Opinion ID: 1239401
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Sentencing of the Defendant

Text: The defendant argued that the trial court abused its discretion in imposing a sentence of from 5 to 15 years in the Wyoming State Penitentiary. He was found guilty by the jury of the crime of manslaughter (§ 6-58, W.S. 1957) for which he could be    imprisoned in the penitentiary not more than twenty years. Defendant made no valid argument nor cited any authority for his contention that the trial court abused its discretion in the sentence imposed. The only argument made by defendant was that the trial court in passing sentence remarked that defendant knew the deceased was in the house of Robin Bentley when he entered, but that the evidence does not support this conclusion. Although the defendant testified he did not know the decedent was present, there was ample evidence from which the trial court could have concluded the defendant knew the deceased was in the house. In any event, the sentence was within the limits as set by the legislature, and since the determination of the penalty is exclusively within the discretion of the trial court it must stand. The defendant showed no abuse of discretion and we find none. The defendant concluded his argument by asking this court to consider the five assignments of error not as five individual assignments but as a group, and, when thus considered, the totality of the errors constituted grounds for reversal. Since we find no error in any of the five areas this argument has no merit. Affirmed.