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SUPREME COURT OF LOUISIANA No. 97-K-2930 STATE OF LOUISIANA v. GUADALUPE SALINAS On Writ of Certiorari to the Third Circuit Court of Appeal PER CURIAM:* We granted the state's application for review because it appeared that the court of appeal misapplied this Court's jurisprudential rule that a trial court may not use its assessment of the defendant's credibility as the sole basis for imposing an apparently severe sentence. State v. Soco, 441 So.2d

719, 721 (La. 1983); State v. Quebedeaux, 424 So.2d 1009, 1014 (La. 1982); State v. Smith, 407 So.2d 652, 657 (La. 1981). Third Circuit vacated the defendant's sentence of 25 years imprisonment at hard labor following his guilty plea to possession of marijuana with intent to distribute in violation of La.R.S. 40:966(A)(1) on grounds that the large discrepancy between the penalty imposed and a joint recommendation by the defense and state of nine years at hard labor suggested "that the trial judge heavily relied upon the defendant's untruthfulness [during the plea colloquy] in imposing a sentence." State v. The

Salinas, 97-0716, p. 11 (La. App. 3d Cir. 10/29/97), 703 So.2d 671, 677. The court of appeal remanded for resentencing "without Id. Our prior

regard to the defendant's alleged perjury."

decisions do not, however, preclude a trial court from taking into account the defendant's honesty under oath as a measure, "in

*

Knoll, J., not on panel.

See Rule IV, Part II, Sec. 3.

light of all other knowledge gained about the defendant . . . [of] his prospects for rehabilitation and restoration to a useful place in society." United States v. Grayson, 438 U.S. 41, 55, 98 Under

S.Ct. 2610, 2618, 57 L.Ed.2d 582 (1978) (emphasis added).

the circumstances of this case, we find no error by the trial court in considering, among other aggravating factors, the defendant's lack of candor regarding his prior conviction in Texas for a similar offense. We therefore reverse the judgment

below and reinstate the defendant's sentence. A routine traffic stop in September of 1996 led to the defendant's arrest for possession of approximately 60 pounds of marijuana. In connection with his guilty plea, and after the

court placed him under oath, the defendant stated that he had no prior record. However, a presentence investigation ordered by

the court uncovered several prior convictions, including one in 1995 in Texas for possession of marijuana in an amount between four ounces and five pounds, a felony offense in that state. Tex. Health & Safety Code Ann.,

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