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Sentencing Guidelines – Resentencing

By: Derek Hawkins//October 29, 2019//

Sentencing Guidelines – Resentencing

By: Derek Hawkins//October 29, 2019//

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WI Court of Appeals – District I

Case Name: State of Wisconsin v. Vaylan G. Morris

Case No.: 2018AP1694-CR

Officials: Brash, P.J., Kessler and Dugan, JJ.

Focus: Sentencing Guidelines – Resentencing

Vaylan G. Morris appeals his judgment of conviction entered after he pled guilty to second-degree recklessly endangering safety as a party to a crime, and the trial court’s order denying his postconviction motion for resentencing. Morris was charged after the death of his infant daughter, O.M., who had been co-sleeping with Morris and O.M.’s mother, Monica Gonzalez. The cause of O.M.’s death was undetermined, but Morris admitted to smoking synthetic marijuana prior to co-sleeping with O.M. and thought he may have rolled over on her. Additionally, synthetic marijuana was detected in O.M.’s stomach contents, although it was determined not to have caused her death.

In his postconviction motion, Morris argued that the trial court relied on inaccurate information regarding O.M.’s cause of death. Specifically, the State represented at sentencing that the synthetic marijuana could have been the cause of O.M.’s death; however, the medical examiner had advised the State that the ingested synthetic marijuana was not the cause of death. The trial court denied Morris’s postconviction motion. It stated that the information presented by the State was not necessarily inaccurate just because it conflicted with the medical examiner’s opinion, even though the State conceded that point. The court also stated that it had not relied on the inaccurate information because the sentence imposed was not based on a particular theory of the cause of death, and thus any error relating to that inaccurate information was harmless.

We disagree. The record demonstrates that after the inaccurate information was presented by the State, the trial court repeatedly referred to Morris and Gonzalez as having caused O.M.’s death during Morris’s sentencing hearing. Furthermore, the record does not reflect that the court considered any other possible causes of death. We therefore reverse and remand this matter for resentencing.

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Derek A Hawkins is trademark corporate counsel for Harley-Davidson. Hawkins oversees the prosecution and maintenance of the Harley-Davidson’s international trademark portfolio in emerging markets.

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