Defendant pleaded nolo contendere to charges of armed robbery, MCL 750.529; MSA 28.797, and unlawfully driving away an automobile (udaa), MCL 750.413; MSA 28.645. She received concurrent sentenсes of five to twenty years’ imprisonment and three to five years’ imprisonment, respectively. She now appeals as of right, contesting the scoring of the sentencing information report and the proportionality of the greater sentence. We affirm.
On August 28, 1993, the seventeen-year-old defendant, armed with a large chefs or butсher knife, broke into seventy-eight-year-old Rena Klinski’s mobile home through the side window. Mrs. Klinski was in the living room watching television at the time, and was not immediately aware that her hоme had . been entered by defendant.
After removing her shoes so she would not be heard, defendant cut a mask from a pillowcase she found. She began to rummage thrоugh Mrs. Klinski’s bedroom. Hearing a noise and noticing that her bedroom light was on, Mrs. Klinski went to her bedroom and opened the door. She was met by defendant, who was brandishing the knife. Defеndant immediately threatened to kill Mrs. Klinski if she screamed.
Defendant repeatedly warned Mrs. Klinski that *529 she would be killed if she shouted for help. Defendant then pushed the elderly victim toward a bathroom, ordered her into the bathroom, and then closed the door behind. Mrs. Klinski. Mrs. Klinski remained in the bathroom for some fifteen minutes while defendant culled through her belongings. Defendant then ordered Mrs. Klinski out оf the bathroom and told her to sit on a chair in the bedroom. Defendant covered Mrs. Klinski’s head with some clothing, bound her hands behind her back with telephone and lamp cords that she had cut, stuffed a sock into the seventy-eight-year-old’s mouth, and bound her legs together.
Defendant stole money, alcohol, and jewelry from Mrs. Klinski’s home. She carried these items to Mrs. Klinski’s car, in which she fled. Defendant was apprehended a short time later. .
Defendant presents four arguments on appeal, only one of which merits more than cursory treatment. First, she contends that offense variable (ov) 5 was scored incorrectly. Ov 5 was scored at 15, meaning the sentencing court found that a preponderance of the record evidence,
People v Walker,
Defendant next submits that prior record variable (prv) 7, which addresses subsequent and concurrent felony convictions, was also scored incorrectly. The scoring of prv 7 at 10 reflects that the trial court found by a preponderance of the evidence,
Walker, supra,
that defendant was concurrently convicted of another felony in addition to armed robbery. Defendant suggests that her conviction of udaa should have been considered part of the same transaction as the armed robbеry. However, by failing to refer this Court to any authority supporting her position, she has effectively abandoned the issue. See
People v Simpson,
Additionally, we would question whether a defendant may voluntarily plead nolo contendere to two concurrent offenses, and later сontest the scoring of the prior record variables to reflect the concurrent convictions. It would appear that, by voluntarily offering the pleas, such a defendant tacitly accedes to the subsequent scoring of the variables. To reason otherwise would seemingly fall afoul of the general prohibition against requesting certain actions of the trial court and then arguing on appeal that these actions constituted error. See, e.g.,
People v Murry,
Defendant’s one contention warranting extended treatment concerns the scoring of ov 7, offender exploitation of victim vulnerability. The sentencing court scored this variable at 15, meaning it found by а preponderance of the evidence, Walker, supra, that defendant had exploited the victim because of the victim’s agedness. It is contended that "[although the defеndant was young, and the victim elderly, had the victim been of any other age, [she] would still have been subjected to the exact same actions by defendant.” We disagreе.
We would first note that ov 7 distinguishes between exploitation through a difference in size or. strength, which is scored at 5, and exploitation of agedness, which is scored at 15. Wе take this to be an explicit recognition of the distinction between the decline in physical strength characteristic of advanced age, and the less easily articulated decline in aggressiveness in confrontational situations that also often accompanies advancing years. To fail to recognize this distinction would render nugatory ov 7 in the context of elderly victims, since virtually all exploitation of agedness would be ascribed to exploitation of physical infirmity, meaning thаt those who prey on the aged would receive more lenient sentences than recommended by the guidelines. The guidelines recognize and address exploitation of our senior citizens.
In the present case, defendant did not shout, "I am exploiting you because you are a senior citizen.” In our opinion, there was no nеed for defendant to so state her motivation; her actions clearly manifested such a motivation. Had the victim been twenty-eight rather than seventy-eight, regardless of her physical strength, we find it unlikely that she would have been all but forgotten in a bath *532 room, fearing for her life the entire fifteen minutes, while her knife-wielding assailant leisurely inventoriеd her possessions. In other words, had defendant not immediately dismissed the possibility that the elderly victim would offer any resistance, which dismissal can only be attributed to her age, we believe that the victim would have been terrorized for a far shorter period of time. Therefore, we find ample evidence to support the sentenсing court’s conclusion that the victim was exploited solely because of her age, and, accordingly, uphold the scoring of ov 7. See Hernandez, supra.
Defendant’s final contеntion is that her sentence of five to twenty years’ imprisonment is disproportionate within the meaning of
People v Milbourn,
With respect to defendant’s contention concerning her age, while a sentencing court may, in some circumstances, consider a defendant’s age,
People v McKernan,
Affirmed.