Commonwealth v. Murphy

In 1998, the defendant pleaded guilty to several offenses including home invasion, and five counts of armed assault in a dwelling, which are the subject of this appeal.1 The disposition as to these offenses was straight probation: concurrent, three-year probationary terms.2 He later was found to be in violation of his probation and received the mandatory minimum sentence of from twenty years to twenty years and one day on the home invasion charge, and concurrent life terms (the maximum sentence) for each count of armed assault in a dwelling.3

This is the defendant’s appeal from the denial…