Rone v. State

• Decision Date: 22 May 2023
• Docket Number: 615-2022
• Parties: SEAN ANTHONY RONE v. STATE OF MARYLAND
• Court: Court of Special Appeals of Maryland

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SEAN ANTHONY RONE v. STATE OF MARYLAND

No. 615-2022

Court of Special Appeals of Maryland^[*]

May 22, 2023

Circuit Court for Baltimore County Case No. 03-K-14-001288

Leahy Albright, Harrell, Glenn T., Jr. (Senior Judge, Specially Assigned), JJ.

OPINION ^[**]

Albright, J.

On November 19, 2014, the Circuit Court for Baltimore County convicted Sean Anthony Rone, appellant, in two separate cases of first-degree assault of one victim and second-degree rape of another. The first case, involving first-degree assault and other charges, was assigned number 03-K-14-001288 (the "first case" or "Case No. 1288"). The second case, involving second-degree rape and other charges was assigned number 03-K-14-002870 (the "second case" or "Case No. 2780").

Although Mr. Rone's convictions came at the same time pursuant to a plea agreement, the cases arose separately. After he was arrested in the first case, Mr. Rone posted bail. He then reoffended while out on bail. This led to his arrest and the opening of the second case. After that arrest, the State successfully moved to revoke Mr. Rone's bail, and Mr. Rone was served with an arrest warrant-that is, he was rearrested in the first case while in custody in the second case. Mr. Rone was then held pending trial in both cases.

Mr. Rone entered a plea agreement in both cases and was convicted. Pursuant to that agreement, Mr. Rone received two concurrent sentences: 25 years' imprisonment, with all but 15 years suspended, for first-degree assault in the first case; and 20 years' imprisonment, with all but 15 years suspended, for second-degree rape in the second case.

The commitment record in the first case, however, did not credit the time that Mr. Rone served after he was rearrested in the first case and before he was sentenced.^[1] As such, Mr. Rone sought to correct the commitment record, arguing, among other things, that he was entitled to credit in the first case for the time he served while held on the charges in that case.^[2] The circuit court denied Mr. Rone's motion, and this timely appeal followed.

Mr. Rone now presents two questions for our review, which we have recast as follows:

1. Did the court err by denying Mr. Rone full credit for time served against his sentence for first-degree assault?

2. Does the commitment record misstate the commencement date for Mr. Rone's first-degree assault sentence?^[3]

We answer these questions in the affirmative and will remand to the circuit court with instructions to correct the commitment record and docket entries in Case No. 1288.

BACKGROUND^[4]

On February 1, 2014, Mr. Rone was arrested and charged, in the District Court of Maryland, sitting in Baltimore County, with first- and second-degree assault, and bail was set. After posting bail, Mr. Rone was released the following day, on February 2, 2014. As conditions of his release, the district court prohibited Mr. Rone from having any contact with the alleged assault victim and required him to, among other things, "obey all laws."^[5] The case was then forwarded to the circuit court,^[6] and the State filed a criminal information charging Mr. Rone with first-degree assault and other crimes.

Three months later, while he was out on bail, Mr. Rone reoffended. He was arrested and charged in a second case with second-degree rape and related offenses against a different victim.

On May 28, 2014, the State petitioned the circuit court to revoke Mr. Rone's bail in the first case, arguing that because the allegations in the second case were "substantially similar" to those in the first case, Mr. Rone posed a "threat to public safety." The circuit court issued a "no bail" arrest warrant that same day. In addition to ordering Mr. Rone's arrest, the warrant further directed a peace officer to "[l]odge this warrant as a detainer for the continued detention of the defendant for the offense charged[.]"

On May 30, 2014, copies of the arrest warrant and charging document in the first case were served on Mr. Rone at the Baltimore County Detention Center, where he was incarcerated in connection with the second case. A hearing was then held, in which the circuit court revoked Mr. Rone's bail and remanded him to the custody of the Baltimore County Bureau of Corrections.

On November 19, 2014, the State advised the court that the parties had reached binding plea agreements in both pending cases. In Case No. 1288, Mr. Rone agreed to enter an Alford plea to first-degree assault,^[7] while the State agreed to recommend a sentence of 25 years with all but 15 suspended. In Case No. 2870, Mr. Rone agreed to plead guilty to second-degree rape, while the State agreed to recommend a concurrent sentence of 20 years with all but 15 suspended.^[8]

The circuit court accepted Mr. Rone's pleas, entered verdicts, and scheduled sentencing for December 9, 2014.^[9] At that sentencing hearing, the State discussed crediting Mr. Rone for time served in Case No. 1288, indicating that Mr. Rone should receive credit for time he served after being arrested in connection with the second case:

[THE COURT]: With respect to the case ending in 1288[,] where the Defendant was found guilty of first degree assault, the sentence is twenty-five years. I'm suspending all but fifteen years. The effective date of the sentence is the date of the Defendant's arrest because as I understand it he has never been released pending his trial dates.

