State v. Toste

Syllabus

The defendant, who had been convicted of murder and sentenced to a term of imprisonment of twenty-five years to life with a mandatory minimum of twenty-five years, appealed from the trial court's denial of his motion for sentence modification. The defendant claimed that the court abused its discretion in finding that he had failed to establish good cause to modify his sentence. Held: The trial court did not abuse its discretion in determining that the defendant failed to establish good cause to warrant a sentence modification, as the court properly considered the relevant sentencing factors and determined that the seriousness of the offense, the impact on the victim's family, and the fact that the Board of Pardons and Paroles had denied the defendant's applications for parole outweighed the defendant's age, his intellectual disa- bilities and the length of time served. Argued January 15—officially released April 8, 2025