Court Opinion

ID: 9795943
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 03:43:08.636386+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:42:36.266255
License: Public Domain

VOIGT, Justice,
dissenting.
[¶ 19] I respectfully dissent. The appellant was sentenced on December 18, 2001. Nearly a year later, on December 9, 2002, he filed a motion for sentence reduction, without requesting a hearing. That motion was never heard. One day short of a year later, he filed a motion to amend the motion for sentence reduction. On January 8, 2004, the district court determined the matter by deciding that it was without jurisdiction to hear the motion, due to the passage of too much time.
[¶20] Those facts occurred in this legal context: W.R.Cr.P. 35(b) contains two relevant provisions. First, a motion for sentence reduction must be filed within one year after imposition of sentence. That happened. Second, the district court shall determine the motion within a reasonable time. That did not happen. The Wyoming Rules of Criminal Procedure do not establish a procedure for dealing with this situation, in which case W.R.Cr.P. 1(a) dictates that the Wyoming Rules of Civil Procedure shall govern. W.R.C.P. 6(c)(2), which directly governs motions and motions practice, states that a motion not determined within ninety days of filing is deemed denied. W.R.A.P. 2.01(a) requires that an appeal be filed within thirty days from entry of the appealable order. See Paxton Resources, L.L.C. v. Brannaman, 2004 WY 93, ¶¶ 4-18, 95 P.3d 796, 798-802 (Wyo.2004), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 125 S.Ct. 976, 160 L.Ed.2d 901 (2005) (application of W.R.A.P. 2.01 and 2.02 in a deemed-denied situation).
[¶ 21] When the appellant’s motion for sentence reduction was not heard within a reasonable time, it was deemed denied ninety days after it was filed. The appellant had thirty days from that date to appeal, and he did not do so. This appeal should be dismissed as untimely.