Appellate Judges Send Parole Sentence Back to Trial Court

TRENTON — A local parole violator will have his case reexamined by a Superior Court judge after an appellate panel determined his sentence to be too excessive.
On June 12, appeals court judges Michael Winkelstein, Jose Fuentes and Amy Piro Chambers decided a Cape May County judge was too harsh when he gave Miguel Rivera-Ramos a five-year term with two and a half years of parole ineligibility for breaking a previous parole agreement.
Ramos, now 32, was arrested in December 2005 in Rochester, New York, under the alias “Carlos Rivera.”
His parole officer, Liz Colon was the only witness to testify at Ramos’ trial, which lasted only one day. Colon said that Ramos broke parole from February to August 2005 by failing to report, moving out of state without permission, withholding urine for drug tests, testing positive for cocaine and losing contact with his parole officer for several weeks. A statement by Ramos admitting cocaine use during his parole was also submitted into evidence without objection by defense counsel.
According to court documents at the time of his previous parole, Ramos had been convicted of one indictable offense in 2003, distributing heroin within 1,000 feet of a school.
Ramos was subsequently convicted of the third-degree crime of absconding from parole. The trial judge imposed the maximum sentence of five years finding three aggravating factors and one mitigating factor.
In review, however, appeals judges found the sentence excessive.
“Here, the maximum sentence imposed by the trial court shocks our collective judicial conscience because we find it to be intolerably wrong,” the judges wrote in their opinion. “Defendant was convicted for absconding from parole, a non—violent offense. The evidence presented at trial did not reveal that defendant’ s actions in committing this offense were dangerous, or otherwise exposed the public or law enforcement personnel to a particular risk.”
They also noted that in sentencing judges must take into consideration the severity of the crime.
“Here, other than stating, in a conclusory fashion, that the aggravating factors outweighed the one mitigating factor, the trial court did not otherwise provide any reason for imposing the maximum sentence permitted by law,” the judges said.
“Based on the evidence presented at trial, and the information revealed through the pre—sentence investigation report, defendant’s actions here only showed an inability to comply consistently with the rules and conditions of parole.”
“Although deserving of sufficient punishment to deter him and others from engaging in similar acts, such a crime does not merit the maximum length of incarceration authorized by the Code, the judges added.
“To condone such a sentence under these circumstances results in two wrongs. First, it unduly and excessively punishes defendant; and second, it denigrates the legal efficacy and moral force of a truly deserving maximum sentence. For these reasons, we vacate the sentence imposed by the court, and remand the matter for re-sentencing.”
According to the Department of Corrections, Ramos was paroled from South Woods State Prison in Bridgeton on Nov. 5, 2008.
Contact Hart at (609) 886-8600 Ext 35 or at: jhart@cmcherald.com