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Adams v. State

The defendant's sentence of five consecutive terms of life in prison did not constitute a sentence of life without the possibility of parole and therefore did not require a finding of an aggravated circumstance under then-effective O.C.G.A. § 17-10-32.1 subsection b.

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On April 10, 1997, Chester Lewis Adams pled guilty to charges of malice murder, kidnapping with bodily injury, armed robbery, rape, and aggravated sodomy, and was sentenced to five consecutive terms of life in prison.1 See Adams v. State, 285 Ga. 744 683 SE2d 586 2009. In 2008, Adams filed a motion for an out-of-time appeal, which the trial court denied; this Court affirmed that decision on appeal. Id. On April 20, 2012, Adams filed a “Motion to Vacate Void Sentence”; the trial court denied the motion, and Adams appeals.

Adams contends that the trial court sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole, did so without finding a statutory aggravating circumstance as required by then-effective OCGA § 17-10-32.1 b,2 and that the sentence of life without the possibility of parole is thus void. See Hughes v. State, 269 Ga. 819, 821 2 504 SE2d 696 1998. However, this contention is based upon a misapprehension; the trial court did not sentence Adams to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Rather, the court sentenced him to five consecutive terms of life in prison, and such sentences did not require a finding of an aggravated circumstance under then-effective OCGA § 17-10-32.1 b. And, of course, ” ‘it is within the trial court’s discretion to sentence consecutively. Cits.’ Cits.” Taylor v. State, 275 Ga. 461, 462 2 569 SE2d 520 2002.

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