Commonwealth v. Austin
Commonwealth v. Austin
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
Appellant was convicted on two charges of automobile larceny and one charge of conspiracy. Prior to his trial of February 15, 1972, he ashed for a one-week continuance to enable him to locate and subpoena a missing alibi witness. The court refused to allow a one-week continuance upon consideration of the heavy schedule of cases for the following week and of the fact that defendant could not give any assurance that his witness, whose whereabouts had been unknown prior to the beginning of the February Term of Criminal Court, would appear that week. However, the court was willing to grant and did offer a continuance to the next (April) term of court. Defendant, who was not out on bail, refused such offered continuance and chose to proceed to trial on February 15 without his alibi witness and without taking the stand in support of his alibi defense. After conviction, he filed a motion for new trial contending that the refusal of his request for a one-week continuance was an abuse of the court’s discretion. The court en banc did not agree and refused a new trial to the defendant. This appeal followed.
Defendant was not, as he contends, deprived of a continuance because of administrative inconvenience; he was, in fact, afforded a continuance which did not meet with his approval and which it was his voluntary choice to refuse. That choice was not rendered involuntary by the fact that the alternative would have been two more months of incarceration. The fact of incarceration cannot be employed to increase the rights of an accused so as to require a court to grant him a continuance on his terms.
So stripped of the extraneous issue of whether or not the defendant was out on bail, we find that the facts presented on this appeal reveal no abuse of discretion by the trial judge in refusing to upset the already established heavy February court schedule by a one-week postponement to allow defendant more time to locate a witness. The circumstances did not indi
Defendant also contends that the sentence imposed by the trial judge was manifestly excessive and constituted an abuse of discretion to be corrected by this court. Though defendant’s earnings may be, as he contends, important to his family household, the fact remains that the sentence imposed was well within the statutory limits and not manifestly excessive. Defendant could have been sentenced to a total of twelve years imprisonment plus fines and costs. He was, instead, sentenced to two concurrent terms of only one year nor more than three years. We find no basis to disturb the sentence imposed by the trial court.
The order of the court below refusing defendant’s motions for new trial and in arrest of judgment is hereby affirmed.
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