Commonwealth v. Syno

�1 The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania appeals from the judgment of sentence imposed following Appellee Frank Syno’s (“Syno”) guilty plea to one count of possession of a controlled substance. *fn1 We affirm.

�2 The relevant facts and procedural history of this case are as follows. On March 22, 2001, the trial court imposed sentence on Syno after he pled guilty to the charges set forth in three criminal informations. On one of these criminal informations, No. 3997 of 2000, Syno pled guilty to possession of a controlled substance (heroin). *fn2 On this charge, the trial court sentenced Syno to a prison term of ninety (90) days, and to the intermediate punishment program (“IPP”) for a two-year period, of which the first six (6) months were house arrest with electronic monitoring. As a condition of his sentencing, the trial court ordered Syno to undergo drug and alcohol evaluation, which included random testing. Upon being sentenced, Syno was immediately released from custody as he had already served more than ninety (90) days in prison. The prosecutor objected to sentencing Syno to the IPP, asserting that this sentence did not comply with the intermediate punishment statute, 42 Pa.C.S.A. � 9800 et seq., because the Luzerne County Adult Probation Department denied Syno’s application to the intermediate punishment program. The prosecutor argued that this denial of application rendered Syno ineligible for the IPP. This timely appeal followed.