Becoats v. State

Under OCGA § 17-10-7 d, where a defendant is charged for separate crimes arising out of separate incidents, and is sentenced for each crime in a separate order, those offenses are not considered consolidated, even where the sentences were entered on the same day and were to run concurrently.

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Following a bench trial, Phyllip Jerrod Becoats was convicted of trafficking in cocaine, possession of marijuana, and failure to maintain his lane. During the sentencing phase of trial, the State introduced certified copies of Becoats’s four prior felony convictions, and the trial court sentenced him as a recidivist pursuant to OCGA § 17-10-7. Becoats then appealed his convictions, asserting as his sole claim of error the trial court’s denial of his motion to suppress evidence seized during a traffic stop of his vehicle. See Becoats v. State, 301 Ga. App. 768 688 SE2d 686 2009. This Court found no error and affirmed. Id.

Following remittitur of his case to the trial court, Becoats filed his first pro se motion for modification of his sentence in March 2010, arguing that the lower court erred in sentencing him as a recidivist. The trial court denied this motion in April 2010. In October 2011 Becoats filed his second pro se motion for modification of his sentence. Becoats again asserted that the court below erred in sentencing him as a recidivist, and he also asserted, for the first time, that he had received ineffective assistance of trial and appellate counsel. The court denied Becoats’s motion, and he now appeals from that order. We find no error and affirm.

Becoats v. State

Under OCGA § 17-10-7 d, where a defendant is charged for separate crimes arising out of separate incidents, and is sentenced for each crime in a separate order, those offenses are not considered consolidated, even where the sentences were entered on the same day and were to run concurrently.

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