Opinion ID: 2570459
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: one aggravating factor could outweigh one mitigating factor

Text: The trial court's weighing of the aggravating and mitigating circumstances is within its sound discretion and will not be disturbed on appeal absent an abuse of discretion. State v. Spain, 269 Kan. 54, Syl. ¶ 1, 4 P.3d 621 (2000). Discretion is abused when judicial action is arbitrary, fanciful, or unreasonable, which is another way of saying that discretion is abused only when no reasonable person would take the view adopted by the trial court. State v. Wagner, 248 Kan. 240, 242, 807 P.2d 139 (1991). Saiz asserts that the court only found one aggravating circumstance and that the hard 40 sentence should not have been imposed because no aggravating circumstance outweighed the mitigating circumstance. K.S.A. 21-4635(c) reads in pertinent part: If the court finds that one or more of the aggravating circumstances enumerated in K.S.A. 21-4636 and amendments thereto exist and, further, that the existence of such aggravating circumstances is not outweighed by any mitigating circumstances which are found to exist, the defendant shall be sentenced pursuant to K.S.A. 21-4638 and amendments thereto. The weighing of the aggravating and mitigating circumstances is not a simple matter of counting the number of circumstances on each side. The court may consider the strength of the individual circumstances as well as the number of circumstances shown. A sole aggravating circumstance may be so strong that it outweighs several weaker mitigating circumstances. A single aggravating circumstance may support the imposition of a hard 40 sentence even when there is evidence to support a mitigating circumstance. See Spain, 269 Kan. at 55-60 (affirming hard 40 sentence where court considered only one aggravating circumstance and one mitigating circumstance); State v. Dias, 263 Kan. 331, 338, 949 P.2d 1093 (1997) (affirming hard 40 sentence where there was only one aggravating circumstance and one mitigating circumstance as the heinous, atrocious, and cruel nature of the crime outweighed the fact that the defendant had no prior significant criminal history); State v. Follin, 263 Kan. 28, 48, 947 P.2d 8 (1997) (noting that the weighing of aggravating and mitigating circumstances is not a simple numerical process and affirming hard 40 sentence where the jury found two aggravating circumstances and two mitigating circumstances); State v. Phillips, 252 Kan. 937, 942-43, 850 P.2d 877 (1993) (noting that one aggravating circumstance can be so compelling as to outweigh several mitigating factors and affirming hard 40 sentence where there was only one aggravating circumstance and six mitigating circumstances); State v. Bailey, 251 Kan. 156, 178, 834 P.2d 342 (1992) (holding that the two or three mitigating circumstances in the case were so weak that the hard 40 sentence could have been affirmed even if there would have been only one aggravating circumstance); and PIK Crim.3d 56.01-E (jury instruction used when the jury was to consider the hard 40 sentence informing jury to keep in mind that your decision should not be determined solely by the number of aggravating or any mitigating circumstances that are shown to exist). The trial court in the present case considered the one mitigating circumstance to be weak, as the court found that Saiz considered himself a man and committed the crimes in order to prove that he was a man. The fact that Saiz placed several lives in danger by shooting a shotgun during a drive-by shooting outweighs the mitigating factor of his age. We find no abuse in discretion where the trial court found that the weak mitigating circumstance did not outweigh the aggravating circumstance. Affirmed.