Summary 2012 WY 128

Summary of Decision September 27, 2012

Justice Burke delivered the opinion for the Court. Affirmed.

Case Name: STEVEN A. DELOGE v. THE STATE OF WYOMING

Docket Number: S-12-0044

URL: http://www.courts.state.wy.us/Opinions.aspx

Appeal from the District Court of Laramie County, Honorable Thomas T.C. Campbell, Judge.

Representing Appellant: Pro se.

Representing Appellee: Gregory A. Phillips, Attorney General; David L. Delicath, Deputy Attorney General; D. Michael Pauling, Senior Assistant Attorney General; Jeffrey S. Pope, Assistant Attorney General

Date of Decision: September 27, 2012

Facts:  Appellant, Steven A. DeLoge, pled guilty to six counts of second-degree sexual assault in 2000 and was sentenced to six consecutive life terms.  In this appeal, Appellant, acting pro se, challengeed the district court’s denial of his motion to correct an illegal sentence under W.R.Cr.P. 35(a).

Issues:  Appellant presents the following issues:

1.      Whether the district court correctly concluded that the claims of illegal sentence were barred by the doctrine of res judicata?

2.      Whether the district court correctly denied correction of factual inaccuracies in the pre-sentence investigation report?

3.      Whether the applied sentencing enhancement provision of W.S. 6-2-306(b)(i) creates an illegal sentence by violating the Wyoming and United States Constitutions?

Holdings:  Appellant’s claims are barred by res judicata.  Appellant failed to raise any issue relating to the PSI report in his direct appeal, and is barred from litigating the issue in this appeal.  In an effort to show good cause as to why he did not raise the issue earlier, Appellant claimed that he became aware that the inaccuracies remained in his PSI report at the time of his most recent parole hearing.  The report, however, has remained unchanged for the past ten years, and Appellant’s objections at the sentencing hearing indicate that he was aware of the alleged errors at that time.  Consequently, Appellant failed to show good cause as to why he did not make this argument previously. Affirmed.

Summaries are prepared by Law Librarians and are not official statements of the Wyoming Supreme Court

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