Title: Gatewood v. State

State: delaware

Issuer: Delaware Supreme Court

Document:

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE 
 
STANLEY GATEWOOD, 
 
Defendant Below- 
Appellant, 
 
v. 
 
STATE OF DELAWARE, 
 
Plaintiff Below- 
Appellee. 
§ 
§  No. 415, 2016 
§ 
§ 
§ 
§  Court Below—Superior Court 
§  of the State of Delaware 
§   
§  Cr. ID 1407022963 
§ 
§ 
 
 
 
 
 
Submitted: October 18, 2016 
 
 
 
 
Decided: 
December 12, 2016 
 
Before STRINE, Chief Justice; HOLLAND, and SEITZ, Justices. 
 
ORDER 
 
 
This 12th day of December 2016, upon consideration of the appellant’s 
opening brief, the State’s motion to affirm, and the record below, it appears 
to the Court that: 
 
(1) 
The appellant, Stanley Gatewood, filed this appeal from the 
Superior Court’s denial of his motion for correction of sentence.  The State 
has filed a motion to affirm the judgment below on the ground that it is 
manifest on the face of Gatewood’s opening brief that his appeal is without 
merit.  We agree and affirm. 
 
(2) 
The record reflects that Gatewood pled guilty on May 11, 2015 
to Possession of a Firearm by a Person Prohibited (“PFBPP”), Receiving a 
 
2
Stolen Firearm, and Conspiracy in the Second Degree.  After a presentence 
investigation, the Superior Court sentenced Gatewood, effective October 13, 
2014, to serve a total period of twenty years at Level V incarceration, to be 
suspended after serving ten years in prison for decreasing levels of 
supervision.  Gatewood did not appeal. 
 
(3) 
In September 2015, Gatewood filed a motion for credit time, 
which the Superior Court denied.  This Court affirmed the Superior Court’s 
decision on appeal.1  In rejecting Gatewood’s claims in that appeal, we noted 
that Gatewood previously had been convicted of two prior violent felonies, 
PFBPP in 2011 and Distribution of a Controlled Substance within 300 Feet 
of a Church in 2010.2  Gatewood’s prior violent felony record prohibited the 
Superior Court from imposing any concurrent prison sentences in 
Gatewood’s case.3 
 
(4) 
In July 2016, Gatewood filed a motion for correction of 
sentence under Superior Court Rule 35(a).  Gatewood argued that he did not 
have two predicate violent felony convictions subjecting him to an enhanced 
ten-year sentence for his 2015 PFBPP conviction.  The Superior Court 
denied his motion.  This appeal followed. 
                                                 
1 Gatewood v. State, 2016 WL 792382 (Del. Feb. 29, 2016). 
2 Id. at *1 n.2.  At the time of his respective prior convictions, these offenses were 
designated violent felonies under 11 Del. C. § 4201(c). 
3 Id. at *1 (citing 11 Del. C. § 3901(c)). 
 
3
 
(5) 
We find no merit to Gatewood’s appeal.  The Court previously 
held in Gatewood’s most recent appeal that he had been convicted of two 
prior felonies that, at the time of his convictions, had been designated 
“violent” under 11 Del. C. § 4201(c).4  We are not required to reconsider this 
claim simply because it has been refined or restated.5  Moreover, to the 
extent Gatewood is attempting to challenge the constitutionality of 11 Del. 
C. § 1448 or the validity of his plea agreement, he failed to raise those 
arguments in the Superior Court.  We will not consider those claims in the 
first instance.6   
 
NOW, THEREFORE, IT IS ORDERED that the judgment of the 
Superior Court is AFFIRMED. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
BY THE COURT: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
/s/ Collins J. Seitz, Jr. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Justice 
                                                 
4 Id. 
5 Chrichlow v. State, 2014 WL 4243629, *2 (Del. Aug. 26, 2014). 
6 Del. Supr. Ct. R. 8 (2016).