Rehabilitative Needs When Sentencing

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WI Court of Appeals – District I

Case Name: State of Wisconsin v. Spencer Brian Lewis

Case No.: 2022AP001620-CR

Officials: White, C.J., Geenen and Colón, JJ.

Focus: Rehabilitative Needs When Sentencing

In 2018, Lewis pleaded guilty to two amended counts of second-degree reckless homicide by use of a dangerous weapon and one count of attempted armed robbery by use of force for the February 2017 shooting deaths of teenage brothers Trajan and Croshian Edwards. Lewis, a fourteen-year-old eighth grader at the time of the shooting, and his thirteen-year-old friend devised a plan to rob Trajan because they believed there would be marijuana and money in the home. Lewis appeals the judgment of conviction and the circuit court’s order denying his motion for resentencing. Lewis argues that the circuit court erroneously exercised its discretion because it failed to consider his rehabilitative needs when determining the sentence. The appeals court agrees with the sentencing court’s conclusion that its sentence was the minimum necessary to achieve Wisconsin’s sentencing goals because a “lesser sentence would have unduly depreciated the extreme gravity [and] seriousness of the offenses and failed to accomplish the court’s sentencing goals[.]”

Affirmed.

Decided 02/13/24

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