Case Name: PEOPLE v. BELL
Court: Michigan Court of Appeals
Jurisdiction: Michigan
Decision Date: 1991-07-23
Citations: 190 Mich. App. 433
Docket Number: Docket No. 125285
Parties: PEOPLE v BELL
Judges: Before: Michael J. Kelly, P.J., and Murphy and Neff, JJ.
Reporter: Michigan appeals reports; cases decided in the Michigan Court of Appeals.
Volume: 190
Pages: 433–435

Head Matter:
PEOPLE v BELL
Docket No. 125285.
Submitted June 5, 1991, at Grand Rapids.
Decided July 23, 1991, at 9:05 a.m.
Leave to appeal sought.
Nathaniel Bell was convicted, following a bench trial in the Recorder’s Court for the City of Detroit, M. John Shamo, J., of one count of second-degree murder, four counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, and one count of assault with intent to commit great bodily harm less than murder. He was sentenced to forty-five to ninety years in prison for the murder and criminal sexual conduct convictions and to six to ten years in prison for the assault conviction. The defendant appealed by leave granted.
The Court of Appeals held:
1. The record supports a reasonable inference that the defendant was armed with a weapon during each of the four sexual assaults. The evidence supports four convictions of first-degree criminal sexual conduct.
2. The forty-year-old defendant’s forty-five-year minimum sentence does not violate the sentencing principles set forth in People v Moore, 432 Mich 311 (1989).
Affirmed.
Michael J. Kelly, P.J., concurring, stated that although People v Rushlow, 437 Mich 149 (1991), compels affirmance in this case, Rushlow cannot be reconciled with Moore and should be revised.
Frank J. Kelley, Attorney General, Gay Secor Hardy, Solicitor General, John D. O’Hair, Prosecuting Attorney, Timothy A. Baughman, Chief of Research, Training, and Appeals, and Jeffrey Caminsky, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, for the people.
Michael C. Hidalgo, for the defendant on appeal.
Before: Michael J. Kelly, P.J., and Murphy and Neff, JJ.

Opinion:
Per Curiam.
Following a bench trial, defendant was convicted of one count of second-degree murder, MCL 750.317; MSA 28.549, four counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, MCL 750.520b; MSA 28.788(2), and one count of assault with intent to commit great bodily harm less than murder, MCL 750.84; MSA 28.279. For the murder and criminal sexual conduct convictions, defendant was sentenced to forty-five to ninety years in prison, and for the assault conviction, he was sentenced to six to ten years in prison. Defendant appeals by leave granted, and we affirm.
Defendant first argues that the evidence supports only convictions of third-degree criminal sexual conduct with respect to two of the four sexual conduct convictions. We disagree and find that the record supports a reasonable inference that defendant was armed with a weapon during each of the four sexual assaults.
Defendant's second claim is that his sentence exceeds his life expectancy. Defendant was forty years old at the time of sentencing. We, however, do not find defendant's forty-five-year minimum sentence to be violative of the principles set forth in People v Moore, 432 Mich 311; 439 NW2d 684 (1989). See People v Rushlow, 437 Mich 149; 468 NW2d 487 (1991).
Affirmed.