Background
In 2020, Lawrance Mahomes pleaded guilty to failure to appear and received sixty months of probation. The sentencing order reflected that he was sentenced as a habitual offender.
The State later petitioned to revoke Mahomes’s probation. The Conway County Circuit Court revoked it and imposed an eighty-four-month prison sentence as a habitual offender. Mahomes appealed, arguing that he had never been eligible for probation under Arkansas’s habitual-offender statutes.
The Court’s Holding
The Arkansas Court of Appeals agreed with Mahomes and the State that the original probationary sentence was illegal. Arkansas law bars probation for a defendant with two or more prior felony convictions who is sentenced under the habitual-offender statute.
Because the circuit court lacked statutory authority to place Mahomes on probation in the first instance, the probation sentence was illegal. The court reversed and dismissed the revocation proceeding and remanded for resentencing on the underlying failure-to-appear conviction within the applicable habitual-offender statutory range.
Key Takeaways
- A habitual offender ineligible for probation cannot receive probation contrary to the governing statute.
- An unauthorized probationary sentence is illegal because the circuit court lacked authority to impose it.
- The resulting revocation proceeding must be dismissed, with resentencing on the underlying offense.
Why It Matters
The decision underscores that Arkansas sentencing authority is statutory. A later revocation sentence cannot stand when it rests on an original probationary sentence the court was not authorized to impose.