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Judge vacates Crisostomo’s six-month prison sentence
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Posted on May 01 2014
Superior Court Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho corrected yesterday the six-month prison sentence he earlier imposed on Joseph A. Crisostomo for criminal contempt in connection with a drug case.
Finding that the sentence is illegal, Camacho vacated the six-month prison term and imposed no imprisonment sentence on Crisostmo for the criminal contempt conviction.
The judge pointed out that revocation of a suspended sentence, and not criminal contempt, is the appropriate sanction for a probation violation.
In this case, he said, Crisostomo’s suspended sentence in a 2007 criminal case conviction was revoked in full.
Thus, Camacho said, he finds that the sentence imposed in the case last Feb. 28 was illegal insofar as it imposed six months of imprisonment for criminal contempt.
Removing the six-month prison term, Crisostomo will still serve a 10-year prison term.
Last Feb. 28, Camacho sentenced Crisostomo to the maximum of five years and six months in prison for possession of less than a gram of methamphetamine or “ice” and criminal contempt.
In his order yesterday, Camacho he finds it necessary to correct the sentence pursuant to Rule 35(a) of the Commonwealth Rules of Criminal Procedure.
He said the conviction for criminal contempt in this case was based on a finding that Crisostomo’s illegal possession of a controlled substance violated the May 8, 2008, judgment of conviction in the 2007 criminal case, which listed as a condition of probation that “defendant shall not possess nor consume alcohol or other intoxicating substances during the entire term of his probation.”
On March 13, 2013, a couple of weeks following the conviction in this case, Crisostomo appeared before the court again in the 2007 criminal case for a probation revocation hearing.
Following the hearing, Camacho issued a revocation of probation and commitment order, which revoked the suspension of five years of the 10-year sentence imposed in the 2007 criminal case.
In effect, Crisostomo was sentenced to the full maximum term of 10 years imprisonment allowed for the underlying theft conviction.
