Summary
The Connecticut Appellate Court held that the trial court had subject matter jurisdiction over a violation of probation proceeding because jurisdiction derived from the defendant’s original criminal conviction. It further held that the defendant’s probationary period did not begin until his release from the custody of the Commissioner of Correction, so the violation warrant was issued while he was still on probation.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the trial court had subject-matter jurisdiction over the violation-of-probation proceeding even if the defendant's probationary period had expired before the warrant was executed or the motion to dismiss was heard.
- Whether the defendant's three-year probationary period had commenced and expired before the 2012 narcotics charges and the January 2013 probation-violation warrant.
Holdings
- The trial court had subject-matter jurisdiction because jurisdiction over a probation-revocation proceeding derives from the defendant's original criminal proceeding, and the probationary period imposed as part of the 2002 sentence was the period at issue.
- The defendant's probation did not commence until he was released from the custody of the Commissioner of Correction on July 20, 2012. Therefore, his probation had not expired when the January 29, 2013 violation-of-probation warrant issued, and the trial court properly denied the motion to dismiss.
Key quotations
“Because a defendant cannot be released from imprisonment for the purposes of commencing his probationary period under § 53a-31 (a) until he is no longer in the custody of the Commissioner of Correction, and our case law has determined that one on parole has not functionally been ‘released from imprisonment,’ we conclude that the defendant did not commence his probation until he was released from custody on July 20, 2012.”
Factual background
In 2002, Galberth pleaded guilty to three narcotics-sale offenses and received a fifteen-year sentence, execution suspended after six years, followed by three years of probation. He was released on parole in 2005, but while on parole he committed additional narcotics offenses in 2006, pleaded guilty, and remained in the custody of the Commissioner of Correction until July 20, 2012. He signed his probation conditions on July 24, 2012, and was subsequently arrested on additional narcotics charges in December 2012. A probation-violation arrest warrant issued in January 2013 based on those charges.
Procedural history
The defendant was charged in the Superior Court for the judicial district of Fairfield, geographical area number two, with violating probation. The trial court, Cradle, J., denied his motion to dismiss, concluding that his probationary period had begun after his release from custody in July 2012. The defendant then entered a conditional nolo contendere plea and was sentenced to four and one-half years of imprisonment, concurrent with his sentence on the 2012 narcotics charges. The Connecticut Appellate Court affirmed.