State v. Coleman

Citations

• 204 Conn. App. 860

Syllabus

The defendant, who had been convicted, on a plea of guilty, of the crimes of promoting a minor in an obscene performance, risk of injury to a child, sexual assault in the second degree, possession of child pornogra- phy, and cruelty to persons, appealed to this court, challenging the sentence imposed by the trial court following the court's granting of his motion to correct an illegal sentence. The defendant originally received a total effective sentence of nine years of imprisonment, which would run consecutively to a sentence he was then serving, followed by twenty- five years of special parole. He claimed that his sentence on the convic- tion of sexual assault in the second degree, one year of imprisonment followed by twenty-five years of special parole, exceeded the statutory (§ 53a-35a) maximum twenty year term of imprisonment applicable to that offense. The court resentenced the defendant by restructuring his sentence to consist of the same total effective sentence of nine years of imprisonment followed by twenty-five years of special parole that he had agreed to in his plea bargain. On appeal, the defendant claimed that his newly imposed sentence violated the multiple punishment prohibi- tion of the double jeopardy clause as well as his rights to due process and that the court lacked jurisdiction to resentence him. The state conceded that the portion of the defendant's new sentence, imposing an eleven year period of special parole on the charge of promoting a minor in an obscene performance, illegally exceeded the statutory (§ 54- 125e (c)) maximum ten year special parole limitation. Held: 1. The defendant's resentencing did not violate double jeopardy, as his overall sentence had not expired, and the trial court was thus free to restructure the entire sentencing package; the defendant provided no authority for his argument that the legal portion of his sentence should have been bifurcated from the illegal term of special parole, the resen- tence did nothing