Commonwealth v. French

Full title: COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA v. JOHN FRENCH III Appellant

Court: SUPERIOR COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA

Date published: Mar 6, 2018

J-S71007-17 (Pa. Super. Ct. Mar. 6, 2018)

Opinion

J-S71007-17 No. 170 EDA 2017

03-06-2018

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA v. JOHN FRENCH III Appellant

JUDGMENT ORDER BY PANELLA, J.

NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37

Appeal from the Judgment of Sentence December 9, 2016
In the Court of Common Pleas of Bucks County
Criminal Division at No(s): CP-09-CR-0002031-2013 CP-09-CR-0002247-2016 CP-09-CR-0008036-2012 BEFORE: PANELLA, J., STABILE, J., and PLATT^*, J. JUDGMENT ORDER BY PANELLA, J.

* Retired Senior Judge assigned to the Superior Court. --------

Appellant, John French III, challenges the discretionary aspects of the sentence imposed after he was found to have violated his parole and probation when he pled guilty to simple assault. All of the relevant convictions arise from the combination of French's narcotics addictions and the mother of his children, who was the victim in each of the crimes. Due to the persistent theme of violence against the victim in all of these crimes, the court sentenced French outside of the sentencing guidelines for his simple assault conviction to the statutory maximum sentence of one to two years' imprisonment. For violating his probation and parole on the previous sentences, the court sentenced French to an additional 8 to 24 months' imprisonment, for an aggregate sentence of 20 to 48 months.

French did not file a post-sentence motion, instead choosing to file the instant appeal. His sole issue on appeal is that the court abused its discretion in imposing sentence. French concedes this is a challenge to the discretionary aspects of his sentence. See Appellant's Brief, at 13. "[I]ssues challenging the discretionary aspects of a sentence must be raised in a post-sentence motion or by presenting the claim to the trial court during the sentencing proceedings. Absent such efforts, an objection to a discretionary aspect of a sentence is waived." Commonwealth v. Shugars , 895 A.2d 1270, 1273-1274 (Pa. Super. 2006) (citation omitted).

French failed to present this claim at sentencing and failed to file a post-sentence motion. Accordingly, we find this claim waived.

Judgment of sentence affirmed. Judgment Entered. /s/_________
Joseph D. Seletyn, Esq.
Prothonotary Date: 3/6/18