Title: Pumphrey v. State

State: delaware

Issuer: Delaware Supreme Court

Document:

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE 
ELTON L. PUMPHREY,                      
           
Defendant Below- 
Appellant,   
 
v. 
 
STATE OF DELAWARE, 
     
 
 
     
Plaintiff Below- 
Appellee. 
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   No. 419, 2004  
 
   Court Below---Superior Court 
   of the State of Delaware, 
   in and for Sussex County  
   Cr. A. No. VS00-04-0161-02 
                      
 
Submitted: May 20, 2005   
   Decided: July 11, 2005    
 
Before STEELE, Chief Justice, HOLLAND and RIDGELY, Justices 
 
 
O R D E R 
 
 
This 11th day of July 2005, upon consideration of the briefs on appeal and 
the record below, it appears to the Court that: 
 
(1) 
The defendant-appellant, Elton L. Pumphrey, filed an appeal from the 
Superior Court’s September 7, 2004 order denying his motion for correction of an 
illegal sentence pursuant to Superior Court Criminal Rule 35(a).  We find no merit 
to the appeal.  Accordingly, we AFFIRM.  
 
(2) 
In October 2000, Pumphrey was found guilty by a Superior Court jury 
of Conspiracy in the Second Degree, among other charges.  He was sentenced on 
the conspiracy conviction to 2 years incarceration at Level V, to be suspended for 2 
years at Level III probation.  In July 2001, Pumphrey was found to have committed 
 
 
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a violation of probation (“VOP”).  His probation was revoked and he was 
sentenced on the conspiracy conviction to 2 years incarceration at Level V, to be 
suspended after 6 months for 12 months at Level III.  In November 2002, 
Pumphrey again was found to have committed a VOP.  His probation again was 
revoked and he was sentenced on the conspiracy conviction to 17 months 
incarceration at Level V.   
 
(3) 
In this appeal, Pumphrey claims that this latter VOP sentence is 
illegal.  Specifically, he argues that, because he was required to serve only 12 
months of probation under his July 2001 VOP sentence, he should have been 
required to serve no more than 12 months at Level V under his November 2002 
VOP sentence.   
 
(4) 
Delaware law provides that, if a VOP is established, the Superior 
Court may “require the probation violator to serve the sentence imposed, or any 
lesser sentence, and, if imposition of sentence was suspended, may impose any 
sentence which might originally have been imposed.”1   
 
(5) 
In this case, Pumphrey’s original 2-year Level V sentence on his 
conspiracy conviction was suspended for 2 years at Level III.  His sentence 
following his first VOP was 2 years at Level V, to be suspended after 6 months for 
                                                 
1 Del. Code Ann. tit. 11, § 4334(c) (2001); Gamble v. State, 728 A.2d 1171, 1172 (Del. 1999). 
 
 
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probation.  Following Pumphrey’s second VOP, the Superior Court was authorized 
to impose the entire Level V term that previously had been suspended---that is, 18 
months.  As such, the Superior Court’s sentence of 17 months incarceration at 
Level V for Pumphrey’s second VOP was less than the maximum punishment 
allowed.   
 
NOW, THEREFORE, IT IS ORDERED that the judgment of the Superior 
Court is AFFIRMED. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
BY THE COURT: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
/s/ Myron T. Steele 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Chief Justice