State v. Hurdle

Citations

• 217 Conn. App. 453

Syllabus

Convicted, on pleas of guilty, of the crimes of robbery in the first degree and conspiracy to commit robbery in the first degree, the defendant appealed to this court from the judgment of the trial court, claiming, inter alia, that the trial court improperly concluded that it lacked the authority to award him presentence confinement credit pursuant to statute (§ 18-98d). The defendant had been incarcerated on other convic- tions when he entered into an agreement with the state under which he would plead guilty to charges of robbery in the first degree and conspiracy to commit robbery in the first degree in exchange for the entry of a nolle prosequi as to all other charges he was facing. The trial court accepted the pleas after canvassing the defendant, who indicated that he understood the terms of the agreed upon sentence. At sentencing, the defendant, for the first time, claimed that he was entitled to certain presentence confinement credit. The court declined to award presen- tence confinement credit and imposed the agreed upon sentence. Held: 1. The defendant could not prevail on his claim that the trial court, in structuring his sentence, had the authority and discretion to account for presentence confinement credit that the court determined to be appropriate: under § 18-98d (c), the Commissioner of Correction has the sole responsibility and authority to calculate and apply presentence confinement credit toward the sentence that actually was imposed by the court, as presentence confinement credit is not a part of a sentence but a calculation of the amount of credited time a defendant already has served toward completing that sentence, and, although § 18-98d contains no language that explicitly bars a sentencing court from award- ing presentence confinement credit, our courts have clearly established that presentence confinement credit is a creature of statute; moreover, the defendant presented no appellate authority in support of his assertion that, because the