MOUNT VERNON -- The Fifth District Appellate Court affirmed St. Clair County Circuit Judge Robert Haida's ruling denying a woman's motion to withdraw her negotiated guilty plea and vacate her sentence following charges for aggravated criminal sexual abuse.
The Haida had determined that it didn't have discretion to exempt Kayla Howell from sex offender registration requirements that stemmed from her conviction.
“Because this direct appeal is not a proper way for the defendant to challenge those requirements as applied to her, we correct the mittimus to reflect an additional day spent in presentence custody, as we agree with the parties that the defendant is entitled to this relief,” Justice James R. Moore wrote in the Feb. 20 decision.
Justices Thomas M. Welch and David K. Overstreet concurred.
Although the appellate court didn’t lack sympathy for Howell, it couldn’t grant her relief by way of withdrawing her plea and vacating her sentence via the Sex Offender Registration Act (SORA), especially since that was considered a collateral consequence of her actual plea, the ruling states.
The appellate court determined Haida was correct when he concluded that he didn’t have discretion to waive Howell from SORA requirements, because they came as a result of the conviction, and are not part of the sentence the court reigned down.
However, the appellate court did agree with Howell that she is owed a credit of 119 days in presentence custody for the time she was arrested and placed on bond with electronic monitoring. It corrected the 118-day credit the circuit court gave.
Howell filed the appeal to challenge Haida's denial of her motion to withdraw her fully negotiated plea and vacate her sentence. She was charged for aggravated criminal sexual abuse, a Class 2 felony, after it was alleged she knowingly committed sexual acts with a male minor under 17.
She was also charged with a Class A misdemeanor offense of domestic battery/physical contact after she allegedly punched someone in the face during an altercation.
Her third charge was for a Class A misdemeanor offense for battery/causing bodily harm after striking someone else in the chest.
Howell was charged in May 2014. Her family claimed she was diagnosed with mental issues and didn’t fully understand her charges.
Both sides went before Haida, who inquired about any possible plea deals. Counsel for the state argued that the only issue was the requirement to register for the sex offender’s list, and Howell’s counsel agreed. However, the state pushed for Howell to have to register if convicted.
Haida sentenced Howell based on the plea agreement but did say he didn’t have the discretion to rule out the sex offender requirements and told Howell she could appeal. She then filed a motion to withdraw and vacate, arguing that Haida did have discretion. He denied her motion and she appealed.