Whitten v. State, 110 P.3d 892 (Wyo. 2005)

Cases | Whitten v. State, 110 P.3d 892 (Wyo. 2005) | 2018

The defendant pled guilty to first degree arson and third degree arson and was sentenced to a prison term, ordered to pay $93,966.02 in restitution to the homeowner victim, and ordered to pay into the victim’s compensation fund. On appeal, the defendant claimed that the district court erred by: 1) not informing him of the maximum award of restitution that could be awarded prior to entering his guilty plea; 2) changing the recipient of the restitution payment from the victim’s home insurance company to the homeowner victim; and 3) failing to make a finding regarding the defendant’s ability to pay restitution. The supreme court found that: 1) the amount of restitution is fixed during the sentencing process; before accepting a guilty plea, the court must only inform the defendant about the possibility of restitution as a criminal sentence; 2) restitution is paid to victims who undergo pecuniary loss due to a defendant’s criminal actions and an insurer is considered a victim only if it does not have a right to subrogation and the insured has no duty to reimburse the insurer from the restitution amount; and 3) a specific finding that a defendant does not have the ability to pay restitution is not required of a sentencing court. The judgment was affirmed.