State v. Holmes

Citations

• 209 Conn. App. 197

Syllabus

The defendant, who had previously been convicted of, inter alia, the crimes of manslaughter in the first degree with a firearm and felony murder, appealed to this court from the judgment of the trial court dismissing in part and denying in part his motion to correct an illegal sentence. The defendant claimed that the protection of the federal constitution against double jeopardy was violated when the state subjected and prosecuted him for multiple, mutually exclusive homicide offenses for a single act and also when the trial court vacated his conviction of manslaughter instead of his conviction of felony murder. The court determined that it did not have subject matter jurisdiction over the defendant's first claim, reasoning that it attacked the charging document itself rather than the sentencing proceeding. As to the defendant's second claim, the court reasoned that the sentencing court properly vacated his manslaughter conviction and sentenced him on his felony murder conviction. Held: 1. The trial court properly dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction the defendant's claim that the charging document listed multiple homicide offenses in violation of his constitutional right against double jeopardy; although the claim purportedly pertained to double jeopardy, which can be raised in a motion to correct, it actually attacked the proceedings leading up to the conviction, namely, the charging document itself, and not the sentence or sentencing proceeding, and our case law is clear that motions to correct an illegal sentence that attack the conviction or the proceedings leading up to the conviction are not within the trial court's jurisdiction on a motion to correct an illegal sentence. 2. The trial court properly denied the defendant's claim that his sentence for his felony murder conviction was illegal because the sentencing court improperly vacated his conviction of manslaughter in the first degree with a firearm and instead sentenced him on the felony murde