, which requires that “[a]t least two years [of the five to forty years] of the sentence imposed” be served without the benefit of parole, in turn limits his habitual offender sentence. Accordingly, he concludes that:

This means that a sentencing judge could restrict parole anywhere from. 2 years to 40 years for this crime. Pursuant to Tate, however, while the trial court here was permitted to sentence Mr. Bentley to 70 years under the habitual offender statute, the trial court was riot permitted to restrict his eligibility for parole beyond the maximum sentence for second degree kidnapping — 40 years. Thus, the 70-year restriction on parole ineligibility was not authorized by law.

The State objects to'the relief soúght, arguing that none of the cases cited by Defendant “involved a decision interpreting the result when the. ‘referencing statute’ provides for the denial of parole eligibility for- the entire term of the sentence!” The State reasons that because the reference statute, La.R.S. 14:44.1, allows for the denial- of parole eligibility for up to the entire term of forty | ¿years, the trial court was within its authority to deny parole eligibility for- up to the entire term of the habitual offender sentence as it did.

■Louisiana Revised - Statutes 15:529.1(G) states in pertinent part: “[a]ny sentence imposed under the provisions of this . Section [habitual offender law] shall be at hard labor without benefit of probation or suspension of sentence.”

Defendant argues that the trial court’s parole restriction is illegally’ excessive since denial of parole eligibility for- the entire sentence is not required by the reference statute. Conversely,'the State asserts that because the trial court has the discretion to deny parole eligibility in its entirety upon conviction for the underlying offense,, such denial may be extended, to the entirety of the habitual offender sentence. See State v. Overton, 337 So.2d 1201, 1207 (La.1976) (stating that a defendant’s status as'a third felony offender upon conviction for armed robbery subjected him to up to 198 years at hard labor without the benefit of parole).

The State cited State v. Cain, 09-924, pp. 2-3 (La.App. 3 Cir. 3/10/10) (unpublished opiniori) (emphasis added),1 in which this court reasoned and ruled that:

Although La.R.S. 15:529.1(G) requires all enhanced sentences to be. imposed without benefit of probation or suspension of sentence, it does not authorize the trial court to impose enhanced sentences without benefit of parole unless the underlying statute provides for no parole eligibility. See State v. Tate, 99-1483 (La.11/24/99), 747 So.2d 519. The penalty provision found in La. R.S. 14:65, which is the underlying statute, does not authorize the trial court to impose any portion of the sentence without benefit of parole. • Therefore, the trial court improperly denied parole eligibility.

I ¿One could read this particular passage to suggest that only when “the underlying statute provides:for no parole eligibility” may the court extend such a restriction to the “enhanced sentence.”1 The interpretation of the second degree kidftapping seri-tencing provision would then become a matter Of perspective. Put- another way, does the “at least” language provide for parole eligibility; or, does the statute “provide for no parolé eligibility” in light of the trial court’s discretionary authority to deny parole up to the entire sentence for [257] second degree kidnapping. In the former instance, Defendant’s argument would prevail; in the latter, the State’s argument would.

When two or more interpretations of a criminal .statute are possible, the one construed in the light most favorable to the defendant applies. The rule of lenity prevails. “It is a well-established tenet of statutory construction that criminal statutes are subject to strict interpretation under the rule of lenity. State v. Carouthers, 618 So.2d 880 (La.1993). Thus, criminal statutes are given a narrow interpretation and any ambiguity in the substantive provisions of a statute as written is resolved in favor of the accused and against the State.” State v. Carr, 99-2209 (La.5/26/00), 761 So.2d 1271, 1274 (citations omitted). “The rule of lenity applies not only to interpretation of the substantive ambit of criminal laws, but also to the penalties imposed by those laws.” State v. Piazza, 596 So.2d 817, 820 (La.1992) (citations omitted). Piazza .further explained that:

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State v. Bentley, 185 So. 3d 254, 15 La.App. 3 Cir. 598, 2016 La. App. LEXIS 177, 2016 WL 429899 (La. Ct. App. 2016).

185 So. 3d 254 (State v. Bentley) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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