In Re The Personal Restraint Petition Of Kollin Lorik Folsom

CourtCourt of Appeals of Washington
DecidedMarch 4, 2024
Docket85905-6
StatusUnpublished

This text of In Re The Personal Restraint Petition Of Kollin Lorik Folsom (In Re The Personal Restraint Petition Of Kollin Lorik Folsom) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re The Personal Restraint Petition Of Kollin Lorik Folsom, (Wash. Ct. App. 2024).

Opinion

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON

In the Matter of the Personal Restraint Petition of: No. 85905-6-I

KOLLIN LORIK FOLSOM, DIVISION ONE

Petitioner. UNPUBLISHED OPINION

CHUNG, J. — In 2001, Kollin Folsom, a 16-year-old juvenile at the time of

the crime, was convicted of murder in the first degree committed with a deadly

weapon and received a sentence of 50 years, more than 21 years above the

standard adult range. Folsom filed this personal restraint petition (PRP) in 2021,

twenty years after he was sentenced.

His petition claims his restraint is unlawful because newly discovered

neurodevelopmental evidence about young adults was unavailable when he was

sentenced and because the court failed to consider the mitigating qualities of his

youth in violation of Houston-Sconiers. 1 He also claims his sentence is invalid on

its face in violation of Blakely v. Washington 2 because the aggravating

circumstances supporting his exceptional sentence were not proven to a jury. He

asks this court to grant his petition, order his resentencing, and hold that

1 State v. Houston-Sconiers, 188 Wn.2d 1, 9, 391 P.3d 409 (2017). 2 542 U.S. 296, 124 S. Ct. 2531, 159 L. Ed. 2d 403 (2004). No. 85905-6-I/2

Washington’s early release for juvenile convictions statute, RCW 9.94A.730, is

unconstitutional as applied to him.

Folsom does not establish that his sentence is facially invalid under

Blakely. We conclude that Folsom’s newly discovered evidence claim does not

satisfy the standard under RCW 10.73.100(1) for an exemption from the time bar.

Because Folsom’s remaining claim based on Houston-Sconiers also requires the

application of one of the exemptions set forth in RCW 10.73.100, we dismiss the

petition under the mixed petition rule.

FACTS

In his direct appeal, the facts of the crime for which Folsom was

sentenced in 2001 were described as follows:

On December 3, 1999, Washougal police arrested four teenagers[,] Kollin Folsom,[3] Jason Schrader, Tiffany Williams (Williams), and Elijah Klar[,] for the murder of Clinton Williams (Mr. Williams). Mr. Williams was Williams’s father.

Folsom and Williams were romantically involved at the time of the murder, and Folsom knew that Williams’s relationship with her parents had deteriorated in recent months. In fact, Williams had run away from home about a month before the murder. During her short absence, she stayed with Folsom.

Williams’s mother, Jadean Williams, and her youngest child, Joey, were away from home when the murder occurred on November 11, but returned home to find Mr. Williams’s body on November 14.

Mr. Williams died from multiple sharp-force injuries. The State’s forensic pathologist testified that Mr. Williams received at least 75 such injuries to his back, shoulder, arms, head, and neck. But “[t]here was so much intersecting and so many in the back of the head area that it really wasn’t possible to accurately count all of

3 Folsom’s date of birth is January 28, 1983. Clerk’s Papers 18.

2 No. 85905-6-I/3

them.” [Alteration in original.] . . . A forensic scientist described the wounds as “long and linear, consistent with a machete like object or a weapon having a long linear edge.”

….

The State charged Folsom, Williams, and Schrader with first degree murder.

The jury found Folsom guilty of first degree murder. It also returned a special verdict, finding that Folsom used a deadly weapon other than a firearm in the crime. Folsom received a 600-month exceptional sentence.

State v. Folsom, noted at 118 Wn. App. 1077, 2003 WL 22391028 at *1-*2. This

court affirmed Folsom’s conviction and sentence. Id. at *17.

