State Of Washington, V. Earnest Collins

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON DIVISION ONE STATE OF WASHINGTON, No. 86367-3-I Respondent, DIVISION ONE v. UNPUBLISHED OPINION EARNEST COLLINS, Appellant.

PER CURIAM — Earnest Collins appeals a superior court order denying his CrR 7.8 motion collaterally challenging a 2008 judgment and sentence upon convictions of arson in the first degree and aggravated murder in the first degree. Collins was 18 years old at the time of the crimes and, according to the law that applied at the time, the sentencing court imposed a mandatory sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole. See Former RCW 10.95.030 (1993).

After the Supreme Court issued its plurality decision in In re Personal Restraint of Schoenhals, __ Wn.3d __, 576 P.3d 554 (2025), the State filed a motion to withdraw its previously-filed responsive brief and concede error. While disagreeing as to the specific rationale for timeliness, the court unanimously held that Schoenhals’ 1986 mandatory sentence of life without the possibility of parole for aggravated murder in the first degree, that Schoenhals committed at age 20, was unconstitutional. Schoenhals, 576 P.3d at 554. The State acknowledges that the decision in Schoenhals is dispositive and there is no principled basis to distinguish the circumstances in Schoenhals from those No. 86367-3-I/2

here. We accept the concession of error, vacate the trial court’s order denying Collins’s CrR 7.8 motion, and remand for resentencing.

Reversed and remanded.

FOR THE COURT:

-2-