State v. Best
| Decision Date | 22 December 1989 |
| Docket Number | No. C3-89-585,C3-89-585 |
| Citation | 449 N.W.2d 426 |
| Parties | STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. David Joseph BEST, Appellant. |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Syllabus by the Court
Defendant's conduct was not significantly more serious than that involved in typical case of aggravated criminal damage to property and therefore we must reduce his sentence to the presumptive sentence for the offense.
Melissa Sheridan, Asst. State Public Defender, St. Paul, for appellant.
James B. Early, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., St. Paul and Hugh A. Cameron, Itasca County Atty., Grand Rapids, for respondent.
Considered and decided by the court en banc without oral argument.
We granted defendant's petition for review in this case for the limited purpose of reducing the duration of his sentence.
Defendant was convicted of aggravated criminal damage to property, Minn.Stat. Sec. 609.595, subd. 1(3) (1988) (). The presumptive sentence for the offense, when committed by one with defendant's criminal history score of three, is a stayed sentence of 15 months in prison. The trial court departed both durationally and dispositionally, doubling the presumptive sentence length and executing the sentence. Defendant raised two issues in the court of appeals: the sufficiency of the evidence that he participated in and aided his brother in damaging the property and the justification for the durational departure. Defendant expressly did not challenge the dispositional departure. We agree with the court of appeals that the evidence was sufficient to support defendant's conviction. We, however, conclude that there is no legal basis on the record for the durational departure, and thus reduce defendant's sentence to the presumptive sentence duration, 15 months in prison.
Defendant and his brother took a car parked in a private driveway--an unlocked car with the keys left in the ignition. After driving it awhile, they "trashed" it by tearing up the interior, ripping off wires inside the hood, and so on. The cost of repairing the damage to the car was $4,500.
The trial court gave three reasons for the dispositional and durational departures, but one of these reasons, that defendant is amenable to treatment in a probationary setting, bears only on the dispositional departure, which defendant does not challenge. The two legal reasons offered for the durational departure are the malicious nature of the conduct and the "huge amount of damage" to the car. Underlying factors motivating the trial court's decision to depart appear to include the court's expressed irritation with defendant's attitude and the court's belief that the presumptive sentence is too short and that a longer sentence is needed to keep defendant "out of circulation" longer.
The focus of our analysis in deciding if the durational departure was justified must be on defendant's conduct in this case--that is, on whether his conduct somehow may be said to be significantly more serious than typically involved in the commission of the offense of aggravated criminal damage to property. It is inaccurate to say that the trial court has broad discretion in deciding whether or not to depart. A more accurate statement is that the trial court has broad discretion to depart only if aggravating or mitigating circumstances...
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State v. Rourke, No. A07-937.
...that a "district court has discretion to depart `only if aggravating or mitigating circumstances are present.'" (quoting State v. Best, 449 N.W.2d 426, 427 (Minn.1989))). The phrase "there exist identifiable, substantial, and compelling circumstances to support a sentence outside the range ......
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State v. Shattuck
...circumstances are present;" if such circumstances are not present, "the trial court has no discretion to depart." State v. Best, 449 N.W.2d 426, 427 (Minn.1989). We also require the district court to include a statement of the reasons for departure on the record at the time of sentencing in......
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State v. Collins
...departure A court may depart upward from the presumptive sentence "only if aggravating * * * circumstances are present." State v. Best, 449 N.W.2d 426, 427 (Minn.1989). The standard for a departure is "whether [defendant's] conduct somehow may be said to be significantly more serious than t......
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State v. Soto, A13–0997.
...can exercise its discretion to depart from the guidelines “only if aggravating or mitigating circumstances are present,” State v. Best, 449 N.W.2d 426, 427 (Minn.1989), and those circumstances provide a “substantial [ ] and compelling” reason not to impose a guidelines sentence, Minn. Sent.......