HICKMAN V. COM.
CRIMINAL – Youthful Offenders; Eligibility for Probation
2005-CA-000640
PUBLISHED
VACATING AND REMANDING; TACKETT, J.
DATE: 4/28/2006
 
CA vacated and remanded the trial court’s order sentencing Hickman to serve the balance of his sentence in  prison.  Hickman entered Alford pleas as a youthful offender to Assault in the First Degree and Robbery in the First Degree.  He was sentenced to 14 years and was transferred to a juvenile detention facility to begin serving that term.  At the age of 18, he was resentenced as an adult.  During his sentencing hearing, Hickman cited KRS 640.030 and argued that he was eligibile for felony probation even though he was convicted of "violent" offenses under KRS 439.3401.  The trial judge disagreed, stating that the Violent Offender Statute trumped the Juvenile Offender Statute under these circumstances.  The CA reached the opposite conclusion, holding that KRS 640.030 trumps KRS 439.3401 and thereby gives the circuit court the option of granting felony  probation to Hickman.   

Digested by Stephen Keller.