Commonwealth v. Deshong, 850 A.2d 712 (Pa. Super. Ct. 2004)

Cases | Commonwealth v. Deshong, 850 A.2d 712 (Pa. Super. Ct. 2004) | 2018

The defendant pled guilty to insurance fraud after he burned down a restaurant he owned to collect the insurance money. He agreed to pay restitution “as determined by the Fulton County Probation Department (Department).” At the time of sentencing, the trial court entered an open-ended restitution order, pending a determination of whom the defendant owed and how much. When restitution still had not been determined fourteen months after sentencing, the Department requested a determination hearing. The defendant opposed the Commonwealth’s request that the trial court set the amount of restitution, arguing that under the amended restitution statute, restitution must be determined at the time of sentencing. The trial court agreed, and the Commonwealth appealed. The appellate court agreed with the trial judge that he was not permitted to set the amount of restitution. The trial judge intended restitution as a direct sentence in this case, and not a condition of the defendant’s probation. The Pennsylvania Crimes Code requires that the court set the manner and amount of restitution at sentencing in such cases. The court vacated the sentence and remanded for re-sentencing.