S-19-1179) State v. Shane R. Melton (Appellant)
Lincoln County District Court, Judge Michael E. Piccolo
Attorneys: Nathan A. Liss (Attorney General’s Office) --- Martin J. Troshynski (Appellant)
Criminal: Plea; motion to modify sentence; jurisdiction
Proceedings below: Appellant was convicted based on his pleas of no contest to various crimes in five different cases including possession of meth, flight to avoid arrest, and theft of property valued at over $5,000. He was sentenced to various terms of imprisonment including a mixture of consecutive and concurrent terms with an aggregate of 13 to 20 years imprisonment and a two-year license revocation. Despite its own error in pronouncing some sentences would run consecutively, the district court overruled Appellant’s motion to modify the sentences. The Appellant filed a motion to bypass the Court of Appeals, which was granted by the Nebraska Supreme Court.
Issues: 1) The district court erred in determining that it could not correct its admitted error in pronouncing consecutive sentences rather than concurrent sentences, 2) the Nebraska Supreme Court’s precedent disallowing modification of sentences once the defendant has left the courtroom constitutes a denial of due process under the unique circumstances of this case, and 3) the trial court erred in imposing sentence pursuant to Neb. Rev. Stat. §29-2204 and §29-2204.02.