PEOPLE OF MI V STEVEN PAUL BENTLEY
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STATE OF MICHIGAN
COURT OF APPEALS
PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN,
UNPUBLISHED
January 9, 1998
Plaintiff-Appellee,
v
No. 200792
Livingston Circuit Court
LC No. 94-008253 FH
STEVEN PAUL BENTLEY,
Defendant-Appellant.
Before: MacKenzie, P.J., and Hood and Hoekstra, JJ.
MEMORANDUM.
Pursuant to a plea and sentence bargain, defendant pleaded guilty to possession with intent to
deliver more than 50 but less than 225 grams of cocaine, MCL 333.7401(2)(a)(iii); MSA
14.15(7401)(2)(a)(iii), in exchange for dismissal of a related charge of conspiracy to deliver cocaine
over 50 but less than 225 grams, with an agreement of a sentence of eleven to twenty years’
imprisonment. The trial court duly imposed the agreed-upon sentence, although remarking that it was
not happy with the legislative scheme of mandatory drug sentences. This appeal is being decided
without oral argument pursuant to MCR 7.214(E). We affirm.
Defendant contends that the trial court failed to recognize that it had discretion to impose a
lesser sentence. In remarking that it had no such discretion, the trial court was obviously cognizant of
the prerequisite for imposing a lesser sentence -- the presence in the record of objective and verifiable
factors constituting substantial and c
ompelling reasons for a lesser sentence. People v Fields, 448
Mich 58; 528 NW2d 176 (1995). Defendant argues that the sentencing court could have found, in the
exercise of its sentencing discretion, that a lesser sentence would have been both legally permissible and
appropriate. However, if the court did so, it could have then allowed the prosecution an opportunity to
withdraw from the plea bargain or accept such lesser penalty, People v Siebert, 450 Mich 500; 537
NW2d 891 (1995). This argument fails to recognize that the collapse of the plea bargain would leave
defendant exposed to consecutive sentences with combined mandatory minima of twenty years and
maxima of forty years. People v Denio, 454 Mich 691; 564 NW2d 13 (1997). On this record, the
trial court simply concluded that it had no justification for rejecting the plea and sentence bargain, and
accordingly defendant is without standing to contend on appeal that the sentence to which he agreed is
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disproportionate to the offense or the offender. People v Cobbs, 443 Mich 276, 285; 505 NW2d 208
(1993).
Affirmed.
/s/ Barbara B. MacKenzie
/s/ Harold Hood
/s/ Joel P. Hoekstra
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