State v. Wall

AMDAHL, Chief Justice.

This is a sentencing appeal in which the defendant contends that the trial court erred in departing durationally from the presumptive sentence. We agree and reduce defendant’s sentence to the maximum sentence that could have been imposed without departure, in this case 121 months.

Defendant was charged by indictment with first-degree murder in the strangling death of his wife. He was permitted to plead guilty to the lesser" included offense of second-degree felony murder, Minn.Stat. § 609.19(2) (1982). The presumptive sentence for the offense (a severity level X offense)…