Opinion
No. 65987
02-04-2015
NEHEMIAH GIPSON, Appellant, v. THE STATE OF NEVADA, Respondent.
An unpublished order shall not be regarded as precedent and shall not be cited as legal authority. SCR 123.
ORDER OF AFFIRMANCE
This is an appeal from a judgment of conviction, pursuant to an Alford plea, of two counts of attempted lewdness with a child under the age of 14. Eighth Judicial District Court, Clark County; Stefany Miley, Judge.
Appellant asserts that the district court abused its discretion at sentencing by ignoring mitigating evidence, disregarding the psychosexual evaluation report, and imposing the maximum-allowable sentence. Appellant also asserts that the district court penalized him for his decision to enter into an Alford plea.
The district court has wide discretion in its sentencing decision. See Houk v. State, 103 Nev. 659, 664, 747 P.2d 1376, 1379 (1987). We will refrain from interfering with the sentence imposed by the district court "[s]o long as the record does not demonstrate prejudice resulting from consideration of information or accusations founded on facts supported only by impalpable or highly suspect evidence." Silks v. State, 92 Nev. 91, 94, 545 P.2d 1159, 1161 (1976).
At the beginning of the sentencing hearing, the district court acknowledged that the psychosexual evaluation report indicated that appellant posed a low-to-moderate risk to reoffend. After hearing the impact statements given by the victims, the victims' mother and grandmother, and another individual, the district court sentenced appellant to serve two consecutive terms of 96-240 months.
Although the sentence imposed is the maximum-allowable sentence, it is within the parameters provided by the relevant statutes, see NRS 193.330(1)(a); NRS 201.230(2), and appellant does not allege that those statutes are unconstitutional. The record does not demonstrate that the district court relied on impalpable or highly suspect evidence. Further, the record does not demonstrate that the district court imposed the sentence to penalize appellant for entering an Alford plea. Having considered the sentence and the crime, we conclude the district court did not abuse its discretion when imposing sentence. Accordingly, we
ORDER the judgment of conviction AFFIRMED.
/s/_________, C.J.
Gibbons
/s/_________, J.
Tao
/s/_________, J.
Silver
cc: Hon. Stefany Miley, District Judge
Mayfield, Gruber & Sheets
Attorney General/Carson City
Clark County District Attorney
Eighth District Court Clerk
North Carolina v. Alford, 400 U.S. 25 (1970).