Reversed and remanded with directions. Daniel C. Estes , assistant appellate defender, and Jessica R. Kunen , chief appellate defender, for appellant. Lesley A. McFadden , assistant district attorney, Nola Foulston , district attorney, and Carla J. Stovall , attorney general, for appellee. 8-287 and driving with an expired license tag. Defendant was sentenced to 13 months' imprisonment on the habitual violator charge and 6 months in jail on the expired tag charge.
Defendant only appeals from the habitual driving charge.
The sole issue raised in this appeal questions whether a person who has never obtained a valid driver's license may be convicted of driving while a habitual violator. This question involves statutory interpretation, which is a question of law. Therefore, this court has unlimited review. Recently, our Supreme Court addressed the parallel question of whether a person who has never obtained a valid driver's license may be convicted of driving while suspended. The Bowie court reasoned that because Kansas law extends driving privileges only to those who have obtained a valid driver's license, a person who has never obtained a license does not possess any driving privileges which may be suspended or revoked for successive violations.