Opinion ID: 2518463
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: analysis

Text: The issue in this case is whether the district court in Twin Falls County had the authority to impose a sentence of incarceration to be served separately from a sentence of incarceration that had been pronounced, but suspended, in the Gooding County case. Relying upon State v. Bello, 135 Idaho 442, 19 P.3d 66 (Ct.App.2001), Cisneros-Gonzalez argues that the district court lacked such authority. In Bello the district court imposed a sentence of incarceration, to begin immediately, and ordered it to be consecutive to a previously pronounced, but suspended, sentence of incarceration in an unrelated federal case. In holding that the district court lacked such authority, the Court of Appeals stated that under Idaho Code § 18-308, a sentence of imprisonment can be made to run consecutive only to an earlier term of imprisonment. The statute does not authorize a sentencing court to order a term of imprisonment to run consecutive to a term of probation. 135 Idaho at 445, 19 P.3d at 69. Idaho Code § 18-308 provides as follows: When any person is convicted of two (2) or more crimes before sentence has been pronounced upon him for either, the imprisonment to which he is sentenced upon the second or other subsequent conviction, in the discretion of the court, may commence at the termination of the first term of imprisonment to which he shall be adjudged, or at the termination of the second or other subsequent term of imprisonment, as the case may be. The statute has no application to this situation. By its terms, it only applies when a defendant is convicted of two (2) or more crimes before sentence has been pronounced upon him for either. A sentence is pronounced when the judge announces it, even if the judge suspends execution of the judgment. State v. McCool, 139 Idaho 804, 806-07, 87 P.3d 291, 293-94 n. 1 (2004); Peltier v. State, 119 Idaho 454, 808 P.2d 373 (1991); I.C. § 19-2503 (1997). Cisneros-Gonzalez admitted during oral argument that if pronounced means announced, Bello was incorrectly decided. The sentence in the Gooding County case had been pronounced on September 21, 1998, over three months before Cisneros-Gonzalez was sentenced in the Twin Falls County case. Therefore, by its terms § 18-308 does not apply. Idaho Code § 18-308 is not the source of a court's authority to impose a cumulative sentence. State v. Lawrence, 98 Idaho 399, 565 P.2d 989 (1977). Under the common law, the courts in Idaho have discretionary power to impose cumulative sentences. Id. Prior to 1972, that common-law authority was modified slightly. Former Idaho Code § 18-308 required consecutive terms of imprisonment in cases that fell within its provisions. Id. In 1972 the statute was amended to make the imposition of consecutive sentences discretionary in the cases within its scope. [T]he primary effect of the amendment was essentially to reinstate the common law rule which had been modified by the prior statute. 98 Idaho at 401, 565 P.2d at 991. Cisneros-Gonzalez argues that because there was no probation at common law, the district court in Twin Falls lacked the common law authority to order that its sentence be consecutive to the sentence in the Gooding County case. We need not address whether a court can order that a sentence of incarceration be served consecutively to a period of probation in another case because that is not what occurred in this case. Likewise, we are not holding that a period of incarceration could be ordered consecutive to a sentence in another case that had not yet been pronounced. The district judge in Twin Falls did not intend that the incarceration he ordered would commence after Cisneros-Gonzalez's probation ended in the Gooding County case. The judge sentenced Cisneros-Gonzalez to incarceration in the state penitentiary and remanded him to the custody of the sheriff to begin serving that sentence. Although the judge retained jurisdiction for 120 days, Cisneros-Gonzalez's incarceration commenced immediately. When sentencing Cisneros-Gonzalez, the judge expressly stated that he would not order that the incarceration be concurrent with the Gooding County case. He clearly intended that the incarceration in the Twin Falls County case be cumulative to any incarceration Cisneros-Gonzalez served in the Gooding County case. He had the common law authority to do so.