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STATE OF MICHIGAN COURT OF APPEALS

PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN, Plaintiff-Appellee, v JOEL GLENN PETZ, Defendant-Appellant.

UNPUBLISHED June 21, 2011

No. 295199 Muskegon Circuit Court LC No. 08-057074-FH

Before: SHAPIRO, P.J., and O'CONNELL and OWENS, JJ. PER CURIAM. Following a jury trial, defendant was convicted of failing to register as a sex offender, MCL 28.729, and failing to verify his domicile or residence, MCL 28.725a. The trial court sentenced defendant as a habitual offender, fourth-offense, MCL 769.12, to a term of 48 months to 15 years' imprisonment, with credit for four days. Defendant appeals as of right. We affirm. I. TEXT MESSAGE Defendant first contends on appeal that the trial court erred in admitting a "text message"1 on chain of evidence grounds. Specifically,

1

Actually, it was an instant message. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant_messaging: IM falls under the umbrella term online chat, as it is a real-time text-based networked communication system, but is distinct in that it is based on clients that facilitate connections between specified known users (often using "Buddy List", "Friend List" or "Contact List"), whereas online `chat' also includes web-based applications that allow communication between (often anonymous) users in a multi-user environment. . . . Instant messaging . . . is a collection of technologies used for real-time text-based communication between two or more participants over the Internet . . . . Of importance is that online chat and instant messaging differs from other technologies such as e-mail due to the perceived synchronicity of the communications by the users

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