Court Opinion

ID: 9946074
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-02-28 23:06:05.370042+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:25:24.097153
License: Public Domain

_             ORIGINAL                r                          02/28/2024

            IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STALE OF MONTANA                                Case Number: OP 24-0092

                                        OP 24-0092

KEITH M. BORRA,

             Petitioner,

       v.                                                            ORDER

PETER BLUWORTH, WARDEN,                                                           ALE
              Resp ondent.                                                        FEB 2 7 2024
                                                                                Bowen Greenwood
                                                                              Clerk of Supreme Court
                                                                                 State of Montana '

      Keith M. Borra petitions this Court for habeas corpus relief, indicating that his
sentence is illegal because none of it was suspended.          He includes a copy of the
December 20, 2019 Judgment and Sentence, issued in the Tenth Judicial District Court,
Fergus County.
       The District Court held a sentencing hearing for Borra, who appeared with counsel,
on December 9, 2019, after a jury found Borra guilty on three charges. The District Court
sentenced Borra to the Department of Corrections (DOC) to an unsuspended, five-year
term for a second offense of stalking, pursuant to § 45-5-220, MCA. The court also
imposed a consecutive, unsuspended, five-year term to the DOC for felony tampering with
a witness/informant, pursuant to § 45-7-206, MCA. Lastly, the court imposed a six-month
jail term for misdemeanor attempted violation of a protective order that ran concurrently
with his other sentences. The court awarded 230 days of credit for jail time served.
       Last year, this Court denied his Petition for an Out-of-Time Appeal because he
offered no explanation for the four-year delay in seeking an appeal. See State v. Borra,
No. DA 23-0670, Order (Mont. Dec. 5, 2023).
       Borra cites to § 46-18-201(3)(a)(iv)(A), MCA (2017). He states that "all but the
first five years . . . must be suspended . . ." according to this statute. Borra requests a
reduction of his sentence or remand to the District Court for imposition of a lesser sentence.
       Borra is not entitled to a reduction of his sentence. While Borra cites correctly to
the statute for sentencing, that statute does not apply to his offenses. Pursuant to § 46-18-
201(3)(a)(iii), MCA, a sentencing judge may impose a sentence that may include a term of
incarceration, as provided in Title 45 for the offense. A jury found Borra guilty of two
offenses stalking and tampering with a witness. Pursuant to § 45-5-220(3), MCA (2017),
for a second stalking offense, "the offender shall be imprisoned in the state prison for a
term not to exceed 5 years . . . ." Pursuant to § 45-7-206(2), MCA (2017), "[a] person
convicted of tampering with witnesses or informants shall be imprisoned in the state prison
for any term not to exceed 10 years . . . ." Borra received five years when he could have
received a ten-year term on the second conviction.           The District Court imposed
unsuspended sentences according to Montana's statutory scheme. The District Court has
the statutory authority to run sentences for two or more offenses consecutively. Section
46-18-401(4), MCA.
       Borra has not demonstrated an illegal sentence. Section 46-22-101(1), MCA. Borra
has a lawful sentence. He is not entitled to the relief requested. Accordingly,
       IT IS ORDERED that Borra's Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus is DENIED and
DISMISSED.
       IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that this matter is CLOSED as of this Order's date.
       The Clerk is directed to provide a copy of this Order to counsel of record and to
Keith M. Borra personally.
       DATED this Z.3.• day of February, 2024.

                                                                Chief Justice

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