ROLAND L. BELSOME, Judge.

The defendant, Ryan Hickman, is appealing the twenty years sentence imposed by the trial court after finding him a fourth felony offender. For the following reasons the sentence is affirmed.

Statement of Facts

On April 30, 2013, New Orleans Police Officer Walter Edmond and his partner, Officer Devon Ashmore, were on active patrol on Jackson Avenue in New Orleans. At that time, their attention was drawn to a vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed on Simon Bolivar Avenue approaching Jackson Avenue. Officer Edmond noticed that the vehicle ran the red light. Thereafter, the officers observed the vehicle make a U-turn at Josephine Street and Simon Bolivar Avenue and drive back toward Jackson Avenue. The officers turned on their lights and siren attempting to make a traffic stop. The vehicle picked up speed, drove down Jackson Avenue, and turned onto Freret Street. After a car chase, during which the vehicle exceeded sixty miles per hour, the officers chose to disengage their pursuit in the interest of public safety and lost sight of the vehicle.

Later, the officers learned that the vehicle had crashed into two parked cars and had come to rest on a sidewalk at the intersection of Freret and Toledano Streets. At the scene, the officers found Mr. Hickman slumped over and helped him out of his wrecked vehicle. EMS transported him to the hospital for observation. Officer Edmonds then searched Mr. Hickman's vehicle and discovered, a plastic bag of marijuana on the floorboard by the driver's seat and two Xanax pills on the passenger seat.

Mr. Hickman was charged with six traffic violations in addition to charges of possession of marijuana second offense, possession of alprazolam and aggravated resisting arrest.1

Procedural History

Mr. Hickman was convicted by a jury of flight from an officer2 and possession of marijuana second offense.3 The State then filed a multiple bill of information, alleging that Mr. Hickman was a fourth felony offender, predicating the multiple offender bill on three prior convictions: (1) aggravated assault of a peace officer and attempted possession of a firearm by a felon, to which Mr. Hickman pled guilty; (2) attempted possession of a firearm by a felon, to which Mr. Hickman pled guilty; and (3) a second attempted possession of a firearm charge to which Mr. Hickman pled guilty.

At the multiple bill hearing, the trial court found Mr. Hickman to be a second felony offender, rather than a fourth felony offender as argued by the State. Then, the State noticed its intent to seek supervisory writs of the trial court's finding that the appellant was a second felony offender.4 On December 21, 2016, this Court reversed the trial court's ruling on the multiple bill, and found the appellant to be a fourth felony offender and remanded the case for further proceedings, noting that its decision did not preclude the appellant from seeking a downward departure from the statutory minimum sentence.5 Mr. Hickman filed a writ with the Louisiana Supreme Court, which was denied. However, Justice Crichton wrote separately to acknowledge that the violation of possession of marijuana second offense had been reduced from a felony offense to a misdemeanor and that under the right facts a downward departure is appropriate for certain non-violent offenses.6

On remand, the State filed a sentencing memorandum requesting that Mr. Hickman be sentenced to serve forty years with the Department of Corrections as a quadruple felony offender, noting that the appellant had six prior felony convictions and was awaiting disposition of charges of second degree murder and obstruction of justice. Attached to the State's memorandum was a copy of Mr. Hickman's rap sheet, a copy of the arrest warrant for second degree murder and a note of evidence given by a co-defendant to that murder charge in open court.7

In response, Mr. Hickman filed a motion for downward departure in sentencing from the twenty year minimum prescribed by law. He argued that after his arrest, the Louisiana legislature reduced the offense of second possession of marijuana to a misdemeanor offense.8 After a hearing on the motion for downward departure, the trial court sentenced Mr. Hickman to serve twenty years in the custody of the Louisiana Department of Corrections as a fourth felony offender concurrent with any other sentences and with credit for time served.

Assignments of Error

On appeal, Mr. Hickman maintains that the trial court's sentence of twenty years for possession of marijuana, second offense, as a fourth-felony offender, is excessive under the circumstances; and the district court abused its discretion in failing to grant his motion for a downward departure from the statutory minimum sentence.

Standard of Review

Appellant courts review sentences imposed by the trial court under an abuse of discretion standard.9 A sentence imposed by a trial court should not be set aside absent a manifest abuse of that discretion.10

Discussion

This Court recently discussed this issue in State v. Green stating:

Thus, to be entitled to a downward departure, Mr. Hickman must clearly and convincingly show that he is "exceptional."

In this case, Mr. Hickman was arrested for second offense possession of marijuana as alleged in the bill of information, that offense carried a penalty of zero to five years in the custody of the Louisiana Department of Corrections.12 When charged as a quadruple felony offender under La. R.S. 15:529.1,13 he faced a sentencing range of twenty years to life in the custody of the Department of Corrections. The trial court, over the State's objections, sentenced the appellant to the minimum term authorized by law.

At the hearing for the motion for downward departure, Mr. Hickman argued that given the fact that possession of marijuana, second offense is currently a misdemeanor and a crime of non-violence a downward departure was warranted. The trial court did not find that circumstance alone to be enough to establish that Mr. Hickman was exceptional. Although his current conviction was for a non-violent offense that is now recognized as a misdemeanor, the trial court looked beyond the current conviction and considered Mr. Hickman's prior criminal history, which included a conviction for a crime of violence and three separate convictions for gun possession. In its discretion, the trial court denied Mr. Hickman's request for a downward departure and sentenced him to the minimum statutory requirement of twenty years.

We find no abuse of discretion on the part of the trial court. Therefore, Mr. Hickman's sentence is affirmed.

AFFIRMED.