STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA
v. Richmond County
Nos. 00 CRS 4531-37,
JOHN HENRY TILLMAN, 4584-89, 6224-30
Defendant.
Attorney General Roy Cooper, by Assistant Attorney General
Catherine C. Woodard, for the State.
Margaret Creasy Ciardella for defendant-appellant.
BRYANT, Judge.
Defendant pled guilty to thirteen counts of obtaining property
by false pretenses. Additionally, defendant was indicted on seven
counts of being a habitual felon, and defendant admitted his
habitual felon status as to each count. The trial court made
findings of aggravating and mitigating factors, and determined that
the factors in mitigation outweighed the factors in aggravation and
that a sentence in the mitigated range was justified. The trial
court consolidated the offenses for judgment and defendant was
sentenced to a term of 101 to 131 months imprisonment. Defendant
appeals.
Counsel appointed to represent defendant has been unable to
identify any issue with sufficient merit to support a meaningfulargument for relief on appeal and asks that this Court conduct its
own review of the record for possible prejudicial error. Counsel
has also shown to the satisfaction of this Court that she has
complied with the requirements of Anders v. California, 386 U.S.
738, 18 L. Ed. 2d 493, reh'g denied, 388 U.S. 924, 18 L. Ed. 2d
1377 (1967), and State v. Kinch, 314 N.C. 99, 331 S.E.2d 665
(1985), by advising defendant of his right to file written
arguments with this Court and providing him with the documents
pertinent to his appeal.
Defendant has not filed any written arguments on his own
behalf with this Court and a reasonable time in which he could have
done so has passed. In accordance with Anders, we have fully
examined the record to determine whether any issues of prejudicial
error appear therefrom.
Our review of the record discloses no prejudicial error,
however we do find what appears to be clerical errors in the
judgment. First, the indictments and the transcript make clear
that defendant admitted his habitual felon status, but the judgment
erroneously states that defendant is a violent habitual felon.
Second, the determination of aggravating and mitigating factors
erroneously states that the court found that factors in aggravation
outweighed the factors in mitigation, when in fact the court found
the opposite. The error is obvious in light of the fact that the
trial court found there to be no aggravating factors. Since
defendant was properly sentenced as a habitual felon to a sentence
in the mitigated range of punishment, these clerical errors causedno prejudice to defendant.
Other than these clerical errors, we have been unable to find
any possible prejudicial error and conclude that the appeal is
wholly frivolous. Accordingly, we remand the matter to the trial
court so the judgment can be corrected to properly reflect
defendant's status as a habitual felon, not a violent habitual
felon, and to reflect the trial court's determination that factors
in mitigation outweighed the factors in aggravation, and that a
mitigated sentence was justified.
No error; remanded for correction of clerical errors.
Judges WYNN and THOMAS concur.
Report per Rule 30(e).
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