* * *

[THE STATE]: Your Honor, . . . as to the case ending in 1288, he was released on bail and then he committed the second case in the meantime.

[THE COURT]: That's correct.

[THE STATE]: So, the start date should be . . . the arrest date in the second case with the addition of possibly a day or two where he served time.

[THE COURT]: Okay. So, the arrest date for the second degree rape was -- just moment. Madam Clerk, do you have that?

[DEFENSE COUNSEL]: Madam Clerk, he did spend some time incarcerated on that first charge.

[THE COURT]: Okay. We'll give him credit for any time served. It looks like the arrest date for the case ending in 2870 - -

[THE DEFENDANT]: I was arrested on the 14th.

[THE COURT]: Madam Clerk, do you have the date? It looks like May 14th, 2014.

[DEFENSE COUNSEL]: Yes.

[THE COURT]: The Defendant is stating that he was held for a period of time before he made bail on the other case. It looks like he made bail on the other case on February the 2nd, 2014. . . . [I]t looks like the date of arrest was February the 1st.

[THE STATE]: Yes, Your Honor.

[THE COURT]: So, it is just a one day credit.

[THE STATE]: Yes, Your Honor. So, February the 1st to the 2nd for the first case.

[THE COURT]: Correct.

[THE STATE]: And then [May]^[10] the 14th continuously since then.

[THE COURT]: Correct.

* * *

[THE COURT]: So, the sentence . . . with respect to 1288 for first degree assault is twenty-five years, suspend all but fifteen years. With respect to the case ending in 2870 for second degree rape, the sentence is twenty years suspend all but fifteen years to be served concurrent with the sentence imposed under 1288.

When the Defendant is released, he will be on five years of supervised probation. Pursuant to his conviction for the second degree rape, he must register as a Tier III sex offender for life.

After the court announced Mr. Rone's sentence, the court clerk issued commitment records. The commitment record in Case No. 1288 indicated that the sentence would be served "concurrent with any other outstanding or unserved sentence and begin on 12/08/14"-that is, one day before the sentencing hearing. The commitment record also indicated, "Credit time accounting from 2/1/14-2/2/14."^[11] Although the issue was discussed at sentencing, there was no mention in the commitment record of crediting Mr. Rone for the time he served in Case No. 1288 after he was rearrested.

In April 2022, Mr. Rone moved to correct his commitment record in Case No. 1288,^[12] asserting that he was also entitled to credit for the time that he served after he was rearrested in Case No. 1288. The circuit court denied the motion, stating that Mr. Rone had received one day credit for time served in Case No. 1288 and committed a second offense while on bail in Case No. 2870. The circuit court further stated that Mr. Rone received credit for time served in Case No. 2870 beginning on May 14, 2014. Mr. Rone, pro se, timely appealed that denial.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

"A trial court . . . must give a defendant credit for a period of pre-trial incarceration on the charge for which he or she is held[.]" Stevenson v. State, 180 Md.App. 440, 457 (2008) (emphasis retained). Accordingly, we review a trial court's decision to deny a defendant credit for time served de novo. See Gilmer v. State, 389 Md. 656, 662 (2005). The determination of whether to award credit "for time spent in custody for another charge or crime[,]" however, is entrusted to the discretion of the sentencing court and will not be reversed except for an abuse of discretion. Wilson v. Simms, 157 Md.App. 82, 95, cert. denied, 382 Md. 687 (2004). "A court's decision is an abuse of discretion when it is well removed from any center mark imagined by the reviewing court and beyond the fringe of what that court deems minimally acceptable." Wheeler v. State, 459 Md. 555, 561 (2018) (quotation marks and citations omitted).

DISCUSSION

As we understand Mr. Rone's argument, both before the circuit court and on appeal, he asserts that he should have received 194 days of time served credit in Case No. 1288. This includes one day of incarceration in February 2014 before he posted bail and 193 days of incarceration between the execution of the arrest warrant in Case No. 1288 (while Mr. Rone was already in custody on Case No. 2780) and sentencing.^[13] As such, Mr....