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Butler v. State

Court of Appeals of Georgia
Sep 28, 2022
No. A23A0227 (Ga. Ct. App. Sep. 28, 2022)

Opinion

A23A0227

09-28-2022

DECARLOS BOBBY BUTLER v. THE STATE.


The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order:

De'Carlos Bobby Butler pled guilty to aggravated assault in January 2011. He received first offender treatment and was sentenced to 8 years, with the first 18 months to be served in confinement and the remainder to be served on probation. He was also ordered to pay restitution. In 2013, the State petitioned to revoke Butler's probation based on non-compliance with court directives, and the trial court ordered him to spend weekends in confinement over the next six months. In April 2014, the State again moved to revoke Butler's probation based on new offenses allegedly committed on two separate dates for family violence-battery, felony terroristic threats, misdemeanor obstruction of a law enforcement officer, and criminal trespass. The trial court revoked Butler's first-offender status and re-sentenced him to 20 years, with 8 years to be served in confinement and the remainder to be served on probation. Butler subsequently filed numerous pro se motions and habeas petitions in which he sought reconsideration and modification of his sentence, and the trial court on more than one occasion modified his sentence.

In February 2020, Butler was again arrested for a probation violation, and in March 2021, the trial court revoked his probation and ordered him to serve 12 months in confinement. In September 2021, Butler filed a pro se "Motion to Vacate, Terminate, Dismiss Current Sentence based on Double Jeopardy Sentence, Motion to Correct a Void and Illegal Sentence, and Motion for Sentence Modification," followed by an amended motion in December 2021. In this motion, as amended, Butler argued that on the various occasions when the trial court resentenced him in light of probation violations, the resentence it imposed was a void and illegal "double jeopardy sentence." Butler contended that pursuant to his original 2011 sentence, his sentence ended on May 8, 2019. The trial court dismissed the amended motion on res judicata and jurisdictional grounds, concluding that it raised claims that had already been reviewed and decided at the appellate level. Butler filed a direct appeal, which we dismissed for lack of jurisdiction for two reasons, Butler's failure to file a discretionary appeal and because his motion was barred by the doctrine of res judicata. See Case No. A22A1616 (July 8, 2022). The instant appeal has been transferred to this Court from the Georgia Supreme Court, and it is also an appeal from the trial court's order dismissing Butler's amended motion. The doctrine of res judicata bars any subsequent appeals from the same order. See Howard v. State, 289 Ga. 207, 207 (1) (710 S.E.2d 761) OCGA § 9-11-60 (h). Accordingly, Butler's appeal is hereby DISMISSED.


Summaries of

Butler v. State

Court of Appeals of Georgia
Sep 28, 2022
No. A23A0227 (Ga. Ct. App. Sep. 28, 2022)
Case details for

Butler v. State

Case Details

Full title:DECARLOS BOBBY BUTLER v. THE STATE.

Court:Court of Appeals of Georgia

Date published: Sep 28, 2022

Citations

No. A23A0227 (Ga. Ct. App. Sep. 28, 2022)