State v. Roberts
Annotate this CaseIn 1992, Defendant pleaded nolo contendere several charges, including first- and second-degree child molestation. Defendant was sentenced to thirty years on each of the molestation counts, with fifteen years to serve, fifteen years suspended, with probation. Defendant was later convicted of residential burglary and adjudicated a probation violator in 2004. After a probation-revocation hearing, the superior court stayed the execution of ten years of Defendant's previously suspended sentence. In 2009, Defendant admitted to a probation violation. In 2010, Defendant filed a motion to correct the 2004 sentence, arguing that the trial justice was without authority to impose a stayed sentence. The trial court granted in part Defendant's motion and vacated the 2004 sentence. The trial justice then resentenced Defendant. Defendant appealed, arguing that the 2004 was no longer a viable sentence, such that Defendant was improperly adjudged to be a probation violator in 2009, and that the trial justice impermissibly resentenced him. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding (1) the trial justice's error in staying the execution of the ten years remaining on the previously suspended sentence did not vitiate that portion of the sentence that the original sentencing justice had imposed; and (2) the trial justice correctly resentenced Defendant.
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