William T. Gibbons v. People of the Virgin Islands, S. Ct. Crim. No. 2012-0002 (V.I. 2012) [unpublished]
Not For Publication IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE VIRGIN ISLANDS WILLIAM T. GIBBONS, Appellant/Defendant, ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) S. Ct. Crim. No. 2012-0002 Re: Super. Ct. Crim. No. 437/2011 (STX) v. PEOPLE OF THE VIRGIN ISLANDS, Appellee/Plaintiff. ) ) On Appeal from the Superior Court of the Virgin Islands Considered: October 9, 2012 Filed: December 6, 2012 BEFORE: RHYS S. HODGE, Chief Justice; MARIA M. CABRET, Associate Justice; and IVE ARLINGTON SWAN, Associate Justice. ATTORNEYS: Pamela L. Colon, Esq. St. Croix, U.S.V.I. Attorney for Appellant Tiffany V. Monrose, Esq. Assistant Attorney General St. Thomas, U.S.V.I. Attorney for Appellee OPINION OF THE COURT HODGE, Chief Justice. William T. Gibbons appeals from the Superior Court’s January 27, 2012 “Judgment and Sentence,” which suspended his driving privileges for two years. For the reasons that follow, we reverse the portion of the “Judgment and Sentence” that suspends Gibbons’s license. I. STATEMENT OF RELEVANT FACTS AND PROCEDURAL POSTURE After a traffic stop on June 15, 2011, the People subsequently charged Gibbons with Gibbons v. …
Download the original document · Plain text (TXT) · Browse the archive · How this archive works
Original source: https://supreme.vicourts.org/UserFiles/Servers/Server_12810860/File/Opinions/Unpublished/2012/File5.pdf
SHA-256 35b56958b33ea7017bb399c6a953097b533115dc8aefd52f0abd5e99aa7ced14
Re-using this document
edicts of government — judicial opinions are not copyrightable by anyone. NOT 17 USC 105 (territorial court, not federal) and NOT 'rights unstated': uncopyrightable by nature.
Our description, tagging, arrangement, extracted text and machine transcripts are released under CC0 1.0. We assert nothing about the document itself.
Archive identifier LF-35b56958b33e
Document text
Not For Publication IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE VIRGIN ISLANDS WILLIAM T. GIBBONS, Appellant/Defendant, ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) S. Ct. Crim. No. 2012-0002 Re: Super. Ct. Crim. No. 437/2011 (STX) v. PEOPLE OF THE VIRGIN ISLANDS, Appellee/Plaintiff. ) ) On Appeal from the Superior Court of the Virgin Islands Considered: October 9, 2012 Filed: December 6, 2012 BEFORE: RHYS S. HODGE, Chief Justice; MARIA M. CABRET, Associate Justice; and IVE ARLINGTON SWAN, Associate Justice. ATTORNEYS: Pamela L. Colon, Esq. St. Croix, U.S.V.I. Attorney for Appellant Tiffany V. Monrose, Esq. Assistant Attorney General St. Thomas, U.S.V.I. Attorney for Appellee OPINION OF THE COURT HODGE, Chief Justice. William T. Gibbons appeals from the Superior Court’s January 27, 2012 “Judgment and Sentence,” which suspended his driving privileges for two years. For the reasons that follow, we reverse the portion of the “Judgment and Sentence” that suspends Gibbons’s license. I. STATEMENT OF RELEVANT FACTS AND PROCEDURAL POSTURE After a traffic stop on June 15, 2011, the People subsequently charged Gibbons with Gibbons v. People S. Ct. Crim. No. 2012-0002 Opinion of the Court possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute and operating a motor vehicle without a safety belt. The parties negotiated a plea agreement, in which Gibbons agreed to plead guilty to simple possession of a controlled substance. On December 29, 2011, the Superior Court held a change-of-plea hearing, where it accepted the guilty plea, and chose to proceed directly to sentencing. See Super. Ct. R. 134(a) (“Sentence shall be imposed immediately after a defendant has been found guilty or has pleaded guilty . . . .”). At sentencing, Gibbons requested probation in lieu of a conviction pursuant to section 607(b)(1) of title 19 of the Virgin Islands Code. In addition, recognizing a recent Superior Court decision holding that individuals who receive section 607(b)(1) treatment must nevertheless have their driving privileges suspended pursuant to section 378(a) of title 20, Gibbons argued, “since there will never have been actually an adjudication of guilt” if section 607(b)(1) treatment is granted, “there would not be a reason to—or actually [any] authority for the Court to suspend his license.” (J.A. 34.) The People did not make any recommendation regarding the driver’s license issue. (J.A. 36.) The Superior Court orally granted the request for section 607(b)(1) treatment, sentenced Gibbons to nine months of probation, and revoked his driving privileges for two years. The Superior Court memorialized its decision in a January 27, 2012 “Judgment and Sentence,” (J.A. 5-6), and Gibbons timely filed his notice of appeal. II. DISCUSSION A. Jurisdiction and Standard of Review “The Supreme Court [has] jurisdiction over all appeals arising from final judgments, final decrees or final orders of the Superior Court, or as otherwise provided by law.” V.I. CODE ANN. tit. 4 § 32(a). In this case, the January 27, 2012 “Judgment and Sentence,” despite its caption, did not fully adjudicate all issues in this case, for section 607(b)(1) conditions dismissal Gibbons v. People S. Ct. Crim. No. 2012-0002 Opinion of the Court of a charge upon successful completion of probation. Nevertheless, this Court possesses jurisdiction over this appeal because it was still a final order within the meaning of section 32. See Rohn v. People, S. Ct. Crim. No. 2011-0087, 2012 WL 5901924, at *2 (V.I. Nov. 27, 2012). The standard of review for this Court’s examination of the Superior Court’s application of law is plenary, while the trial court’s findings of fact are reviewed for clear error. St. Thomas- St. John Bd. of Elections v. Daniel, 49 V.I. 322, 329 (V.I. 2007); see also People v. John, 52 V.I. 247, 255 (V.I. 2009) (quoting United States v. Shields, 458 F.3d 269, 276 (3d Cir. 2006)), aff’d 654 F.3d 412 (3d Cir. 2011). B. The Superior Court Imposed an Illegal Sentence On appeal, both Gibbons and the People argue that section 378(a) of title 20 does not apply to first-time offenders receiving probation in lieu of conviction pursuant to section 607(b)(1) of title 19. This Court recently answered this very question by concluding that “the Legislature did not intend for section 378(a) to apply to defendants who receive section 607(b)(1) probationary treatment.” Rohn, 2012 WL 5901924, at *3. Although the Superior Court lacked the benefit of our decision in Rohn when it sentenced Gibbons, we must, for the same reasons given in Rohn, correct the illegal sentence. III. CONCLUSION For the foregoing reasons, we hold that the Superior Court erred when it determined that section 378(a) of title 20 mandated it to suspend Gibbons’s driver’s license. Accordingly, we reverse the portion of the January 27, 2012 “Judgment and Sentence” that revokes Gibbons’s driving privileges for two years. Gibbons v. People S. Ct. Crim. No. 2012-0002 Opinion of the Court BY THE COURT: /s/ Rhys S. Hodge RHYS S. HODGE Chief Justice ATTEST: VERONICA J. HANDY, ESQ. Clerk of the Court