People v. Castleberry

This case presents question as to whether Appellate Court, in applying void sentence rule, properly vacated defendant’s 9-year sentence on one of two counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault and remanded matter for re-sentencing to comply with 15-year mandatory firearms sentencing enhancement that had been properly imposed on other aggravated criminal sexual assault conviction. In his petition for leave to appeal, defendant argued that void sentence rule should not have applied since trial court’s jurisdiction to enter original sentence stemmed from Illinois Constitution and not any statute. As such, any erroneous ruling by trial court was merely voidable, as opposed to being void.