Court Opinion

ID: 9836383
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-02 03:13:29.843101+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:45:17.332926
License: Public Domain

SLAUGHTER, J.,
concurring in part, dissenting in part.
I agree with the Court that the temporary trial judge abused his discretion in *967ordering Bell to pay $20 per week in restitution. The judge was obliged to ensure his restitution order was supported by record evidence that Bell could afford the payments he decreed. Yet he failed to do so. The restitution order cannot stand and must be vacated. According to the Court, that ends the matter. On this point, I respectfully dissent. In my view, we should remand to allow the trial court to enter a fully lawful sentence for Bell.
We do not know what sentence the trial court would have imposed had it concluded Bell could not afford restitution. Perhaps the result would have been the same—that the court still would have imposed the same probation, including the suspended sentence, no matter what. Or perhaps not. I would remand to allow the trial court to answer that question for us.
MASSA, J., joins.