State v. Cook

2011 ME 94, 26 A.3d 834, 2011 Me. LEXIS 94, 2011 WL 3715766
CourtSupreme Judicial Court of Maine
DecidedAugust 25, 2011
DocketDocket: SRP-10-513
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 2011 ME 94 (State v. Cook) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Judicial Court of Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Cook, 2011 ME 94, 26 A.3d 834, 2011 Me. LEXIS 94, 2011 WL 3715766 (Me. 2011).

Opinion

MEAD, J.

[¶ 1] Benjamin S. Cook appeals from the sentences imposed by the Superior Court (Knox County, Hjelm, J.) following its entry of a judgment of conviction upon Cook’s guilty pleas to eleven counts of gross sexual assault (Class A), 17-A M.R.S. § 253(1)(C) (2010); one count of gross sexual assault (Class A), 17-A M.R.S. § 253(1)(B) (2010); one count of unlawful sexual contact (Class B), 17-A M.R.S. § 255-A(1)(F) (2010); and one count of unlawful sexual contact (Class C), 17-A M.R.S. § 255-A(1)(E) (2010). The court imposed an aggregate sentence of twelve years’ imprisonment, followed by thirty years of supervised release pursuant to 17-A M.R.S. § 1231(1), (1-A), (2)(C) (2010). 1

[¶ 2] Cook contends that the court abused its discretion (1) in determining a maximum and final sentence pursuant to the sentencing analysis required by 17-A M.R.S. § 1252-C(2), (3) (2010), and (2) in imposing a thirty-year term of supervised release because its separate analysis concerning that component of the sentence was insufficient. We find no error in the court’s section 1252-C analysis and therefore affirm the sentences of incarceration imposed. However, today we announce for the first time the analysis a sentencing court is required to undertake before imposing a term of supervised release pursuant to section 1231; accordingly, we vacate the thirty-year term of supervised release *838 imposed on Cook and remand in order for the court to conduct that analysis.

I. BACKGROUND

[¶ 3] The essential facts are not in dispute. On February 23, 2010, the State filed a thirty-nine-count information against Cook that included the fourteen counts to which he later entered guilty pleas at a hearing conducted pursuant to M.R.Crim. P. 11; the remaining counts were dismissed. At a sentencing hearing held August 25, 2010, the materials that the Superior Court considered included a presentence investigation report filed by the Department of Corrections; Cook took no issue with the report then, nor does he on appeal.

[¶ 4] The report included the results of interviews conducted with Cook and his two sisters by the Knox County Sheriffs Department as a result of a referral made by the Department of Health and Human Services. In sum, Cook’s sister described many instances, beginning in 2004 when she was about age five and Cook about seventeen, of hand to genital contact, including occasions when Cook made her masturbate him and he digitally penetrated her vagina; oral sex that he made her perform on him; and genital to genital contact not involving penetration. The sexual abuse was still ongoing in October 2009.

[¶ 5] Cook’s other sister reported that he began sexually abusing her when she was age seven and he was about twelve. She described many instances of oral sex that she performed on him and he on her; digital penetration of her vagina; and genital to genital contact involving attempted penetration. The abuse continued until she was age fourteen and he was nineteen. At various times when she resisted him or said she would tell someone what he was doing, he threatened to kill her or rape her in her sleep using a knife. The investigator interviewed Cook twice; he admitted to the conduct described by his sisters.

[¶ 6] In addition to the presentence investigation, at sentencing the court considered a presentence evaluation conducted by the State Forensic Service, victim impact statements, several letters supporting Cook, and the remarks of two people who appeared and spoke on his behalf. The court entered judgment and imposed a sentence of twelve years’ imprisonment and thirty years of supervised release on Count 2 of the information, a charge of gross sexual assault committed when Cook’s sister was age seven and he was nineteen. The court imposed equal or lesser concurrent terms of imprisonment on the remaining counts.

[¶ 7] Cook filed an application to allow an appeal of sentence pursuant to 15 M.R.S. § 2151 (2010) and M.RApp. P. 20. The Sentence Review Panel granted the application, SRP-10-513 (Nov. 19, 2010), and this appeal followed.

II. DISCUSSION

A. Section 1252-C Analysis

[¶ 8] We first discuss Cook’s contention that the court abused its discretion in conducting steps two and three of the three-step sentencing analysis required by 17-A M.R.S. § 1252-C (2010). 2 See State v. *839 Dalli, 2010 ME 118, ¶¶ 9, 12, 8 A.3d 632, 636 (stating that the second and third steps of the section 1252-C analysis are reviewed for an abuse of discretion).

[¶ 9] In performing the three-step analysis, the court was required to determine a basic, maximum, and final sentence. 17-A M.R.S. § 1252-C. We have held that in a case involving multiple offenses, it is appropriate for a sentencing court “to choose a representative or primary offense for analysis in the first step.” State v. Downs, 2009 ME 3, ¶ 9, 962 A.2d 950, 953 (quotation marks omitted). Because in such a case the court “is ultimately charged with the overall responsibility to craft a cohesive aggregate sentence for the offender!,]” it “has the discretion to construct an aggregate sentence using a few of the most serious or representative counts ... as its foundation.” Id. ¶ 14, 962 A.2d at 954.

[¶ 10] Here, the court selected Count 2 as the foundation for its aggregate sentence because it was the earliest count of gross sexual assault that involved a statutorily-mandated minimum twenty-year basic sentence. 3 In step one of its sentencing analysis the court determined that the basic sentence would be twenty years, a result Cook does not challenge on appeal.

[¶ 11] In step two of its analysis the court arrived at a maximum sentence of twelve years, which was both the State’s recommendation and the cap under the terms of Cook’s plea agreement. Cook argued for a maximum sentence of six to eight years. The court concluded, however, that “[u]nder [these] circumstances ... it is inconceivable to me that the maximum period of incarceration would be something less than 12 years.”

[¶ 12] Cook contends that the court abused its discretion in weighing the aggravating and mitigating factors that it found to exist. Specifically, Cook asserts that the court did not assign a weight to each aggravating and mitigating factor it considered and failed to give the mitigating factors sufficient weight. Contrary to Cook’s argument, however, section 1252-C(2) does not require a sentencing court to assign a specific weight to each aggravating or mitigating factor; rather, the court is to “consider all mitigating and aggravating factors, determine their combined impact on the basic sentence, and then quantify that impact by increasing or decreasing the basic sentence accordingly.” Dalli, 2010 ME 113, ¶ 11, 8 A.3d at 636.

*840 [¶ 13] In reducing its twenty-year basic sentence to a maximum sentence of twelve years, the court explicitly considered both aggravating and mitigating factors.

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Bluebook (online)
2011 ME 94, 26 A.3d 834, 2011 Me. LEXIS 94, 2011 WL 3715766, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-cook-me-2011.