Opinion
No. 0069
12-13-2016
JEROME MAURICE EDMONDS v. STATE OF MARYLAND
UNREPORTED
Krauser, C.J., Meredith, Nazarian, JJ. PER CURIAM *This is an unreported opinion, and it may not be cited in any paper, brief, motion, or other document filed in this Court or any other Maryland Court as either precedent within the rule of stare decisis or as persuasive authority. Md. Rule 1-104.
In 2001, Jerome Maurice Edmonds, appellant, was convicted of first degree felony murder and other related charges following a jury trial, in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County. The trial court subsequently sentenced Edmonds on the murder conviction to a term of life imprisonment, suspending all but forty-five years of that sentence. No period of probation was attached to the suspended portion of that sentence. In 2015, the State filed a motion to correct illegal sentence claiming that Edmonds' life sentence for murder was illegal in the absence of a period of probation. The circuit court granted the State's motion and attached a three-year period of probation to the suspended portion Edmonds' murder sentence. From the imposition of that sentence Edmonds noted this appeal, claiming that the circuit court illegally increased his sentence. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.
Appellant's claim is without merit under Greco v. State, 427 Md. 477 (2012). In Greco, the Court of Appeals held that a sentence for first degree murder, of life with all but fifty years suspended, was illegal without an accompanying period of probation. Id. at 513. The Greco Court explained that when a life sentence is partially suspended without probation, it effectively becomes a sentence for a term of years, in violation of Md. Code Ann., Crim. Law § 2-201(b), which establishes life as the minimum sentence for first degree murder. Id. at 505-06, 513. The Greco Court held that the appropriate remedy for such an illegality is a corrected sentence, which includes the re-imposition of the original sentence "to be followed by some period of probation." Id. at 513.
Here, the circuit court's initial failure to attach a period of probation to the suspended portion of Edmonds' life sentence limited his effective sentence to forty-five years. That sentence was illegal, as it was less than the minimum sentence required for first degree murder. The circuit court was therefore permitted to correct the illegality and did so in the manner prescribed by Greco.
JUDGMENT OF THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR BALTIMORE COUNTY AFFIRMED. COSTS TO BE PAID BY APPELLANT.