State v. Myers Starks

Summary

The Court held that the District Court abused its discretion by imposing a prison sentence without independently evaluating whether Myers-Starks’s mental condition satisfied the statutory criteria for alternative sentencing. Because the mental-condition issue was raised at sentencing through the psychological evaluation, counsel’s request, and Myers-Starks’s conduct, the court was required to apply the statutory sentencing framework before imposing sentence. The Court reversed and remanded for the required evaluation and resentencing.