Cases | Lamb v. Kontgias, 901 A.2d 860 (Md. Ct. Spec. App. 2006) | 2018
The defendant pled guilty to child sexual abuse and was sentenced to three years in prison, all of which were suspended in favor of three years of supervised probation. The defendant’s motion to reconsider this sentence was held in abeyance until a hearing was requested. The victim and her mother filed a Crime Victim Notification Request, but when the defendant requested a hearing on the previously-filed motion to reconsider his sentence, the victims were not notified. The victims, upon hearing that the court had, in their absence, struck the defendant’s guilty finding and discharged him from probation, filed a Motion to Vacate Reconsideration and Request for a Hearing in which they argued that revising the judgment without prior notice to the victims violated Maryland law. The trial court denied the defendant’s motion to strike the appearances of the victims and the motion to vacate the revised judgment. The victims appealed, arguing that the circuit court’s failure to inquire whether notice of the sentence modification hearing had been given made the revised sentence illegal, and therefore, correctable at any time. The Court of Appeals held that statutory language and court precedent compel it to conclude that the victims lack standing to appeal the defendant’s sentence, even though they were denied their constitutional right to be notified and to be heard. The judgment was affirmed.