Case Title: Miles v. State

Citation: 

Docket Number: 207, 2018

State: delaware

Court: Delaware Supreme Court

Date: 2018-09-07T00:00:00Z

Document:
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE 
 
TYRONE A. MILES, 
 
 
Defendant Below- 
Appellant, 
 
v. 
 
STATE OF DELAWARE, 
 
Plaintiff Below- 
Appellee. 
§ 
§ 
§  No. 207, 2018 
§ 
§ 
§  Court Below—Superior Court 
§  of the State of Delaware 
§   
§  Cr. ID K0709015392A 
§   
§ 
 
 
 
 
 
Submitted: July 10, 2018 
 
 
 
 
Decided: 
September 7, 2018 
 
Before STRINE, Chief Justice; VALIHURA and TRAYNOR, Justices. 
 
O R D E R 
 
Upon consideration of the appellant’s opening brief, the State’s motion to 
affirm, and the record on appeal, it appears to the Court that: 
(1) 
The appellant, Tyrone Miles, filed this appeal from the Superior Court’s 
denial of his motion for correction of illegal sentence.  The State of Delaware has 
filed a motion to affirm the judgment below on the ground that it is manifest on the 
face of Miles’ opening brief that his appeal is without merit.  We agree and affirm. 
(2) 
In 2009, a Superior Court jury convicted Miles of attempted first degree 
murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony in the 2007 
shooting of a Dover convenience store clerk.  At his sentencing on April 16, 2009, 
Miles admitted that he had two prior convictions in 1999 and in 2000 for attempted 
 
2 
possession with intent to deliver (“PWID”) cocaine.  At the time of his 2007 crime 
and at the time of his sentencing in 2009, a prior conviction for attempted PWID 
constituted a predicate felony conviction under the habitual offender sentencing 
provisions of 11 Del. C. § 4214(b).1  The Superior Court thus declared Miles to be a 
habitual offender under 11 Del. C. § 4214(b) and sentenced him to life imprisonment 
on his attempted murder conviction.  His convictions and sentence were affirmed on 
direct appeal.2  Thereafter, he filed several unsuccessful motions  for postconviction 
relief.   
(3) 
In his latest motion and in his opening brief on appeal, Miles seeks 
correction of his allegedly illegal habitual offender life sentence.  He contends that 
his habitual offender life sentence is illegal because PWID, the crime for which he 
was convicted in 1999 and 2000 and which were the predicate felonies upon which 
his habitual offender sentence was based, is no longer a predicate felony for habitual 
offender sentencing due to recent statutory changes. 
                                                 
1 11 Del. C. § 4214(b) formerly provided that, “Any person who has been 2 times convicted of a 
felony or an attempt to commit a felony hereinafter specifically named [including PWID], under 
the laws of this State, and/or any other state, United States or any territory of the United States, and 
who shall thereafter be convicted of a subsequent felony hereinafter specifically named, or an 
attempt to commit such specific felony [including first degree murder], is declared to be an habitual 
criminal, and the court in which such third or subsequent conviction is had, in imposing sentence, 
shall impose a life sentence upon the person so convicted unless the subsequent felony conviction 
requires or allows and results in the imposition of capital punishment.” 
2 Miles v. State, 2009 WL 4114385 (Del. Nov. 23, 2009). 
 
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(4) 
Miles is incorrect.  In 2007, when he committed the crime of attempted 
first degree murder, and in 2009, when he was sentenced following his conviction, 
PWID was a predicate felony under the life sentencing provisions of the then-
existing habitual offender statute.  Under similar circumstances, this Court has held 
that “[t]he later reclassification of some of the crimes underlying [a defendant’s] 
predicate felony convictions as misdemeanors does not make those convictions non-
predicate convictions under Section 4214.”3  Thus, we conclude that Miles was 
properly sentenced as a habitual offender in 2009.  Moreover, whether or not Miles 
had been declared a habitual offender in this case, the Superior Court was required 
under 11 Del. C. § 4209(a) to sentence Miles to life without probation on his 
attempted first degree murder conviction.  Thus, we find no merit to his argument 
that his life sentence is illegal. 
NOW, THEREFORE, IT IS ORDERED that the judgment of the Superior 
Court is AFFIRMED. 
 
 
 
 
 
BY THE COURT:  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
/s/ Leo E. Strine, Jr. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Chief Justice  
 
                                                 
3 Wehde v. State, 2015 WL 5276752, *3 (Del. Sept. 9, 2015).  Cf. Butcher v. State, 171 A.3d 537 
(on direct appeal from enhanced sentence imposed under 11 Del. C. § 1448(e)(1)(c), court held 
that sentencing court should have applied statutory definition of “violent felony” in effect at the 
time defendant committed his latest offense to determine whether enhanced sentencing provision 
applied to defendant).