Goodson v. StateGoodson v. State
This appeal follows our grant of defendant’s application seeking discretionary review of the trial court’s order revoking his probation. Defendant was charged with the murder of his wife. 1 At the time of his arrest, defendant was on probation for previous convictions of theft by taking and habitual violator. A petition was issued for revocation of defendant’s probation alleging that defendant had violated the terms of his probation by committing the new offense of felony murder. On August 26, 1993, an evidentiary hearing was held to determine if the probated sentence should be revoked. At this hearing, all of the evidence brought forward by the State in support of its contention that defendant had committed this new criminal offense was wholly hearsay in nature. Nevertheless, the trial court entered an or *284 der revoking the balance of defendant’s probation.
Hearsay evidence has no probative value and is inadmissible in a probation revocation proceeding.
Barnett v. State,
The State concedes on appeal that all of the evidence at the hearing was hearsay but argues that the revocation order should be upheld anyway because testimony at the hearing indicated that at the time of his arrest, defendant admitted he had been using crack cocaine and codeine syrup which would have alone afforded the trial court a legitimate basis for revoking the remainder of defendant’s probated sentence. We disagree. “[Although ordinarily a judgment right for any reason must be affirmed, where it is apparent that the court rests its judgment on reasons which are erroneous or upon an erroneous legal theory, it commits reversible error. [Cit.]”
Sosbee v. State,
Judgment reversed.
Notes
The charge was subsequently reduced to felony grade involuntary manslaughter following the preliminary hearing.