Expungement denied for Phoenix man serving 16-year weed sentence

A Maricopa County Superior Court judge declined to grant expungement to Trent Bouhdida, a Phoenix man serving a 16-year sentence for selling an ounce of weed. The ruling is another setback in Bouhdida’s ongoing quest for freedom.

On May 30, a ruling from the Arizona Court of Appeals broadened the number of old marijuana cases eligible for expungement in Arizona to include those for possession for sale. So, Bouhdida’s lawyers reasoned that his case was now eligible for expungement and on June 22, they petitioned a court to clear his name.

Judge Monica Garfinkel disagreed and ruled on July 12 that Bouhdida’s case was ineligible for expungement. “Nothing in the statute provides for the expungement of a conviction for selling marijuana,” she wrote.

Garfinkel’s decision highlighted the ambiguity of the May 30 appeals court ruling. Now, Bouhdida's case could become a test case for whether or not convictions involving low-level marijuana sales are deemed eligible for expungement under Arizona law.

Had Garfinkel granted his petition, Bouhdida’s case would have been cleared from his record, and he likely would have been released from prison. Bouhdida is incarcerated in the Arizona State Prison Complex in Tucson and is only five years into a 16-year sentence for selling 1 ounce of marijuana to an undercover Tempe Police Department detective in 2015. Bouhdida had a valid medical marijuana card at the time.

Expungable or not?

In 2020, Arizona voters legalized recreational marijuana by approving Proposition 207. It included a provision that allowed people who had been convicted of possessing 2.5 ounces or less of marijuana for personal consumption, or weed paraphernalia, to petition to get their convictions expunged, which effectively scrubs their criminal records.

However, there is lingering ambiguity about which cases are eligible. Proposition 207 made convictions of “possessing, consuming or transporting two and one-half ounces or less of marijuana” eligible for expungement. In the May appellate court decision, a panel of judges ruled that “sale-related” marijuana cases, including “possession for sale” cases, also are eligible to be expunged.

Bouhdida’s lawyers argued that the ruling meant that convictions for selling marijuana also should be eligible for expungement when they involved less than 2.5 ounces.

“There is no separate statutory basis for criminalizing the ‘sale’ as opposed to the ‘possession for sale’ of marijuana,” the lawyers argued. “This court should apply the plain reading of Sorensen, which holds very simply that ‘sale-related marijuana offenses,’ without exception, are eligible for expungement if they otherwise satisfy the statute’s weight limitation.”

Randal McDonald, one of the attorneys representing Bouhdida, declined to comment on the ruling.

The Maricopa County Attorney's Office opposed Bouhdida’s request for expungement and argued that the unlicensed sale of marijuana is still illegal in Arizona. “It would be an absurd result to let Mr. Bouhdida expunge his conviction for selling marijuana when someone committing the exact same act today could be convicted of the same crime,” Jason Kalish, a deputy county attorney, wrote in the state’s response to the petition.

Lack of sympathy from prosecutors

In 2015, Bouhdida was 21 years old when he sold marijuana — four times totaling an ounce — to an undercover Tempe police officer he met outside a 7-Eleven. At the time, Bouhdida was working toward a college degree, holding down two jobs and raising his newborn son.

When Bouhdida decided to take his case to trial, prior criminal charges from when he was 15 years old worked against him, and he received a 16-year prison sentence.

In August 2022, Bouhdida was the subject of a Phoenix New Times investigation, which looked at how the young South Phoenix man received such a harsh sentence and the resulting impact on his life and family.

Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell, in the weeks leading up to her November 2022 election, expressed her lack of sympathy for Bouhdida’s case. She said the 16-year sentence was appropriate.

Nearly 800 people have signed an online petition for Bouhdida to be released from prison. So far, his petitions for clemency have been denied.

Since New Times first reported on his case, Bouhdida has found new legal representation with the Post-Conviction Clinic at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. While Garfinkel has given her opinion on the matter, Bouhdida’s legal team can still appeal the decision to a higher court.