Court Opinion

ID: 9897818
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-11-14 19:25:30.343565+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:16:39.761873
License: Public Domain

COURT OF APPEALS OF VIRGINIA

              Present: Judges Malveaux, Ortiz and Friedman
UNPUBLISHED

              OCTAVIA RENAY BANDY
                                                                                MEMORANDUM OPINION*
              v.      Record No. 1268-22-1                                           PER CURIAM
                                                                                  SEPTEMBER 5, 2023
              COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA

                                  FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE CITY OF NORFOLK
                                               John R. Doyle, III, Judge

                               (J. Barry McCracken, Assistant Public Defender, on brief), for
                               appellant. Appellant submitting on brief.

                               (Jason S. Miyares, Attorney General; Rebecca M. Garcia, Assistant
                               Attorney General, on brief), for appellee. Appellee submitting on
                               brief.

                      Octavia Renay Bandy appeals the trial court’s judgment revoking her previously

              suspended sentence and imposing 1 year and 11 months’ incarceration. Bandy argues that the

              trial court abused its discretion by “failing to run the entire period of active incarceration . . .

              concurrently with active sentences” imposed in other jurisdictions. After examining the briefs

              and record in this case, the judgment of the trial court is affirmed.

                                                         BACKGROUND

                      In August 2019, the trial court convicted Bandy of possession of a Schedule I or II

              controlled substance and sentenced her to 2 years’ incarceration with 1 year and 11 months

              suspended, conditioned on her good behavior and the successful completion of 5 years’ supervised

              probation. The trial court ordered that Bandy was to serve her sentence “consecutively with all

                      *
                          This opinion is not designated for publication. See Code § 17.1-413(A).
other sentences.” Bandy finished her term of active incarceration and began supervised probation

on September 11, 2019.

        In April 2021, Bandy’s probation officer reported that Bandy had failed to report to several

scheduled office visits, had changed residences without notifying her probation officer, and had

absconded from supervision. In addition, the Virginia Beach Circuit Court had convicted Bandy on

two counts of shoplifting.1 On April 9, 2021, the trial court issued a capias for Bandy’s arrest. In an

addendum, Bandy’s probation officer reported that in June 2022, the Chesapeake Circuit Court

convicted her of receiving stolen property, identity theft, providing false identification to a law

enforcement officer, and eluding. The Chesapeake Circuit Court imposed a total of 4 years and 30

months’ incarceration with all but 20 months suspended.

        At the revocation hearing, Bandy did not contest that she had violated the conditions of her

suspended sentence by suffering new criminal convictions. Emphasizing that she had received a

10-month active sentence from Virginia Beach and a 20-month active sentence from Chesapeake,

Bandy asked the trial court to run any active incarceration concurrently with those sentences.2 She

argued that this was her first probation violation for absconding and she already had been

incarcerated for several months. In addition, she wanted “to get this dark patch of her life behind

her” so she could be with her four children. The Commonwealth argued that active incarceration

was warranted and objected to a concurrent sentence.

        1
           The Virginia Beach Circuit Court also convicted Bandy of forgery and two counts of
obtaining money by false pretenses. While Bandy was convicted in 2021, these offenses occurred
before she began supervised probation in Norfolk. The Virginia Beach Circuit Court imposed a
total of six years’ incarceration with all but ten months suspended.
        2
         The discretionary sentencing guidelines recommended a sentence between time served and
one year of incarceration.
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        In allocution, Bandy apologized to the trial court and her family. She wanted to complete

any sentence so she could “move forward to better [her] life . . . for [her] children” and asked for the

court’s “consideration.”

        The trial court expressed sympathy for the “situation” Bandy’s “children . . . face[d]” but

found that Bandy needed to “make different choices” because she could not “steal while on

probation.” Not wanting Bandy to be on probation in three jurisdictions, the trial court revoked the

balance of her previously-suspended sentence but ordered 11 months of the sentence to “run

concurrently with the sentence in Chesapeake.” Bandy appeals.

                                             ANALYSIS

        “On appeal, ‘[w]e “view the evidence received at [a] revocation hearing in the light most

favorable to the Commonwealth, as the prevailing party, including all reasonable and legitimate

inferences that may properly be drawn from it.”’” Green v. Commonwealth, 75 Va. App. 69, 76

(2022) (alterations in original) (quoting Johnson v. Commonwealth, 296 Va. 266, 274 (2018)).

“[T]he trial court’s ‘findings of fact and judgment will not be reversed unless there is a clear

showing of abuse of discretion.’” Id. (quoting Jacobs v. Commonwealth, 61 Va. App. 529, 535

(2013)).

        After suspending a sentence, a trial court “may revoke the suspension of sentence for any

cause the court deems sufficient that occurred at any time within the probation period, or within the

period of suspension fixed by the court.” Code § 19.2-306(A). Under the revocation statutes in

effect when Bandy’s revocation proceedings began, once the trial court found that she had violated

the terms of the suspension, it was obligated to revoke the suspended sentence and it was in “full

force and effect.” Code § 19.2-306(C)(ii) (2020 Cum. Supp.). The trial court was then

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permitted—but not required—to re-suspend all or part of the sentence. Id.; Alsberry v.

