Full title: STATE OF WASHINGTON, Respondent, v. SKYLAR NIKOLAS BEAR NEMETZ, Appellant.
Court: COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON DIVISION II
Date published: Apr 10, 2018
Facts
Skylar Nikolas Bear Nemetz mishandled a firearm that discharged and killed his wife. He was charged with first degree murder, but the jury, instead, found him guilty of first degree manslaughter. The jury also returned a special verdict on count I, unanimously agreeing that Nemetz was armed with a firearm when he committed the crime. Due to the firearm enhancement, Nemetz was sentenced to an additional five years. In addition, the sentencing court did not award Nemetz credit for time served on electronic home monitoring (EHM) because the legislature revised former RCW 9.94A.505 (2010) to preclude violent offenders from receiving credit for presentence time served on EHM.
Nemetz appeals his sentence, arguing first that there was insufficient evidence for a rational trier of fact to find that he was “armed with a firearm” within the meaning of former RCW 9.94A.533 (2013). Second, he argues the firearm and deadly weapon sentence enhancement provisions found in former RCW 9.94A.533 should not be applied to an unintentional crime such as first-degree manslaughter.
Issue
Decision
In the present case, Nemetz was not constitutionally entitled to credit for pretrial EHM. However, per the SRA, he should have received credit from the time the trial court placed him on EHM on October 31, 2014, until the legislature’s amended RCW 9.94A.505(7) took effect on July 24, 2015. Because it is not constitutionally required, the majority’s decision to award Nemetz credit for all the time he spent on EHM, even after July 24, 2015, is an error.
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