Title: Brown v. State
Citation: N/A
Docket Number: 178, 2004
State: Delaware
Issuer: Delaware Supreme Court
Date: September 13, 2004

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE 
WINFRED O. BROWN, SR., 
 
Defendant Below- 
Appellant, 
 
v. 
 
STATE OF DELAWARE, 
 
Plaintiff Below- 
Appellee. 
§ 
§ 
§  No. 178, 2004 
§ 
§ 
§  Court Below—Superior Court 
§  of the State of Delaware, 
§  in and for Kent County 
§  Cr. ID 0305001486 
§ 
§ 
 
 
 
 
 
Submitted: June 17, 2004 
 
 
 
 
   Decided: September 13, 2004 
 
Before STEELE, Chief Justice, HOLLAND, and JACOBS, Justices. 
 
O R D E R 
 
This 13th day of September 2004, 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, Winfred Brown, Sr., filed this appeal from the 
Superior Court’s denial of his motion for correction of sentence.  The State 
of Delaware has filed a motion to affirm the Superior Court’s judgment on 
the ground that it is manifest on the face of Brown’s opening brief that his 
appeal is without merit.  We agree and affirm.   
 
 
-2-
(2) 
The record reflects that Brown was arrested in May 2003 and 
indicted in August 2003 along with several codefendants on fourteen 
criminal charges, including drug trafficking and weapon offenses.  With the 
assistance of legal counsel, Brown pled guilty in February 2004 to one count 
of trafficking cocaine and one count of possession of a firearm during the 
commission of a felony.  In exchange for his guilty plea, the State dismissed 
the remaining charges.  The Superior Court immediately sentenced Brown, 
in accordance with the State’s sentencing recommendation to a total period 
of forty years at Level V imprisonment to be suspended after a minimum 
mandatory term of six years, followed by a year and a half of decreasing 
levels of supervision.  Brown did not file a direct appeal.  Instead, he filed a 
motion for correction of sentence in April 2004, which the Superior Court 
denied.  This appeal followed. 
 
(3) 
In his opening brief on appeal, Brown essentially contends that 
it was illegal for the State to indict him, and the Superior Court to sentence 
him, pursuant to the drug trafficking law that existed at the time of his arrest 
in May 2003 rather than the law as it was amended in June 2003.  According 
to Brown, House Bill 210, which increased the weight of cocaine necessary 
for a charge of trafficking from 5 grams to 10 grams, prohibited the State 
 
 
-3-
from charging him in August 2003 with trafficking for possessing 5.43 
grams of cocaine.1 
 
(4) 
This Court, however, already has rejected the argument that 
H.B. 210 could be applied retroactively to criminal conduct occurring before 
its effective date.2  Accordingly, we find no error in the Superior Court’s 
denial of Brown’s motion for correction of sentence.  Brown entered a 
knowing, intelligent, and voluntary guilty plea and was sentenced in 
accordance with the law and the terms of his plea agreement. 
NOW, THEREFORE, IT IS ORDERED that the judgment of the 
Superior Court is AFFIRMED. 
BY THE COURT: 
 
/s/ Jack B. Jacobs 
       Justice 
                                                 
1 See H.B. 210 (codified at 16 Del. C. § 4753A(a)(2)a). 
2 Ismaaeel v. State, Del. Supr., No. 17, 2004, Steele, C.J. (July 9, 2004), aff’g, 840 
A.2d 644 (Del. Super. 2004).