Commonwealth, 39 Va. App. 314, 320 (2002).3

       Bandy does not contest that she violated the conditions of her suspended sentence by

suffering new criminal convictions. Instead, she argues that the trial court abused its discretion

by not “running all or the majority of the sentence concurrent with the sentences she received in

Chesapeake.” She argues that given her “domestic situation,” the trial court “should have

tailored a sentence” that resulted in less active incarceration. In her view, a year of incarceration

in addition to the 30 months’ incarceration she received in other jurisdictions was harsh and an

abuse of discretion.

       In fashioning Bandy’s sentence, it was within the trial court’s purview to weigh any

mitigating factors she presented, including her children’s needs and the duration of the sentences

from the other jurisdictions. See Keselica v. Commonwealth, 34 Va. App. 31, 36 (2000). In

addition, it is well-established that multiple sentences are presumed to run consecutively unless the

trial court, in the exercise of its discretion, orders them to run concurrently. See Code § 19.2-308;

       3
          Effective July 1, 2021, Code § 19.2-306(C) was amended and no longer requires the
trial court to revoke the sentence. 2021 Va. Acts Sp. Sess. I ch. 538. Instead, “[i]f the court, after
hearing, finds good cause to believe that the defendant has violated the terms of suspension, then the
court may revoke the suspension and impose a sentence in accordance with the provisions of
§ 19.2-306.1.” Code § 19.2-306(C) (emphasis added). The “newly enacted Code § 19.2-306.1
limits the period of active incarceration” for “certain ‘technical violations.’” Green, 75 Va. App. at
78. Nevertheless,

               [i]f the court finds the basis of a violation of the terms and
               conditions of a suspended sentence or probation is that the
               defendant was convicted of a criminal offense that was committed
               after the date of the suspension . . . , then the court may revoke the
               suspension and impose or resuspend any or all of that period
               previously suspended.

Code § 19.2-306.1(B). Bandy’s violation was based, in part, on new criminal offenses
committed after the date of the suspension. Accordingly, even under the new probation
framework, the trial court retained the discretion to impose “any or all” of her previously
suspended sentence. Id.
                                                 -4-
Commonwealth v. Botkin, 68 Va. App. 177, 180 (2017); Brown v. Commonwealth, 284 Va. 538,

542 (2012).

        The record demonstrates that the trial court considered the mitigating evidence Bandy

presented and expressed sympathy regarding her children’s plight. Balanced against those

circumstances, however, was Bandy’s continuous criminal behavior while on probation, which

included multiple larcenies, identity theft, providing false identification to a law enforcement

officer, and eluding. In addition, Bandy failed to report to several scheduled appointments with her

probation officer and absconded from supervision. Although the trial court revoked the balance of

her suspended sentence, it ordered 11 months of the sentence to run concurrently with her sentences

from Chesapeake. That ruling reflects the trial court’s careful balancing of the evidence and

circumstances in this case, including its finding that probation obligations in three jurisdictions was

undesirable. The record further reflects that the trial court concluded some active incarceration for

Bandy’s continued criminal behavior was appropriate. Other than citing mitigating evidence,

Bandy provides no argument for why the trial court should have run her entire sentence

concurrently with the Chesapeake sentence, and the record contains nothing revealing that the trial

court abused its discretion by not doing so.

        “The statutes dealing with probation and suspension are remedial and intended to give the

trial court valuable tools to help rehabilitate an offender through the use of probation, suspension of

all or part of a sentence, and/or restitution payments.” Howell v. Commonwealth, 274 Va. 737, 740

(2007). Bandy’s disregard of the terms of her suspended sentence and continued criminal behavior

support the trial court’s finding that she was not amendable to rehabilitation. “When coupled with a

suspended sentence, probation represents ‘an act of grace on the part of the Commonwealth to one

who has been convicted and sentenced to a term of confinement.’” Hunter v. Commonwealth, 56

                                                 -5-
Va. App. 582, 587 (2010) (quoting Price v. Commonwealth, 51 Va. App. 443, 448 (2008)). Bandy

failed to make productive use of the grace that had been extended to her.

       “For probation to have a deterrent effect on recidivism, real consequences must follow a

probationer’s willful violation of the conditions of probation.” Price, 51 Va. App. at 449. Upon

review of the record in this case, we conclude that the sentence the trial court imposed represents

such real consequences and was a proper exercise of judicial discretion. See Alsberry, 39

Va. App. at 321-22 (finding the court did not abuse its discretion by imposing the defendant’s

previously suspended sentence in its entirety “in light of the grievous nature of [the defendant’s]

offenses and his continuing criminal activity”).

                                          CONCLUSION

       Finding no abuse of the trial court’s sentencing discretion, its judgment is affirmed.

                                                                                          Affirmed.

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