Case ID: so2d_462/html/0158-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "PER CURIAM.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

STATE of Louisiana v. Otis BATES.
    No. 84-KA-0406.
    Supreme Court of Louisiana.
    Jan. 14, 1985.
    William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Harry F. Con-nick, Dist. Atty., William Campbell, Asst. Dist. Atty., for plaintiff-appellee.
    Dwight Doskey, Orleans Indigent Defender Program, for defendant-appellant.
   PER CURIAM.

Defendant’s conviction for possession of pentazocine in violation of La.R.S. 40:969 is affirmed. His sentence of 20 years at hard labor, imposed after the trial court adjudicated him a third offender, La.R.S. 15:529.-1, is, however, vacated and this case is remanded for resentencing. At the time of the offense in 1980, pentazocine occupied Schedule IV in La.R.S. 40:964, as amended by Acts 1979, No. 659, and carried a maximum penalty of 5 years at hard labor for a first offender, or 10 years at hard labor for a second or third offender sentenced under La.R.S. 15:529.1. Defendant’s multiple offender sentence is therefore illegal and subject to correction at any time. La.C. Cr.P. art. 882; State v. Thomas, 447 So.2d 1053 (La.1984); State v. Wiggins, 432 So.2d 234 (La.1983).

CONVICTION AFFIRMED; SENTENCE VACATED AND CASE REMANDED FOR RESENTENCING.