Title: Heath v. State
Citation: N/A
Docket Number: 33, 2024
State: Delaware
Issuer: Delaware Supreme Court
Date: April 16, 2024

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE 
 
CLARENCE E. HEATH, 
 
Defendant Below, 
Appellant, 
 
v. 
 
STATE OF DELAWARE, 
 
Appellee. 
§ 
§  No. 33, 2024 
§ 
§  Court Below—Superior Court 
§  of the State of Delaware 
§   
§  Cr. ID No. 2308005997(K) 
§                     
§                     
§ 
 
 
 
 
 
Submitted:   February 15, 2024 
 
 
 
 
Decided: 
April 16, 2024 
 
Before SEITZ, Chief Justice; VALIHURA and GRIFFITHS, Justices. 
 
 
 
 
ORDER 
 
Upon consideration of the opening brief, motion to affirm, and record on 
appeal, it appears to the Court that: 
(1) 
The appellant, Clarence E. Heath, filed this appeal from a Superior 
Court order sentencing him for a violation of probation (“VOP”). The State of 
Delaware has filed a motion to affirm the judgment below on the ground that it is 
manifest on the face of Heath’s opening brief that his appeal is without merit.  We 
agree and affirm. 
(2) 
On August 31 2023, Heath pleaded guilty to third-offense driving under 
the influence (“DUI”).  The Superior Court immediately sentenced Heath to the 
sentence recommended by the parties: two years of Level V incarceration, effective 
2 
 
August 13, 2023, suspended for one year of Level V incarceration to be suspended 
after ninety days for one year of Level II probation.  The sentencing order also 
required Heath to maintain at least ninety consecutive days of sobriety with an 
alcohol monitoring device and to complete an intensive inpatient or outpatient 
alcohol treatment program of not less than three months.  Heath did not appeal. 
(3) 
On November 3, 2023 Heath was released from Level V incarceration.  
Before his release, Heath signed his conditions of probation and was instructed that 
he could not leave Delaware without permission.  On December 21, 2023 the 
Department of Correction (“DOC”) filed an administrative warrant for Heath’s 
VOP.  The VOP report alleged that Heath’s alcohol monitoring device, which 
included GPS, showed that he was in Maryland without permission on November 
27, 2023 and multiple times in December 2023.  The report also alleged that Heath 
had failed to report for the intake to the ninety-day intensive outpatient drug and 
alcohol treatment program that he was required to complete after his release from 
Level V incarceration.  
(4) 
After a hearing on January 8, 2024, the Superior Court found that Heath 
had violated his probation.  The Superior Court sentenced Heath, effective 
December 20, 2023, to one year and nine months of Level V incarceration, 
suspended after nine months Level V Reflections program for one year of Level III 
probation.  This appeal followed.   
3 
 
(5) 
In his opening brief, Heath argues that his VOP sentence was illegal.  
He is mistaken.  A sentence is illegal when it exceeds the statutorily authorized 
limits, violates double jeopardy, is ambiguous with respect to the time and manner 
in which it is to be served, is internally contradictory, omits a term required to be 
imposed by statute, is uncertain as to substance, or is a sentence that the judgment 
of conviction did not authorize.1   
(6) 
Once Heath committed a VOP, the Superior Court could impose any 
period of incarceration up to and including the balance of Level V time remaining 
on his sentence.2  Heath’s VOP sentence—one year and nine months of Level V 
incarceration suspended after nine months Level V Reflections program—does not 
exceed the Level V time remaining on his sentence for third-offense DUI and is not 
illegal.  It is manifest on the face of Heath’s opening brief that his appeal is without 
merit.            
NOW, THEREFORE, IT IS ORDERED that the motion to affirm is 
GRANTED and the judgment of the Superior Court is AFFIRMED. 
 
 
 
BY THE COURT: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
/s/ Collins J. Seitz, Jr. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                 Chief Justice 
 
1 Brittingham v. State, 705 A.2d 577, 578 (Del.1998). 
2 11 Del. C. § 4334(c); Pavulak v. State, 880 A.2d 1044, 1046 (Del. 2005).