State of West Virginia v. Patricia Ann Fields, 16-0067

Patricia Ann Fields was convicted in 2011 of three counts of petit larceny (Kanawha County case 11-F-67) and placed on probation with restitution obligations.
In 2012 Fields was indicted on 36 counts of unauthorized use of an access device (case 12-F-337); she ultimately pled guilty in March 2014 to one count of petit larceny as part of a plea that dismissed the 36-count indictment.
The State moved to revoke Fields’s earlier probation (from the 2011 convictions) because she failed to make restitution payments.
In June 2014 the circuit court sentenced Fields to consecutive one-year terms for each of the three 2011 petit larceny counts and one year for the 2014 petit larceny, and ordered restitution of $19,041; Fields did not appeal that sentence.
In August 2015, after the appeal period had lapsed, Fields filed a Rule 35(b) motion to reduce sentence alleging ineffective assistance of counsel and prosecutorial misconduct; the circuit court denied the motion on October 26, 2015.
Fields appealed the denial; the Supreme Court of Appeals affirmed, holding Rule 35(b) is limited to sentence reductions and cannot be used to relitigate conviction validity issues.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether the circuit court erred by denying Fields’s Rule 35(b) motion to reduce sentence	Fields argued her sentence should be reduced because her conviction was tainted by ineffective assistance of counsel and prosecutorial misconduct	State argued Rule 35(b) is limited to sentence reduction and is not a vehicle to challenge the validity of a conviction	Denied — Rule 35(b) only concerns reduction of sentence; challenges to conviction (ineffective assistance, prosecutorial misconduct) are not cognizable on a Rule 35(b) motion

State v. Head, 198 W.Va. 298, 480 S.E.2d 507 (1996) (standard of review for Rule 35 motions and characterization of Rule 35(b) as plea for leniency)
State v. Marcum, 238 W.Va. 26, 792 S.E.2d 37 (2016) (Rule 35(b) may not be used to challenge conviction validity)