Court Opinion

ID: 9783945
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 20:30:24.608408+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:35:45.201719
License: Public Domain

SCOTT, J.,
dissenting.
I must respectfully dissent, as I believe the Court of Appeals correctly perceived the trial court’s revocation and sentencing order implicitly corrected (amended) the original sentence as pronounced earlier in open court. I also disagree with the majority on the alleged nature of this sentence.
I agreed with the majority in McClanahan v. Commonwealth, 308 S.W.3d 694 (Ky.2010) because the “hammer” clause in that plea agreement was implemented by the trial judge without the exercise of any discretion as is required by KRS 532.010(1), 533.010(2), 532.050(1), KRS 532.110(1), and RCr 11.02, and the sentence — due to the defendant’s violation of the agreement — resulted in an unlawful sentence. McClanahan, however, dealt with the consequences of the defendant’s violation of the plea agreement, Id. at 696-97, while here, we are dealing with a defendant’s violation of the court’s sentence.7 And here, the majority reverses, essentially because the trial court fixed the sentence in such a way that the defendant would control whether the sentences would be consecutive or concurrent and served in an institution or fully probated.
Trial courts need as many tools as possible within the statutory guidelines for sentencing the multitude of differing defendants which come before them. Some of these tools (sentencing scenarios) work for some, while others are needed for those more hardened or recalcitrant. Their object, however, when used in connection with probation or conditional discharge, is the same — construct a sentencing package within the statutory guidelines that will assist the defendant in controlling his conduct in such a manner that probation or conditional discharge will work for that defendant, assuming probation or conditional discharge is a viable alternative. Trial courts don’t always have to use them, but having them — or threatening their use — can be a useful tool in the successful rehabilitation of an individual.
*659Here, Appellant was charged with twenty-nine separate crimes: six counts of third-degree burglary, three counts of theft over three hundred dollars, three counts of theft under three hundred dollars, two counts of first-degree criminal mischief, four counts of third-degree criminal mischief, once count of third-degree assault, one count of resisting arrest, one count of second-degree fleeing or evading the police, one count of public intoxication, two counts of third-degree criminal trespass, one count of third-degree possession of a controlled substance, one count of possession of less than eight ounces of marijuana, one count of possession of drug paraphernalia, and, finally, one count of possession of a controlled substance not in a proper container.
He was probated on June 12, 2006, and his probation was revoked on February 7, 2007 — but only after he had violated his probation numerous times. The last was on October 19, 2006, when he was arrested for public intoxication, second-degree possession of a controlled substance, second-degree escape, menacing, criminal mischief, third-degree criminal trespass, alcohol intoxication (first and second offense), and second-degree disorderly conduct.8 A urinalysis taken the next day found traces of marijuana, cocaine, hydrocodone, and hydromorphone in his system. Upon revocation, the trial court, with one adjustment/implemented the twenty-year sentence.
In reversing the trial court’s sentence, the majority now forbids alternative sentences dependent upon a defendant’s compliance with the terms of probation or conditional discharge, holding that KRS 532.030 requires the sentence to be “fixed” at the time of sentencing and that KRS 532.110(1) requires the trial judge to “determine at the time of sentence whether the prison terms shall be served concurrently or consecutively.” (Emphasis added).
As to KRS 532.030, I see no reason to hold that the sentence here was not fixed at the time of sentencing. In fact, it was. If he complied with the terms of probation, his sentence was three years, if he did not, it would be twenty! All of this was fixed at the sentencing and as Appellant was charged with, and pled to, twenty-nine different charges, twenty years was a permissible sentence. The fact that the Court lowered Appellant’s sentence to three years probation provided he stay clean and sober, keep out of people’s homes and buildings, and leave them alone, was a bonus for him and one to which he did not object — that is, until he went about his merry criminal ways.
As to the concurrency issue, KRS 532.110(1) says that “the multiple sentences shall run concurrently or consecutively as the court shall determine at the time of sentence.” (Emphasis added). Again, the trial court did settle this issue at the time of sentencing. As the trial court stated orally, the sentence was to run concurrently if Appellant complied, but consecutively if he did not. What I cannot read into the statute is that it has to be one way or the other at the time of sentencing and must remain so, notwithstanding the multitude of contingencies yet to occur.
It just seems to me, we are reading something into the statute that the legislature did not intend. Moreover, in so doing, we are unnecessarily restricting sentencing tools our trial courts need to *660inhibit conduct against public safety, while at the same time inhibiting contingencies that could assist other defendants in mending their ways. For these reasons, I respectfully dissent.

. The majority agrees that the failure to include the alternative sentence in the judgment (if probation were violated) was a clerical error, subject to correction by the trial court via RCr 10.10 and Cardwell v. Commonwealth, 12 S.W.3d 672 (Ky.2000).

. He had been previously arrested on July 12, 2006 for alcohol intoxication and possession of a controlled substance.