State v. Bird

Defendant pled guilty to possession of cocaine, and, after a jury trial, was convicted of criminal threat and theft. Defendant filed a motion for a downward durational and dispositional departure. After a sentencing hearing, the district court concluded that substantial and compelling reasons justified a departure from the sentencing guidelines for Defendant's conviction for cocaine possession but refused to depart from the sentence on Defendant's remaining convictions. The court of appeals panel vacated the departure sentence. The Supreme Court reversed the panel's decision and affirmed the district court's departure sentence, holding that substantial competent evidence supported at least two of the mitigating factors found by the district court and that those factors, when considered together, constituted substantial and compelling reasons to depart. View "State v. Bird" on Justia Law