Opinion ID: 1231473
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: application of the standard of sentence review

Text: We find that the imposition of the maximum possible sentence on Mr. Milbourn for the acts he committed clearly violated the principle of proportionality and therefore constituted an abuse of discretion. We have reviewed with care the entire record of this matter and, with all respect for the trial judge's difficult determination, we are persuaded that the breaking and entering committed by the defendant does not rise to a level of seriousness that warrants the most severe penalty the law can inflict for that crime. We therefore conclude that the trial court abused its sentencing discretion, violating the intent of the Legislature to reserve the most severe sanctions for the most serious combinations of the offense and the background of the offender, and that resentencing is therefore required. The facts of the instant case, to be sure, do not constitute a typical burglary; whereas a more typical crime of that sort involves entry into the home of a stranger for the purpose of committing a larceny or an assault, Mr. Milbourn broke into an apartment in which he himself had resided for the apparent purpose of making an emotional and destructive statement about the breakup of his relationship with the complainant. The acts accompanying the acts for which Mr. Milbourn was sentenced to the maximum term of ten to fifteen years were visited against property rather than persons. The prior relationship of the defendant and the victim does not appear to be an aggravating factor in this case. Mr. Milbourn did not have a long history of hostile acts against the complainant, and he had not at the time of this offense engaged in other malicious behavior toward the victim. The burglary statute under which Mr. Milbourn was convicted proscribes a broad range of criminal conduct: it imposes liability for breaking and entering with intent to commit any felony or larceny.... [34] This provision thus encompasses not only entries with intent to maliciously destroy personal belongings, but also those accompanied by an intent to murder, assault, rape, steal or commit arson. In our discussion of proportionality, we observed that the Legislature has determined to visit the stiffest punishment against persons who have demonstrated an unwillingness to obey the law after prior encounters with the criminal justice system. Mr. Milbourn was a young man and, at the time the instant offense was committed, he had no criminal record. The facts of this case did not, in short, justify imposition of such a severe sentence. The trial judge, by sentencing Mr. Milbourn to the maximum possible term, has left no room for the principle of proportionality to operate on an offender convicted of a breaking and entering who has a previous record for this kind of offense or whose criminal behavior is more aggravated than in Mr. Milbourn's case. [35] The dissent has more graphically set forth the series of events consisting of assaultive behavior and destruction of property between December 18, 1984, and January 3, 1985, that were directed at the defendant's former live-in companion. While the defendant was clearly out of control during this period in which he was arrested three times and out of which he was prosecuted twice, it is still a fact that it was essentially one episode of irrational and destructive behavior directed at the same victim. We would not suggest that these acts in their totality do not merit imprisonment or a departure from the guidelines. We do, however, conclude that they do not rise to the maximum penalty that the Legislature has prescribed for the crime of which he was convicted. [36]