State v. McDonald

The defendant was arrested and indicted for first-degree robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery. He pled guilty to first-degree robbery in exchange for the dismissal of the conspiracy charge. At the initial sentencing, the court imposed an eighty-year prison sentence. On appeal, the Supreme Court of Appeals vacated the sentence due to procedural errors and remanded for resentencing. At the resentencing hearing, teh defendant objected to the presentence report and moved to withdraw his guilty plea, arguing that he used a BB gun, not a firearm, which he claimed could not support a first-degree robbery conviction. The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, which affirmed the circuit court’s denial of the motion to withdraw the guilty plea and the eighty-year sentence for first-degree robbery, concluded that the motion to withdraw the plea was outside the scope of the limited remand and that the sentence was not constitutionally disproportionate.