In Arizona, if a defendant with prior convictions is found guilty of a crime, that defendant will face a harsher sentence than if he or she had no prior convictions. A recent case before the Arizona Court of Appeals, Division One, highlights this reality, which can be difficult for defendants trying to argue for lighter and more favorable sentences.
In the case before the Arizona court, the defendant appealed a trial court’s decision to sentence him to 15 years in prison for a) possession of a narcotic drug for sale and b) violating the terms of probation. According to the defendant, it was unfair that the trial court sentenced him based on the fact that he was guilty of two previous felony convictions. Instead, the court should have based the sentence on only one previous felony conviction, which would have resulted in a lesser sentence.
The higher court reviewed the trial record and found that the defendant presented no evidence to indicate that he was guilty of only one prior felony conviction instead of two. Instead, he vaguely testified that the two armed robberies he committed in the past happened “on the same occasion in his early life.” The prosecution, meanwhile, presented evidence from two separate court hearings in 2015 that were based on two separate robberies, one on August 22, 2015, and a second on September 1, 2015. This evidence showed that there were, indeed, two previous felony convictions.