Gray v. Irwin

In Gray v. Irwin, 195 Ariz. 273, 277, P14, 987 P.2d 759, 763 (App. 1999), the defendant, convicted of personal possession, had two prior convictions, one for possession of dangerous drugs, the other for forgery. Two prior convictions for personal possession would have disqualified the defendant for mandatory probation under the explicit terms of 13-901.01(G). But could the forgery conviction be treated as equivalent to a second prior conviction for personal possession? The court found that it could not. Id. Rather, the trial court was obliged to place the defendant on probation under subsection (F) as a second-time personal possession offender, but entitled to consider the prior forgery conviction as an aggravating factor when choosing among the more stringent terms of probation that may be applied to a second-time possessory offender under subsection F. Id. at 277, PP 14, 15, 987 P.2d at 763. Gray established that a non-violent, non-drug-related prior felony conviction cannot be treated as a prior personal possession conviction for the purposes of sentencing under 13-901.01. Id.