Court Opinion

ID: 9735312
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 18:08:43.713152+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:57.282524
License: Public Domain

KELLY, Judge,
concurring:
I wholeheartedly join the majority. I write only to add the following thoughts regarding the appellant’s allegation that his sentence was manifestly unjust because of the gross disparity between his sentence and that of his codefendant.
Pennsylvania law is well settled that the imposition of sentence is a matter vested in the sound discretion of the sentencing judge, and the trial court is not bound to impose an identical sentence on all participants of a crime. Commonwealth v. Myers, 370 Pa.Super. 326, 330, 536 A.2d 428, 430 (1988) (citing Commonwealth v. Sinwell, 311 Pa.Super. 419, 427, 457 A.2d 957, 960 (1983)). However, when imposing different sentences on codefendants, the court must articulate the differences between the codefendants which justify the disparate sentences and should articulate, on the record, its reasons for imposing a more severe sentence on one codefendant than on another codefendant. Commonwealth v. Besch, 418 Pa.Super. 576, 585, 614 A.2d 1155, 1160 (1992); Commonwealth v. Szczesniewski, 404 Pa.Super. 617, 620, 591 A.2d 1055, 1056 (1991), allocatur denied, 530 Pa. 654, 608 A.2d 29 (1992); Commonwealth v. Losch, 369 Pa.Super. 192, 211, 535 A.2d 115, 124 (1987); Commonwealth v. Sinwell, supra. We note also that even in those instances where codefendants are sentenced by different judges, there should not be gross disparity in the sentences imposed on codefendants, unless factors exist to warrant the unequal sentences. Commonwealth v. Szczesniewski, supra (quoting Commonwealth v. Holler, 326 Pa.Super. 304, 310, 473 A.2d 1103, 1107 (1984)); Commonwealth v. Myers, supra. See generally Commonwealth v. Fuller, 396 Pa.Super. 605, 579 A.2d 879 (1990), allocatur denied, 527 Pa. 585, 588 A.2d 508 (1991).
In the instant case, the appellant entered a plea of nolo contendere to the crime of criminal conspiracy to commit *508involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, a felony of the second degree, on October 19, 1992, before Judge William E. Ford. He was then sentenced by Judge Ford, on November 30,1992, to a term of imprisonment of not less than five years nor more than ten years. In contrast, the appellant’s codefendant, Patricia Alama, entered a plea of nolo contendere four and one-half months later, on March 1, 1993, to the crime of criminal conspiracy to commit indecent assault, a misdemean- or of the second degree.1 She was sentenced by Judge Ford to a term of imprisonment of not less than six months nor more than one day less than twenty-four months. Because the appellant and his codefendant entered pleas of nolo contendere to different crimes of vastly different seriousness, factors which would warrant unequal sentences, the sentencing court was not required to recite on the record the reasons for the disparity in their sentences.

. We take judicial notice of the information contained in the docket of Case Number 3707/1991, Commonwealth v. Alama, Court of Common Pleas of Lehigh County, Criminal Division, concerning the original charges, the subsequent pleas, and the eventual sentence. “A court may properly take judicial notice of uncontested notations in the court record.” Commonwealth v. Byrd, 325 Pa.Super. 325, 332, 472 A.2d 1141, 1145 (1984). Further, the court may take judicial notice of a record which bears the seal of any court in the state. Commonwealth v. Socci, 177 Pa.Super. 426, 110 A.2d 862 (1955).