State v. Lee

The defendant, Clarence Lester Lee, appeals his conviction of theft in the first degree. This appeal challenges the trial court's denial of Lee's motion to dismiss based upon an alleged violation of the speedy trial rule, CrR 3.3. The dispositive issue is whether a defendant who absents himself from the state is amenable to process during his absence so as to invoke the rule in State v. Striker, 87 Wn.2d 870, 557 P.2d 847 (1976). The Striker rule requires the CrR 3.3 time frame, within which the defendant must be tried, to be calculated from the date of filing the information rather than from…