In re the Personal Restraint of Brooks

Summary

The Washington Supreme Court considered whether Jeffrey Brooks’s sentence of 120 months’ confinement plus community custody exceeded the statutory maximum for attempted first degree robbery. The court held that the amended judgment and sentence was valid because it expressly required that the combined periods of confinement and community custody not exceed the 120-month statutory maximum. The court also held that the sentence was not indeterminate and denied Brooks’s personal restraint petition.

Holdings

1. A sentence combining a term of confinement and community custody that has the potential to exceed the statutory maximum is not facially invalid when the amended judgment and sentence expressly requires that the combined periods not exceed the statutory maximum.
2. The sentence was determinate and was not rendered indeterminate merely because the actual period of confinement and community custody depended in part on earned-release credits and Department of Corrections administration.
3. When a sentence's confinement and community-custody terms could potentially exceed the statutory maximum, the appropriate remedy is to remand for amendment expressly stating that the combined periods may not exceed the statutory maximum.

Questions Presented

1. Whether a sentence imposing the statutory maximum term of confinement plus a term of community custody that could cause the combined sentence to exceed the statutory maximum violates the Sentencing Reform Act.
2. Whether such a sentence is indeterminate because the Department of Corrections must determine the amount of community custody served within the statutory limits.
3. Whether remand for amendment of the judgment and sentence, rather than resentencing, is an appropriate remedy.

Disposition

writ_denied