Commonwealth v. Resende

Defendant was convicted of several firearms offenses, each of which had associated with it an armed criminal sentence enhancement charge under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 269, 10G, which provides sentence enhancements for designated firearms offenses where a defendant has previously been convicted of one or more “violent crimes” or “serious drug offenses,” or a combination of the two. Defendant was sentenced under section 10G(c) to a mandatory minimum prison term of from fifteen years to fifteen years and one day. Defendant appealed, arguing that his armed career criminal convictions could not stand because his five previous drug convictions were encompassed in a single prosecution and, as such, should be counted as a single predicate offense for purposes of section 10G, and therefore within the scope of level one under 10G(a), rather than level three under 10G(c). The Supreme Judicial Court agreed and vacated the convictions, holding that where the previous convictions of predicate offenses forming the basis of the sentence enhancement charge were all part of a single prosecution, they properly should be treated as a single predicate conviction for purposes of section 10G. Remanded. View "Commonwealth v. Resende" on Justia Law