Jones v. State

The trial court erred in revoking the defendant's probation based on his failure to register as a sex offender, because the Georgia Department of Corrections' petition for probation revocation contained no such allegation.

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This appeal arises from the trial court’s revocation of Marlos Jones’s probation for violation of the terms thereof. Jones filed an application for discretionary appeal, which this Court granted in order to review whether the trial court was authorized to revoke the balance of Jones’s probation.1 For the reasons that follow, we reverse. The record reveals that Jones pleaded guilty to one count of felony cruelty to children2 and was sentenced to ten years probation with sex offender conditions on February 16, 2006. Jones violated the provision of his probation, requiring him to “Report to the Probation Officer and permit the Probation officer to visit him at home or elsewhere.” In the revocation petition, the Georgia Department of Corrections, Probation Division “the Department” recommended a six-month revocation of Jones’s probation based on the violation.

At the March 15, 2011 revocation hearing, probation officer Jaimie Moody testified that Jones had been in jail for six months for a previous probation revocation, and upon release on January 21, 2011, Jones was ordered to report to the Carroll County probation office within 48 hours. Although Jones initially reported at that time, he was given an appointment to meet with Moody on January 24 at 9:00 a.m., which appointment he failed to keep. Moody was unaware of any report to the probation office by Jones after he failed to make the January 24 appointment. The office issued a warrant for Jones’s arrest on February 1, 2011, and Jones turned himself in after learning of the warrant.

Jones v. State

The trial court erred in revoking the defendant's probation based on his failure to register as a sex offender, because the Georgia Department of Corrections' petition for probation revocation contained no such allegation.

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