State v. Benson

AMDAHL, Chief Justice.

This is a sentencing appeal by the state. The issue is whether the trial court was justified in imposing a 32-month sentence rather than the presumptive sentence of 41 (37-45) months because of the court’s belief that defendant misunderstood when he pleaded guilty that the presumptive sentence was 32 months.

Defendant is a 31-year-old man with a record of four nontraffic misdemeanor convictions and four prior burglary convictions. He was released from Stillwater Prison in February of 1982 and was arrested in March for burglarizing a house in St. Paul. He was charged by…