IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE

STATE OF DELAWARE, )

)

)

v. ) ID No. 1703008054

)

) Cr. A. No. IN17-04-0119R1

KIYOHN M. CARROLL, )

 Defendant. )

Submitted: January 4, 2024*

Decided: January 26, 2024

Upon Defendant Kiyohn M. Carroll’s Motion for Postconviction Relief.

SUMMARILY DISMISSED.

ORDER

This 26th day of January, 2024, upon Defendant Kiyohn M. Carroll’s Motion 

for Postconviction Relief (D.I. 25), and the record in this matter, it appears to the 

Court that:

(1) Kiyohn M. Carroll was indicted in April 2017 for two counts of Rape

in the First Degree, seven counts of Rape in the Second Degree, one count of Rape 

in the Fourth Degree, two counts of Assault in the Third Degree, one count of 

Terroristic Threatening, and one count of Unlawful Imprisonment in the Second 

Degree.

1

 The incidents that brought about these charges occurred in 2012 and 2016

* See n.4, supra.

1

 D.I. 1. 
-2-

when he sexually assaulted two different men in events that began in Philadelphia 

and ended in Delaware motel rooms. In November 2020—after he had completed a 

Pennsylvania kidnapping sentence related to one of those attacks—Mr. Carroll was 

transferred to Delaware to answer his charges here.

(2) Mr. Carroll eventually pleaded nolo contendere to a single count of 

fourth-degree rape (as a lesser of first-degree rape) in May 2022. He did so in 

exchange for dismissal of the remaining charges and the State’s favorable sentencing 

recommendation—a time-served Level V sentence.2 His sentencing occurred 

several months later, on December 2, 2022, and Mr. Carroll was sentenced to fifteen 

years at Level V suspended after two years and one month (served under the 

provisions of 11 Del. C. § 4202(k)) to be followed by six months at Level IV (DOC 

Discretion) and an extended Level III term.

3

(3) Mr. Carroll docketed no direct appeal from his conviction or sentence.

(4) Several months later, in March 2023, Mr. Carroll was before the Court 

for a violation of his Level IV term.

4

 That violation was resolved.

5

 And Mr. Carroll 

has now finished the Level IV portion of this sentence and is presently serving his 

2 D.I. 14.

3 D.I. 17.

4 D.I. 18-21.

5

See D.I. 20 and 22.
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community supervision at Level III.6

(5) Mr. Carroll filed the instant motion for postconviction relief under 

Superior Court Criminal Rule 61 on January 4, 2024.

7

 In sum, Mr. Carroll says he 

is entitled to postconviction relief because his counsel was ineffective in the 

investigation and preparation of his case and “[he] thus was forced into taking the 

plea.”8

(6) The Court has engaged in the preliminary consideration of Mr. Carroll’s

application required under Superior Court Criminal Rule 61(d). The Court finds 

that, consistent with Rules 61(i)(1) and (d)(5), his should be SUMMARILY 

DISMISSED because it is an unexcused untimely motion.

(7) When considering applications for postconviction relief under its 

criminal rules, this Court addresses any applicable procedural bars before turning to 

the merits.9 This policy protects the integrity of the Court’s rules and the finality of 

its judgments.10 As the Court has observed, addressing the merits of a case that does 

6

See D.I. 22.

7 Mr. Carroll stamped his postconviction motion at 5:33 p.m. on January 4, 2024, at the allcourts’ “night drop” clock in the lobby of the Leonard L. Williams Justice Center. D.I. 25. It was 

clocked in and docketed by this Court’s Prothonotary the next morning, January 5, 2024, at 

8:56 a.m. Id. Assuming without deciding that Mr. Carroll’s night-clocking was sufficient, the 

Court uses the earlier of two potential filing dates—January 4, 2024.

8 Def. Rule 61 Mot., at 3-4.

9

See, e.g., Ayers v. State, 802 A.2d 278, 281 (Del. 2002). See also Bailey v. State, 588 A.2d 

1121, 1127 (Del. 1991); Younger v. State, 580 A.2d 552, 554 (Del. 1990) (citing Harris v. Reed, 

489 U.S. 255 (1989)). 

10 State v. Caldwell, 2009 WL 3069680, at *1 (Del. Super. Ct. Sept 14, 2009).
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not meet procedural requirements effectively renders our procedural rules 

meaningless.11

(8) Mr. Carroll’s motion for postconviction relief is controlled by 

Rule 61(i)(1)’s time limitation.

