Court Opinion

ID: 9386302
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-04-11 22:06:26.881477+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:18:05.517197
License: Public Domain

04/11/2023

            IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF MONTANA
                                                                                       Case Number: OP 23-0179

                                       OP 23-0179

 JERRY JOE HENDERSON,                                                       FILF7Th,
             Petitioner,                                                     APR 1 1 2n23
                                                                          Bow, r,           /ood
                                                                        Ck-     ,    L.-r-no Court
                                                                           State of Montana
       v.
                                                                   ORDER
 STATE OF MONTANA, and
 JIM SALMONSEN,
 Warden, MONTANA STATE PRISON,

             Respondents.

       Jeny Joe Henderson has filed a "Motion for State Habeas Corpus Relief, under
Statute[d § 46-18-201(3)(a)(iv)(B)," MCA, to correct his sentence to include a five-year
suspended term. Henderson points out that he should have "all but the first 5 years of the
sentence by law . . . suspended." He requests that this Court remand his underlying case
to the Gallatin County District Court, as we did in 2019, to correct his sentence to a
twenty-year term instead of thirty years and to impose a conviction of misdemeanor sexual
assault instead of felony sexual intercourse without consent.
       This Court is familiar with Henderson's criminal history. In July 2019, the Gallatin
County District Court sentenced Henderson to the Montana State Prison for thirty years
with fifteen years suspended for sexual assault after this Court remanded the matter upon
the State's concession concerning Henderson's plea to a sexual offense. See State v.
Henderson, No. DA 17-0593, Order (Mont. Jan. 22, 2019). Henderson attempted to appeal
his sentence upon remand, and we denied his Petition.           State v. Henderson, No.
DA 22-0010, Order (Mont. Jan. 18, 2022).
       Henderson has also raised this argument about a sentence correction and a
commitment to the Department of Corrections.         See Henderson v. Salmonsen, No.
OP 22-0432, Order, at 1-2 (Mont. Aug. 23, 2022). Henderson's arguments are misplaced,
and he is mistaken. Henderson has a prison sentence, not a commitment to the DOC. He
also has a fifteen-year suspended term along with a fifteen-year prison term. As stated
before, Henderson has a valid sentence. His request for remand is unwarranted.
      Henderson has not demonstrated an illegal sentence or illegal incarceration. Section
46-22-101(1), MCA. He is not entitled to his requests. Therefore,
      IT IS ORDERED that Henderson's "Motion for State Habeas Corpus Relief' is
DENIED and DISMISSED.
      The Clerk is directed to provide a copy of this Order to counsel of record and to
Jerry Joe Henderson personally.
      DATED this 11Lqay of April, 2023.

                                                              Chief Justice
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                                                     egad in -411,

                                                                Justices

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