State Of Washington, Respondent V. Earnest Collins, Appellant

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UNPUBLISHED OPINION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