12

(9) Thereunder, “[a] motion for postconviction relief may not be filed more 

than one year after the judgment of conviction is final.”13 Mr. Carroll’s rape 

conviction became final on January 3, 2023.14 He then had one year from that date—

or until January 3, 2024—to file his postconviction motion. He did not file until 

January 4, 2024—that is, a day too late. Accordingly, Mr. Carroll’s postconviction 

motion is plainly procedurally barred as untimely under Superior Court Criminal 

Rule 61(i)(1). 

11 See State v. Chao, 2006 WL 2788180, at *5 (Del. Super. Ct. Sept. 25, 2006) (“To protect the 

integrity of the procedural rules, the Court should not consider the merits of a postconviction claim 

where a procedural bar exists.”); State v. Jones, 2002 WL 31028584, at *2 (Del. Super. Ct. Sept. 

10, 2002) (citing State v. Gattis, 1995 WL 790961, at *3 (Del. Super. Ct. Dec. 28, 1995)) (same).

12 This Court’s Criminal Rule 61(i)(1) states in relevant part: “Time limitation. A motion for 

postconviction relief may not be filed more than one year after the judgment of conviction is final 

. . .”

13 Del. Super. Ct. Crim. R. 61(i)(1).

14 See Jackson v. State, 654 A.2d 829, 833 (Del. 1995) (“A defendant who does not take a direct 

appeal within thirty days of the time of sentencing is subject to a ‘finality’ date which begins when 

the time for direct appeal has expired. For such defendants the [one-]year period under 

Rule 61(i)(1) begins thirty days after sentencing.”); see also Del. Super. Ct. Crim. R. 45(a) 

(allowing that when the last day of a period prescribed or allowed by the Court’s criminal rules 

falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or other legal holiday, the prescribed period shall run until the end of 

the next day on which the prothonotary is open). 
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(11) Now, the time bar does not “apply either to a claim that the court lacked 

jurisdiction or to a claim that satisfies the pleading requirements of subparagraphs 

(2)(i) or (2)(ii) of subdivision (d)” of Rule 61.

15

 But Mr. Carroll doesn’t claim that 

this Court lacked jurisdiction, that “new evidence exists that creates a strong 

inference” of actual innocence,16 nor that “a new rule of constitutional law, made 

retroactive to cases on collateral review by the United States Supreme Court or the 

Delaware Supreme Court, applies to [his] case and renders [his] conviction . . . 

invalid.”17 Instead, Mr. Carroll’s is a run-of-the-mill ineffectiveness claim that his 

counsel’s alleged failings prompted his plea. As such, his untimely motion is 

undoubtedly procedurally barred by Criminal Rules 61(i)(1).

(12) Having engaged in the preliminary consideration of his motion 

expected under Rule 61(d), the Court finds that “it plainly appears from the motion 

for postconviction relief and the record of prior proceedings in the case that 

[Mr. Carroll] is not entitled to relief.”18

15 Del. Super. Ct. Crim. R. 61(i)(5).

16 Del. Super. Ct. Crim. R. 61(d)(2)(i); id. at (i)(5). See State v. Madison, 2022 WL 3011377, 

at *4 (Del. Super. Ct. July 29, 2022), a’ffd, 2022 WL 17982946 (Del. Dec. 29, 2022) (explaining 

Rule 61’s “new evidence standard” adopted by the Delaware Supreme Court the year before in 

Purnell v. State, 254 A.3d 1053 (Del. 2021)).

17 Del. Super. Ct. Crim. R. 61(d)(2)(ii). See also id. at (i)(5).

18 Id. at (d)(5).
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(13) Accordingly, Mr. Carroll’s Motion for Postconviction Relief is 

SUMMARILY DISMISSED.

19

SO ORDERED this 26th day of January, 2024.

 

Paul R. Wallace, Judge

Original to Prothonotary

cc: Mr. Kiyohn M. Carroll, pro se

Diana A. Dunn, Deputy Attorney General 

 

19 Id. (“Summary dismissal. If it plainly appears from the motion for postconviction relief and 

the record of prior proceedings in the case that the movant is not entitled to relief, the judge may 

enter an order for its summary dismissal and cause the movant to be notified.”).