Grays v. State
The defendant's sentence was incorrectly assessed when the trial court
ordered cumulation of the defendant's sentence of 13 years for burglary
of a habitation with his sentence of five years for aggravated sexual
assault of a child after it failed to orally under the cumulation
during sentencing. While the trial court heard the State's motion to cumulate, it
withheld ruling on it until the State submitted a written motion with
supporting case law. This action did not establish the trial court's
intention to cumulate sentences and did not establish that the
defendant agreed to allow the trial court to cumulate his sentences at
a later date outside his presence. The State offered no authority
creating an exception to the statutory requirement that sentencing for
a felony offense must be pronounced in the defendant's presence nor any
authority establishing an exception to the general rule that when there
is a conflict between the oral pronouncement of sentence in open court
and the sentence set out in the written judgment, the oral
pronouncement controls.
