Title: Purnell v. State

State: delaware

Issuer: Delaware Supreme Court

Document:

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE 
LAUREN PURNELL, 
 
Defendant Below- 
Appellant, 
 
v. 
 
STATE OF DELAWARE, 
 
Plaintiff Below- 
Appellee. 
§ 
§ 
§  No. 280, 2016 
§ 
§ 
§  Court Below—Superior Court 
§  of the State of Delaware 
§   
§  Cr. ID 1408003462 
§ 
§ 
 
 
 
 
 
Submitted: September 9, 2016 
 
 
 
 
   Decided: November  3, 2016 
 
Before VALIHURA, VAUGHN, and SEITZ, Justices. 
 
O R D E R 
 
This 3rd day of November 2016, upon consideration of the parties’ briefs and 
the record on appeal, it appears to the Court that: 
(1) 
The appellant, Lauren Purnell, filed this appeal from a Superior Court 
order dated April 29, 2016, which affirmed her Court of Common Pleas’ 
convictions for Breach of Release and Criminal Trespass in the Third Degree.  In 
its answering brief, the State of Delaware asserts that this Court lacks jurisdiction 
over Purnell’s appeal because the sentence imposed by the Court of Common Pleas 
does not meet the Court’s jurisdictional threshold under the Delaware Constitution.  
We agree.  Thus, Purnell’s appeal must be dismissed. 
 
 
2 
(2) 
The record reflects that the Court of Common Pleas sentenced Purnell 
for Breach of Release to thirty days at Level V incarceration to be suspended 
entirely for 360 days at Level I probation.  Purnell was sentenced for Criminal 
Trespass in the Third Degree to a $50 fine, which was suspended. 
 
(3) 
This Court’s constitutional jurisdiction is limited to criminal appeals 
when the sentence is “imprisonment exceeding one month, or fine exceeding One 
Hundred Dollars.”1 Purnell’s thirty-day suspended sentence is not a sentence of 
imprisonment exceeding one month, and the fine imposed did not exceed $100.  
Her sentence fails to meet the jurisdictional threshold.2  Therefore, the appeal must 
be dismissed.   
NOW, THEREFORE, IT IS ORDERED that the appeal is DISMISSED. 
BY THE COURT: 
/s/   James T. Vaughn, Jr. 
     Justice 
                                                 
1Del. Const. art. IV, § 11(1)(b) (emphasis added). 
2Marker v. State, 450 A.2d 397, 398 (Del. 1982).