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REPORTED IN THE COURT OF SPECIAL APPEALS OF MARYLAND No. 2645 September Term, 2009

ADRIAN A. BRITTON v. STATE OF MARYLAND

Krauser, C.J., Graeff, Kenney, James A., III (Retired, Specially Assigned), JJ.

Opinion by Krauser, C.J.

Filed: October 27, 2011

Adrian Antonio Britton, appellant, pleaded guilty in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County to one count of resisting arrest and two counts of second-degree assault for assaulting two different police officers: Officer Kenneth Moreau and Officer Harley Schwarz. He was thereafter sentenced to the following consecutive terms of imprisonment: two years for assaulting Officer Moreau, eighteen months for assaulting Officer Schwarz, and eighteen months for resisting arrest. After his appeal was dismissed, as improper, appellant filed a motion to correct an illegal sentence, asking the circuit court to merge, for sentencing purposes, his convictions for assault into his conviction for resisting arrest. When the circuit court denied that motion, he noted this appeal. Finding no error by the court below, we affirm. Plea Hearing At appellant's guilty plea hearing, the State proffered that, on January 22, 2008, Officer A. Siegelbaum 1 observed appellant's car approach a red light "at a high rate of speed," "swerve[] around" another vehicle, and then race through the red light. After pulling appellant over, the officer got out of his patrol car and walked towards appellant's vehicle. As the officer approached appellant's car, appellant backed his vehicle towards the officer, "trying," in the words of the circuit court, "to run [the officer] over." After a passenger in appellant's car jumped out, declaring that he did not "want to be any part of this," appellant "took off at a high rate of speed," followed by the officer in his patrol car.

Officer Siegelbaum's full first name was not divulged at the plea hearing and does not appear elsewhere in the record or briefs.

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During the ensuing chase, appellant drove at nearly double the posted speed limit, "erratically crossing the double yellow divider" and "driving on the shoulder" and on unpaved portions of the road. Officer Moreau, responding to a radio broadcast from Officer Siegelbaum, positioned his vehicle near an intersection, but on the side of the road. Appellant drove off the roadway and rammed Moreau's car, striking it "broadside in the rear passenger door" and causing it to spin "about 180 degrees" into the intersection. As a result of the collision, Officer Moreau suffered "soft tissue damage" and "neck and back trauma." Appellant's vehicle then crashed through a residential front yard, struck down a neighborhood-watch sign, "went through several shrubs, and ultimately struck two trees," where it "became wedged" and "caught fire." At that point, appellant "jumped out of the car and fled on foot" into the backyard of that residence. Officer Siegelbaum pursued appellant on foot, at one point tasering him, but to no apparent effect, as appellant continued his flight. When Officers Siegelbaum and Moreau, joined by Officer Schwarz and Sergeant Fergus Sugrue, were finally able to grab appellant, he "violently resisted," "punching and kicking the officers." Though tasered two more times, appellant continued to struggle. During the melee, appellant hit Officer Schwarz in the right eye, causing bruising and swelling. For that injury, the officer was later treated at the Germantown Emergency Center. Appellant also injured Sergeant Sugrue's left shoulder and Officer Siegelbaum's hand, for

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which Siegelbaum was transported from the scene to the Germantown Emergency Center.2 Eventually, the officers were able to subdue appellant.3 Appellant was charged with one count of resisting arrest and four counts of assault, one for each of the four officers he had struck or kicked or both. He was also charged with four counts of fleeing and eluding police and one count of attempting to disarm a police officer. After the State reduced the assault count relating to Officer Moreau from first to second degree, appellant pleaded guilty to that assault, as well as to second-degree assault as to Officer Schwarz,4 and resisting arrest. The State then entered a nolle prosequi as to each of the remaining counts. Sentencing After appellant pleaded guilty, the court imposed three consecutive sentences for the two second-degree assault convictions and resisting arrest. At the sentencing hearing, appellant's counsel requested that the assault conviction relating to Officer Schwarz be merged into the resisting arrest conviction on the ground that the assault occurred during the

At sentencing, the State provided additional information as to the injuries sustained by the officers in the struggle. Officer Siegelbaum "received injuries to his hand which required a cast" and forced him to take disability leave. Officer Moreau "had neck and back injuries." Officer Schwarz, in addition to being "punched in the face," received "an injury to []his thumb and lacerations to his knee." Sergeant Sugrue "had injuries to his shoulder that he had to go into rehabilitation for." The State further proffered that appellant's blood screens came back "presumptive[ly] positive for cocaine and marijuana" and that his passenger informed police that appellant had ingested hallucinogenic mushrooms earlier that evening. The assault convictions were for violations of Maryland Code (2002, 2007 Supp.),

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