Summary 2008 WY 28
Summary of Decision issued March 14, 2008
Summaries are prepared by Law Librarians and are not official statements of the Wyoming Supreme Court.
Case Name: Abitbol v. State
Citation: 2008 WY 28
Docket Number: S-07-0118; S-07-0186
Appeal from the
Representing Appellant (Defendant): Tina N. Kerin, Appellate Counsel, Wyoming Public Defender’s Office; Diane E. Courselle, Director, and Ian Sonshine, Student Intern, Defender Aid Program.
Representing Appellee (Plaintiff): Bruce A. Salzburg, Attorney General; Terry L Armitage, Deputy Attorney General; D. Michael Pauling, Senior Assistant Attorney General.
Facts/Discussion: Abitbol claimed that her sentences in both cases were illegal because the district court did not properly credit her for presentencing incarceration. A criminal defendant is entitled to credit, against both the minimum and maximum sentence for time spent in confinement prior to sentencing, provided that the confinement was solely to a financial inability to post bond on the offense for which the defendant was convicted and awaiting disposition. Sentencing decisions are reviewed for an abuse of discretion.
Abitbol claimed that because she received concurrent sentences, the credit given against each sentence should be equally applied to the sentence in the other case. The Court’s decision in Weedman does not apply in this case because these were not concurrent sentences imposed in a single case.
Abitbol’s first complaint concerned the district court’s refusal to award her credit against her sentence for the thirty days she spent in custody between her arrest and release on bond. In Smith v. State the Court held that a defendant is not entitled to credit for time spent in custody awaiting proceedings relating to the revocation of bond, because the confinement would have persisted regardless of the defendant’s financial ability to post bond. However, the district court erred in not granting Abitbol credit for the time spent in custody following the revocation hearing and the posting of the new bond.
Abitbol claimed the district court erred in denying her credit for time served between August and September 2005. She was effectively confined in relation to both criminal cases but that period of confinement would have persisted in S-07-0186 regardless of her bond posting capabilities so the Court stated that Abitbol was not entitled to additional credit for that jail time against her sentence in S-07-0118.
Abitbol argued that sentencing was unnecessarily delayed in No. S-07-0186 but the Court disagreed because the record indicated that Abitbol contributed or cased much of the delay.
Finally, Abitbol contended that she should have been given credit in both cases because her incarceration in
Holding: The Court affirmed the judgment and sentence of the district court underlying the appeal in No. S-07-0186. They held that Abitbol was entitled to additional credit in No. S-07-0118. Therefore the Court reversed the district court’s sentence and remanded with instruction to give credit for seven days.
Affirmed in part, reversed in part and remanded.
J. Golden delivered the decision.
Link: http://tinyurl.com/243grr .
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