The Kansas Court of Appeals has affirmed a sentence in a Lyon County worthless check case.
Nicole Marie Vannostrand, 34, had appealed her sentence, saying district court had wrongly figured her criminal history score and thus violated her rights when sentencing her last year for a case that originated in 2015. Vannostrand pleaded no contest to giving a worthless check and was originally set for 12 months probation. However, prosecutors asked for an upward departure, saying she was wanted on outstanding warrants in other jurisdictions and was likely to reoffend. District court agreed and sentenced Vannostrand to a year in prison and a year of postrelease supervision.
Vannostrand asked for that sentence to be vacated, saying district miscalculated her criminal history score, thus increasing the presumptive term of her imprisonment. She also said the sentence violated her Constitutional rights to due process by changing her sentence without consideration by a jury.
The Court of Appeals, however, regarded those arguments moot because Vannostrand has completed her prison term and without merit because state precedent on changing sentences, especially on jury involvement, does not apply to an upward dispositional departure sentence.
Vannostrand was released from prison in February.
