NO. COA03-1060

STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA

         v.                        Wake County
                                Nos.    02 CRS 48110
JESSY MACKENZIE JONES                    02 CRS 49831
                                    02 CRS 49838    

    Appeal by defendant from judgment entered 6 February 2003 by Judge Ripley E. Rand in Wake County Superior Court. Heard in the Court of Appeals 22 March 2004.

    Attorney General Roy Cooper, by Assistant Attorney General Marc X. Sneed, for the State.

    Moshera H. Mohamed for defendant-appellant.

    MARTIN, Chief Judge.

    Defendant entered a plea of guilty to first-degree burglary and two counts of breaking and entering and larceny. Under the terms of his plea agreement, the trial court consolidated the offenses for judgment. It assigned defendant a Prior Record Level II based on three prior record points. After finding three mitigating factors and no aggravating factors, the court imposed a mitigated sentence of fifty-seven to seventy-eight months' imprisonment.
    On appeal, defendant claims that his sentence is of a duration exceeding that authorized by the applicable presumptive range for his offense and is not supported by the requisite findings of fact. This assignment of error is frivolous. Pursuant to N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-1340.15(b) (2003), a trial judge who consolidates multiple offenses for judgment must sentence the defendant for his “most serious offense[.]” Here, defendant's most serious offense was first-degree burglary, a Class D felony under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14- 52 (2003). Defendant was properly assigned a Prior Record Level II based on three prior record points. Accordingly, his sentence of fifty-seven to seventy-eight months falls within the applicable mitigated range, see N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-1340.17(c), (e) (2003), and is properly supported by findings of mitigating factors.
    No error.
    Judges McGEE and BRYANT concur.
    Report per Rule 30(e).

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