Court Opinion

ID: 9631687
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 10:46:26.041817+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:07:58.780997
License: Public Domain

THOMAS, Justice,
concurring specially.
I will agree that this case can lawfully be disposed of in accordance with the majority opinion. I think, however, that the court should be commended for its rescue of the district court from what seems to me to be an awkward and tenuous predicament. I am satisfied that Wyo.Stat. § 7-13-107(a) (1991) quite plainly provides that prior to invocation of the split sentence alternative the defendant must be sentenced to a term of years. That did not happen in this case, but the Court wisely treats the sentence that was imposed as one for three years and nine months. In this unique instance, credit then is given for the time successfully served on probation so that the incarceration is permitted only for the balance of the three years and nine months.
The district court was flirting with an extension of the doctrine of Yates v. State, 792 P.2d 187 (1990), leading to a conclusion that no legal sentence was imposed in the first instance, and it now is too late to resentence. This Court has avoided that result, but a proper initial sentence simply would have avoided the question. I read the split sentencing statute as permitting the incarceration in the county jail for up to a year followed by probation only after the predicate condition of imposition of a sentence is satisfied, and I have some difficulty understanding a different interpretation. Certainly, it is a problem that is easily remedied in the sentencing court.
*297I also believe that the district court has dodged a bullet here that had “due process of law” written all over it. Had the sentence orally imposed by the district judge who held the probation hearing been sustainable, it would be very difficult to conclude that the revocation had not been ordered because of conduct extraneous to the petition to revoke probation. I do not understand that Wlodarczyk ever had notice of the matters involving the young children or the threats to the probation officer and members of her family. It is clear that Wlodarczyk admitted the violation that was charged in the petition, however, and in view of the limited sanction that is approved, the possible constitutional violation can be overlooked as not prejudicial.
I offer these comments in hope that the trial courts will pay more attention to the manner of imposing split sentences and to the constitutional requirements that are present in probation revocation proceedings. The demands are not difficult to satisfy, and the results would be clear and appropriate. The Supreme Court of Wyoming should not have to strain to reach a result such as this. The questions should not arise.