Court Opinion

ID: 9527858
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:34:58.824782+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:26:15.297014
License: Public Domain

OPINION ON REHEARING
PARKS, Judge:
Petitioner, Donald R. Sealy, was convicted of Robbery With Firearms, After Former Conviction of Three Felonies, in Case No. CRF-83-233, and sentenced to thirty (30) years’ imprisonment. On direct appeal, the judgment and sentence was affirmed. In his petition for rehearing, petitioner urges this Court to reconsider its affirmance of his sentence alleging that he was improperly sentenced as a repeat offender under the enhancement provisions of 21 O.S.1981, Section 801, because his prior convictions were not robbery related. Insofar as we agree with petitioner’s contention, the request for rehearing is hereby granted.
Section 801 specifically provides enhanced punishment for any person “guilty of three (3) separate and distinct felonies, in violation of this section....” (emphasis added). This language is clearly intended as a special enhancement provision for those persons found guilty of three (3) armed robbery offenses in violation of Section 801. This interpretation is conclusively supported by the title of the act which states in pertinent part, “ESTABLISHING MANDATORY MINIMUM SENTENCES FOLLOWING THREE ARMED ROBBERY CONVICTIONS,” and by a recent opinion by the Attorney General of Oklahoma, Op. Att’y Gen. No. 83-301 (Feb. 15, 1984), which states in part:
It is, therefore, the official opinion of the Attorney General that the enhancement provisions of 21 O.S.Supp. 1983, 801, are not triggered until as offender has been convicted of three (3) separate and distinct violations of this section, with such convictions having arisen from no fewer than three (3) separate and distinct criminal transactions, (emphasis in original)
The record before this Court shows that the petitioner has previously been convicted twice for Embezzlement by Bailee, and once for Larceny of an Automobile. The trial court properly prohibited the State from enhancing petitioner’s punishment under the Habitual Criminal Statute, 21 O.S. 1981, Section 51, because the petitioner was not afforded a preliminary hearing on the issue of the former convictions. Therefore, because petitioner does not have three (3) prior armed robbery convictions under Section 801, the trial court erred in allowing the State to enhance petitioner’s punishment under that section.
Accordingly, insofar as it is impossible to determine the sentence the jury would have rendered under proper instructions, the petitioner’s sentence is hereby MODIFIED to five (5) years’ imprisonment, which is the minimum permitted after conviction for a single armed robbery.
BRETT and BUSSEY, JJ„ concur.