State v. Vivo
State v. Vivo
Opinion of the Court
Opinion
The self-represented defendant, John Vivo III, appeals from the judgment of the trial court denying, in part, his motion to correct an illegal sentence and resentencing him to a total effective sentence of seventy-five years imprisonment. He raises numerous
In 1995, the defendant was found guilty by a jury of murder in violation of General Statutes § 53a-54a (a), assault in the first degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-59 (a) (1), and commission of a class A and class B felony with a firearm in violation of General Statutes § 53-202k. The court, Gormley, J., sentenced him to sixty years imprisonment on the murder conviction, ten years on the assault conviction, and five years on the violation of § 53-202k, all the sentences to run consecutively to each other, for a total effective sentence of seventy-five years imprisonment. The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of conviction. See State v. Vivo, 241 Conn. 665, 697 A.2d 1130 (1997).
Thereafter, the defendant filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus alleging ineffectiveness of both his trial and appellate counsel. The habeas court, Hon. Richard M. Rittenband, judge trial referee, denied the habeas petition and granted certification to appeal. This court reversed the habeas judgment as to the defendant’s conviction under § 53-202k, noting that § 53-202k is a sentence enhancement provision, not a separate offense. See Vivo v. Commissioner of Correction, 90 Conn. App. 167, 177, 876 A.2d 1216, cert. denied, 275 Conn. 925, 888 A.2d 1253 (2005). Accordingly, we concluded that “[although the [defendant’s] total effective sentence was proper, the judgment must be modified to reflect the fact that § 53-202k does not constitute a separate offense” and we remanded the case “with direction to vacate that conviction and to resentence the [defendant] to a total effective term of seventy-five years incarceration.”
The defendant raises the following claims on appeal: (1) Judge Devlin abused his discretion in denying the defendant appointed counsel to pursue his motion to correct an illegal sentence; (2) Judge Devlin improperly
We have carefully considered all of the defendant’s claims, and have fully reviewed the record in light of those claims. We conclude that all of his claims are without merit.
The judgment is affirmed.
Notably, when Vivo v. Commissioner of Correction, supra, 90 Conn. App. 167, originally was released, the rescript contained a clerical error directing the court on remand “to resentence the [defendant] to a total effective term of seventy years incarceration.” (Emphasis added.) Thereafter, this clerical error was corrected to reflect this court’s intended order
Additionally, the defendant filed an objection to the public defender’s report determining that the defendant was not entitled to counsel to pursue his motion to correct an illegal sentence, pursuant to State v. Casiano, 282 Conn. 614, 922 A.2d 1065 (2007). The trial court, Devlin, J., overruled this objection.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.