Hearing on a Motion to Reduce Sentence is not the same thing as a Sentencing Hearing.
State v. Cattaneo (HSC October 22, 2021) Background. Michael Cattaneo pleaded no contest to negligent homicide in the first degree and two drug-related offenses. He was sentenced to ten years prison for the homicide and five years each for the drug offenses. The circuit court—the Hon. Judge Richard T. Bissen, Jr. presiding—ordered the drug offenses to run concurrently to each other but consecutively to the homicide totaling fifteen years imprisonment. Cattaneo filed a motion to reduce the sentence pursuant to Hawai'i Rules of Penal Procedure Rule 35(b). He requested that all counts run concurrently for an open ten-year sentence. The circuit court denied the motion and specifically rejected Cattaneo’s argument that it had to evaluate his sentence with “comparable cases.” The circuit court stated it was not its “practice to review cases that are issued by other courts, whether in this circuit or others. Because I happen to know that every case is nuanced, every case has some...