In 2007, at the age of 24, Folsom escaped from prison. Charged with

escape and kidnapping, he pleaded no contest to kidnapping a prison guard, and

the escape charge was dismissed. He was sentenced to 10 years to run

concurrently with his existing sentence.

In 2020, Folsom petitioned the Indeterminate Sentence Review Board

(ISRB) for early release under RCW 9.94A.730. The ISRB denied his petition

because he had been convicted of another crime after his 18th birthday and was

therefore “not currently eligible to submit another petition” under the statute.

In 2021, Folsom filed a pro se PRP requesting relief because the trial

court failed to consider the mitigating factors of youth, citing RAP 16.4(c)(2), (3),

and (4). In its initial response, the State conceded that Folsom’s petition was

timely under RCW 10.73.100(6) but argued that Folsom had an adequate

3 No. 85905-6-I/4

remedy under the early release statute, RCW 9.94A.730. Folsom’s petition was

then referred to a panel and counsel was appointed. In his amended

supplemental brief, Folsom again argued that he was entitled to relief because a

significant retroactive change in the law is material to his sentence, the judgment

and sentence is facially invalid, and newly discovered evidence renders his

restraint unlawful. In its supplemental response, the State retracted its earlier

concession that the petition was timely and also withdrew its argument that

Folsom had an adequate remedy under the early release statute, having learned

from a subsequent criminal history check about Folsom’s conviction after age 18

for kidnapping. 4

DISCUSSION

Granting a PRP is “an extraordinary form of relief,” so a petitioner must

“ ‘meet a high standard before this court will disturb an otherwise settled

judgment.’ ” In re Pers. Restraint of Hinton, 1 Wn.3d 317, 324, 525 P.3d 156

(2023) (quoting In re Pers. Restraint of Coats, 173 Wn.2d 123, 132, 267 P.3d

324 (2011)). An appellate court will grant relief only “if other remedies . . . are

inadequate . . . and if such relief may be granted under RCW 10.73.090 or .100.”

RAP 16.4(d).

RCW 10.73.090 bars a petition filed “more than one year after the

judgment becomes final if the judgment and sentence is valid on its face and was

4 The State’s supplemental response corrected the record based on a subsequent,

complete criminal history check on Folsom, who was serving his Washington sentence in Arizona when he escaped.

4 No. 85905-6-I/5

rendered by a court of competent jurisdiction.” However, RCW 10.73.100

identifies exemptions from this time limit, stating, “The [one-year] time limit

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Related

Blakely v. Washington
542 U.S. 296 (Supreme Court, 2004)
Alleyne v. United States
133 S. Ct. 2151 (Supreme Court, 2013)
In Re the Personal Restraint of Scott
271 P.3d 218 (Washington Supreme Court, 2012)
In Re Bonds
196 P.3d 672 (Washington Supreme Court, 2008)
State v. Evans
114 P.3d 627 (Washington Supreme Court, 2005)
State v. Kilgore
216 P.3d 393 (Washington Supreme Court, 2009)
State v. Houston-Sconiers
391 P.3d 409 (Washington Supreme Court, 2017)
State v. Allen
431 P.3d 117 (Washington Supreme Court, 2018)
In re Pers. Restraint of Domingo-Cornelio
474 P.3d 524 (Washington Supreme Court, 2020)
In re the Personal Restraint of Stoudmire
5 P.3d 1240 (Washington Supreme Court, 2000)
State v. Ha'mim
940 P.2d 633 (Washington Supreme Court, 1997)
In re the Personal Restraint of Hankerson
72 P.3d 703 (Washington Supreme Court, 2003)
State v. Evans
154 Wash. 2d 438 (Washington Supreme Court, 2005)
In re the Personal Restraint of Bonds
165 Wash. 2d 135 (Washington Supreme Court, 2008)
State v. Kilgore
167 Wash. 2d 28 (Washington Supreme Court, 2009)
In re the Personal Restraint of Coats
267 P.3d 324 (Washington Supreme Court, 2011)
State v. O'Dell
358 P.3d 359 (Washington Supreme Court, 2015)
In re the Personal Restraint of Faircloth
311 P.3d 47 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 2013)

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