Holt v. Furlong, 96SA457

• Decision Date: 20 October 1997
• Docket Number: No. 96SA457,96SA457
• Citation: 945 P.2d 1383
• Parties: 97 CJ C.A.R. 2295 James HOLT, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Robert FURLONG, Respondent-Appellee.
• Court: Colorado Supreme Court

Page 1383

945 P.2d 1383

97 CJ C.A.R. 2295

James HOLT, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Robert FURLONG, Respondent-Appellee.

No. 96SA457.

Supreme Court of Colorado En Banc.

Oct. 20, 1997.

James Holt, Limon, Pro Se.

Gale A. Norton, Attorney General, Martha Phillips Allbright, Chief Deputy Attorney General, Richard A. Westfall, Solicitor General, Garth C. Lucero, Deputy Attorney General, Paul S. Sanzo, First Assistant Attorney General, Civil Litigation Section, Inmate Litigation, Denver, for Respondent-Appellee.

Justice SCOTT delivered the Opinion of the Court.

The appellant, James Holt (Holt), filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the Lincoln County District Court, Honorable Norman L. Arends presiding, seeking his immediate release from the custody of the Colorado Department of Corrections (DOC) on parole. The district court issued the writ and held a hearing to determine whether or not Holt was entitled to release. Following the hearing, the court concluded that the appellant was not entitled to be released on parole, discharged the writ of habeas corpus, and dismissed the petition. Holt appeals seeking our review. We affirm the judgment of the district court.

I.

Holt is a prisoner at the Limon Correctional Facility of the DOC. The respondent, Robert Furlong, is the superintendent of the Limon facility. According to the record and the pleadings, in 1992 Holt was convicted of several crimes and began serving sentences imposed in various proceedings in Denver, Douglas, and Elbert counties. Holt was convicted of first-degree criminal trespass in Douglas County and began an eight-year sentence on August 3, 1992. He was also convicted of and sentenced to six years in the DOC by the Denver District Court for theft by receiving, to be served concurrent with the Douglas County sentence. In addition, in 1993 Holt began serving a one-year concurrent sentence in Arapahoe County for escape.

The Elbert County District Court sentenced Holt to ten years for second-degree burglary on February 18, 1992. The Elbert County sentence was to be served in community corrections in Arapahoe County, not the DOC, and was to run concurrently with the Douglas County sentence.

On May 7, 1995, Holt was released from the DOC pursuant to an order from the Colorado State Board of Parole. The order placed Holt on parole for a period of three years with respect to the sentences from Arapahoe, Denver, and Douglas counties. However, a condition of Holt's parole was that he was to report directly to Elbert County authorities pursuant to a detainer filed by Elbert County Authorities. Holt had been terminated from the community corrections facility to which he was sentenced by the Elbert County District Court for a term of ten years. The detainer had been filed for the purpose of a resentencing hearing on the Elbert County conviction.

On September 5, 1995, Holt was resentenced by the Elbert County District Court to ten years to be served in the custody of the DOC, effective nunc pro tunc to February 18, 1992. See People v. Hoecher, 822 P.2d 8, 12 (Colo.1991) ("If the sentencing court determines that the offender shall not remain in community corrections, the court is authorized to resentence the offender and 'impose any sentence which might originally have been imposed...