Matthew Blake Knighton v. Commonwealth of Virginia, 0852213

Trooper stopped Matthew Knighton on a motorcycle after radar showed 95 mph in a 55 mph zone; Knighton received a reckless driving summons.
General District Court convicted Knighton of reckless driving and imposed a 10-day suspended sentence, 90-day license suspension, and $1,000 fine (with $500 suspended). Knighton appealed to the circuit court; his notice of appeal required him to appear April 5, 2021.
Knighton failed to appear on April 5 and the circuit court issued a capias.
On July 14, 2021, Knighton pled no contest to reckless driving and to failure to appear and offered sentencing evidence (testifying about gravel, an alleged speedometer delay, and a driver-improvement class).
The court reviewed Knighton’s driving record (showing another failure to appear), convicted him of both offenses, and sentenced him to 12 months with 9 months suspended (3 months active) for reckless driving, a 6-month license suspension, a $500 fine, and 10 days active for failure to appear.
Knighton appealed, arguing the failure-to-appear conviction was unsupported and the sentences were an abuse of discretion; the Court of Appeals affirmed.

Issue	Knighton’s Argument	Commonwealth’s Argument	Held
Whether Knighton could challenge the sufficiency of evidence for failure to appear after pleading no contest	Commonwealth still had to present sufficient evidence and there was no proof Knighton or counsel failed to appear	A nolo contendere plea waives all defenses except jurisdictional and admits the facts supporting the charge	Plea waived right to contest sufficiency; conviction stands
Whether the circuit court abused its discretion in sentencing (active jail time, license suspension)	Sentence is harsher than district court’s and improperly relied on an unrelated failure to appear	Sentences were imposed after hearing evidence, are within statutory ranges, and circuit court conducts de novo review of misdemeanors	Sentences were within statutory limits; no abuse of discretion; affirmed

Meekins v. Commonwealth, 72 Va. App. 61 (2020) (nolo contendere plea waives defenses except jurisdictional)
Savino v. Commonwealth, 239 Va. 534 (1990) (effect of nolo contendere plea)
Commonwealth v. Jackson, 255 Va. 552 (1998) (nolo contendere admission for sentencing purposes)
Smith v. Commonwealth, 59 Va. App. 710 (2012) (plea admits facts supporting the accusation)
Wright v. Commonwealth, 52 Va. App. 690 (2008) (circuit court conducts de novo misdemeanor trials)
Garibaldi v. Commonwealth, 71 Va. App. 64 (2019) (sentencing review standard)
Martin v. Commonwealth, 274 Va. 733 (2007) (abuse-of-discretion standard for sentencing)
Du v. Commonwealth, 292 Va. 555 (2016) (sentence within statutory maximum will not be overturned)
Alston v. Commonwealth, 274 Va. 759 (2007) (same principle on statutory limits)
Thomason v. Commonwealth, 69 Va. App. 89 (2018) (once sentence is within statutory range, appellate review ends)