Appeal Propositions

F-2007-909

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In OCCA case No. F-2007-909, Val Wilkerson appealed his conviction for Rape by Instrumentation. In an unpublished decision, the court decided to affirm the judgment but modified his sentence from thirty years to fifteen years imprisonment. One judge dissented. Val Wilkerson was found guilty by a jury in Haskell County for a serious crime. The jury decided on a punishment of thirty years in prison. After the trial, Wilkerson felt that things went wrong and he raised several points to appeal. First, he argued that the State used too much unfair evidence from other incidents that made him look bad. He thought this made the trial unfair. Second, he believed it was wrong for the prosecutors and police to mention that he had stayed quiet when asked questions. Third, he said the court did not give the jury the correct instructions. Lastly, he claimed that all these mistakes together made his trial unfair. The Court looked over everything carefully and agreed that the way other crimes were presented was a problem. They found that even though some earlier actions of Wilkerson were similar to what he was accused of, the older incidents happened a long time ago and should not have been brought up so much in his trial. The Court determined that while some bad evidence was allowed, the main evidence against Wilkerson was enough for the jury to find him guilty. However, the additional bad evidence likely influenced the length of the sentence because the prosecutor asked the jury to consider these past actions when deciding on punishment. Since the Court believed that the jury was distracted by this unfair evidence while deciding on the punishment, they changed the sentence to fifteen years instead of thirty. They also concluded that other issues raised by Wilkerson either did not affect the trial’s fairness or were fixed by the trial court’s instructions. In summary, the court upheld the conviction but agreed that the punishment was too harsh and lowered it. One judge disagreed and believed the case should be tried again.

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RE 2005-0315

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In OCCA case No. RE 2005-0315, #Matthews appealed his conviction for #Burglary. In a (published) decision, the court decided #to vacate the two-year sentence imposed in CF-1999-365, affirm the acceleration of the deferred sentence in CF-2003-14, and affirm the termination from Drug Court. #None dissented. Kevin Paul Matthews got into trouble with the law a while back. He pled no contest to a charge for running a roadblock and was given a sentence where he didn’t have to spend much time in prison right away. Instead, he was supposed to follow certain rules and help the community. However, he later messed up by not completing his required community service. Then, he got into even more trouble and pleaded guilty to burglary, agreeing to join a special program called Drug Court instead of going straight to prison. This program was meant to help him get better. But after some time, the State said he wasn’t following the rules and asked the judge to send him to prison instead. The judge agreed and decided Matthews needed to go to prison for more time, ruling that any previous time he served didn’t count towards his new sentence. Matthews felt that the judge made mistakes and that he shouldn't have been punished as harshly as he was. Matthews brought his case to a higher court, saying the judge didn't have the right to put him back in prison for the earlier offense because too much time had passed. He also said the judge shouldn’t have made him wait so long without setting an end date to his drug treatment program. Ultimately, the higher court agreed that the judge had made an error in punishing Matthews without accounting for the time he had already served. However, they kept the part where Matthews had to go to prison for his burglary charge because he had failed to follow the rules of the Drug Court. They decided to send the case back to the lower court for more review about what should happen next. So, in the end, Matthews got relief on some of his issues, but not all, showing that while he had some rights, he still needed to take responsibility for his actions.

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F-2003-257

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In OCCA case No. F-2003-257, Gregory Kyle Malone appealed his conviction for First Degree Burglary and Robbery With a Dangerous Weapon. In a published decision, the court decided to reverse the conviction for First Degree Burglary but affirmed the conviction for Robbery With a Dangerous Weapon. One judge dissented. Malone was found guilty by a jury and sentenced to twenty years in prison for burglary and forty years in prison for robbery. During the trial, he argued that there were mistakes made, including incorrect jury instructions and insufficient evidence for the burglary charge. Malone claimed the court made an error by allowing the jury to convict him based on instructions that included an offense he wasn’t charged with. The burglary charge required proof that he intended to commit robbery or assault when he broke into the house, but the jury was given broader instructions that didn't align with the specifics of his charge. This was seen as a violation of his rights, as he should have been able to defend against the exact crime he was accused of. The court agreed with Malone on this point, determining that the trial court had provided wrong instructions that could have influenced the jury's decision. As a result, they reversed the conviction for First Degree Burglary. However, they affirmed the conviction for Robbery With a Dangerous Weapon, finding that the evidence against him was strong enough for that charge. In conclusion, the court reversed the first charge of First Degree Burglary and kept the second charge of Robbery With a Dangerous Weapon, which meant Malone would go back to court for the burglary charge.

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