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Agli v. State10/10/2001
for vehicular manslaughter in Jones v. State. Jones, an eighteen-year-old with one speeding conviction, drove while intoxicated, crossed the center line of the highway, killed two people, and severely injured a third. In a split decision, this court reversed Jones's sentence and directed the superior court to impose no more than a composite 8-year term to serve.
However, later cases undercut the rationale of the Jones majority. Judge Coats's analysis that Pears set a 10-year ceiling on vehicular homicide sentences was disclaimed by the supreme court in State v. Wentz. And Judge Singleton's suggestion in his concurring opinion in Jones that isolation was the only sentencing goal that could justify a lengthy sentence was rejected by this court in Ratliff v. State.
We turn to an examination of Agli's case using the factors recognized in our recent cases: the defendant's degree of recklessness, the consequences of the defendant's conduct, his age, his record of criminal conduct, and his history of alcohol or drug abuse. Agli was eighteen when he committed this offense. Although young, Agli was driving without a license and was illegally consuming alcohol. Even though Judge Souter originally thought that Agli had good prospects for rehabilitation, while on probation, Agli used marijuana and progressed to using cocaine. After Agli became aware that his probation officer knew he was using illegal drugs, he still did not (or could not) stop. Although Agli did not have a criminal, traffic, or juvenile record when he committed these offenses, he was an unlicensed driver and an underage drinker. And while on probation, he obtained and consumed illegal drugs several times. Judge Souter found that Agli exhibited the recklessness necessary to constitute extreme indifference second-degree murder. The consequences of Agli's conduct were severe: Agli killed two people, a mother and her seven-year-old child, and severely injured two other children. Agli's driving itself was reckless; he exhibited poor control of his vehicle and endangered several other drivers with his risky tactics.
In the cases we discussed above, sentences of up to 19 years' imprisonment for vehicular homicide have been affirmed. In Foxglove, the defendant received a 19-year term to serve for killing one victim and injuring four others. Foxglove had two DWI convictions, and his culpability bordered on first-degree murder. Agli killed two victims, and although Judge Souter found that Agli's degree of recklessness was sufficient for extreme indifference second-degree murder, it was not as culpable as Foxglove's and Agli had a more favorable criminal record. The consequences of Agli's conduct were less severe than those in Pusich where we approved a composite 18-year term. Pusich killed three victims and seriously injured another, but she was not a youthful offender, and she had a record for DWI offenses. The defendant in Puzewicz received a composite 13-year term for killing two victims and injuring a third. Puzewicz had three DWI convictions and other alcohol-related offenses and was not a youthful offender.
When Judge Souter imposed the balance of Agli's sentence, he did not compare Agli's offense to the other reported cases discussed above. Agli's net 14-year term is greater than any previous sentence we have affirmed for a vehicular manslaughter case involving two victims. In Brown v. State, we said that
hen a sentencing judge "decides that an offender deserves a sentence which is significantly different from sentences previously given to similarly situated offenders," the judge is required to "find some legitimate basis for the difference"- that is, a basis related to the sentencing criteria ori
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