State v. Youpee

The Supreme Court affirmed in part and reversed and remanded in part an order of the district court revoking Appellant’s suspended sentence and committing him to the Department of Corrections for ten years for commitment to an appropriate correctional facility or program.Appellant was convicted of murder in federal court and sentenced to life in federal prison. While on federal parole, Appellant committed the offense of robbery and was sentenced to a fifteen-year commitment to the Montana Department of Corrections. After discharging the unsuspended portion of his state sentence, Appellant was transferred to federal prison until he was released on federal parole and concurrent state probation. Appellant’s state sentence was subsequently revoked, and Appellant was resentenced to serve a ten-year commitment to the Department of Corrections for placement in an appropriate correctional facility or program. The Supreme Court held (1) the district court’s failure to specify that Appellant’s new sentence ran concurrently with any other sentence he was serving resulted in the imposition of an illegal sentence; (2) the district court erroneously failed to credit Appellant for time served in federal custody after he discharged on to state probation; and (3) Appellant waived his objection to the court’s failure to state the reason for not granting street time credit. View "State v. Youpee" on Justia Law