State v. Callegari

773 So. 2d 806, 0 La.App. 3 Cir. 437, 2000 La. App. LEXIS 2747, 2000 WL 1693204
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 2, 2000
DocketNo. 00-437
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 773 So. 2d 806 (State v. Callegari) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Callegari, 773 So. 2d 806, 0 La.App. 3 Cir. 437, 2000 La. App. LEXIS 2747, 2000 WL 1693204 (La. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinion

JjDOUCET, Chief Judge.

The Defendant, Terrell Callegari, was charged by bill of information filed October 13, 1998, with attempted second-degree murder of Herbert Fulton, in violation of La.R.S. 14:27 and La.R.S. 14:30.1(A)(1). The Defendant initially pled not guilty, later changed his plea to guilty and then filed a Motion to Withdraw Plea. The trial court granted the motion and the Defendant once again pled not guilty. A jury trial was held September 13-14, 1999, with the jury returning a unanimous verdict of guilty of aggravated battery.

Thereafter, by bill of information filed September 28, 1999, Defendant was charged as a habitual offender under La. R.S. 15:529.1. After a hearing in which the Defendant was adjudicated a second-felony offender, he filed a Motion for Post Verdict Judgment of Acquittal or Alternatively for New Trial. Those motions were denied, after a hearing, on October 26, 1999. Subsequently, on January 11, 2000, the Defendant was sentenced to eighteen years at hard labor without benefit of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence. The Defendant objected to the sentence and gave oral notice of intent to appeal. A Motion for Reconsideration of Sentence was filed and denied on January 14, 2000. A Motion for Appeal was filed and granted January 14, 2000.

ERRORS PATENT and ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NO. 6:

In accordance with La.Code Crim.P. art. 920, all appeals are reviewed [808]*808by the court for errors patent on the face of the record. After reviewing the record, we find there are two errors patent.

| ¡¡First, the trial court imposed the Defendant’s sentence without benefit of parole when neither the penalty provision of the substantive statute nor the habitual offender provision authorized such a restriction on the Defendant’s parole eligibility.

The penalty for aggravated battery is imprisonment with or without hard labor for up to ten years, and a possible fine of not more than five thousand dollars. La. R.S. 14:34. La.R.S. 15:529.1 provides in pertinent part as follows:

A. (l)(a) If the second felony is such that upon a first conviction the offender would be punishable by imprisonment for any term less than his natural life, then the sentence to imprisonment shall be for a determinate term not less than one-half the longest term and not more than twice the longest term prescribed for a first conviction;
[[Image here]]
(G) Any sentence imposed under the provisions of this Section shall be without benefit of probation or suspension of sentence.

We note that when initially imposing the sentence, the trial court stated that it was to be served “without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence.” (Emphasis added.) The court then informed the Defendant of his eligibility for good time under La.R.S. 15:573.3. In closing, the trial court stated, “the sentence being imposed is specifically without benefit of probation or suspension.” The minutes of sentencing, as does the trial judge’s initial pronouncement, indicate the trial court imposed the sentence without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence. Although the latter statement made by the trial judge indicates he may not have intended to prohibit parole eligibility, because of his first statement at sentencing and because of the minutes of the sentencing proceeding, this court, out of an abundance of caution, will treat the sentence as illegal.

I » In State v. Gregrich, 99-178 (La.App. 3 Cir. 10/13/99); 745 So.2d 694, this court corrected an illegal sentence by simply deleting the illegal portion where the trial court illegally ordered the defendant to participate in a substance abuse program. This court discussed the issue as follows:

An illegal sentence may be corrected at any time by an appellate court on review. La.Code Crim.P. art. 882(A).
[WJhen correction of an illegal sentence does not involve the exercise of sentencing discretion, there is no reason why the appellate court should not simply amend the sentence.... However, if correction involves the exercise of sentencing discretion ... the case must be remanded for the trial court to perform that function.
Fraser, 484 So.2d at 124 n. 5.
In State v. Prince, 97-0727 (La.9/26/07); 701 So.2d 965, the supreme court simply amended the sentence imposed by the trial court to delete the requirement of restitution where restitution was not authorized by statute. Also, in State v. Lee, 94-0814 (La.6/17/94); 641 So.2d 206, the supreme court simply amended a sentence to delete the requirement of restitution where restitution was not authorized by statute. In State v. Yancy, 93-2798 (La.5/31/96); 673 So.2d 1018, the supreme court amended the sentence to delete only that portion denying the defendant eligibility for parole where at the time of the crime there was no requirement of parole ineligibility. In State v. Yarbrough, 596 So.2d 311 (La.App. 3 Cir.), writ denied, 599 So.2d 317 (La.1992), the third circuit amended the portion of the defendant’s sentence that precluded parole, probation, or suspension of sentence where the preclusion of those benefits was not authorized by statute.
[809]*809We note that in State v. Narcisse, 97-3161 (La.6/26/98); 714 So.2d 698, the supreme court vacated a sentence and remanded to the trial court for resen-tencing where the trial court erroneously required restitution and denied the defendant eligibility for good-time credits. In Narcisse, the supreme court did not state that it was required to remand the sentence because the case involved the exercise of sentencing discretion. Rather, it appears that the supreme court may have been exercising its own discretion in remanding the case, because La.Code Crim.P. art. 882(A) does not require that an appellate court correct an illegal sentence but provides that the appellate court “may” correct an illegal sentence on review.
|4We find the instant case is analogous to Prince, Lee, Yancy, and Yarbrough such that the correction does not involve the exercise of sentencing discretion. Therefore, we amend the sentence imposed by the trial court to delete that portion requiring participation in substance abuse evaluations and the following of the recommendations resulting from them.

Id. at pp. 3-4; 696.

Although the present case is distinguishable from Gregrich in that it involves a different sentencing error, the present case is analogous to Yancy and Yarbrough because they involved the same type of sentencing error, i.e., the erroneous denial of parole eligibility. Thus, we choose to follow Gregrich, Yancy, Yarbrough, and Lee and simply amend the Defendant’s sentence by deleting the restriction on his parole eligibility.

Second, the trial court erroneously informed the Defendant that he had three years to file post-conviction relief. Since the Defendant was sentenced after the two-year prescriptive period became effective, the trial court should have informed the Defendant of the new prescriptive period. Accordingly, the trial court is instructed to inform the Defendant of the correct, two-year prescriptive period provided for in La.Code Crim.P. art.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State v. Office
967 So. 2d 1185 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2007)
State v. Kennerson
817 So. 2d 110 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2002)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
773 So. 2d 806, 0 La.App. 3 Cir. 437, 2000 La. App. LEXIS 2747, 2000 WL 1693204, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-callegari-lactapp-2000.