Child molester’s claim that his prison term is too long rejected by Pa. court

Kelby Davis claimed he only pleaded guilty in a child-sex case because he thought he would be getting a 4- to 8-year prison sentence.

Instead, Davis is serving a 22- to 44-year sentence and he contends that’s way too harsh.

A state Superior Court panel disagreed and upheld the Schuylkill County man’s penalty in an opinion by Judge Carolyn H. Nichols. Regardless of what Davis thought was going to happen, his punishment falls well within the bounds of the law, Nichols found.

Davis, now 35, pleaded guilty to charges of child endangerment, corruption of minors, aggravated indecent assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and statutory sexual assault. Police said he molested a girl from 2016 to 2018.

In his appeal to the state court, Davis sought to void his jail term and withdraw his guilty plea. He claimed he wouldn’t have pleaded guilty had he not been misled by his lawyer regarding the likely length of his sentence.

As Nichols noted, Davis claimed that while his lawyer didn’t promise he would receive a 4- to 8-year sentence, the attorney did lead him to believe that was likely. Davis also cited the fact that he had rejected a prosecution offer to plead guilty in exchange for a 10- to 20-year prison term.

Davis claimed he didn’t know the sentences on his charges could be run consecutively. That’s what county Judge William E. Baldwin did when he imposed the punishment in January 2020.

Given all those factors his guilty plea was “unknowing and involuntary” so should have been deemed invalid, Davis contended.

In rejecting that argument, Nichols noted Davis had no agreement regarding his sentence when he pleaded guilty and that Baldwin told him at the time about the maximum sentence that was possible. Davis was told the length of his prison sentence would be up to Baldwin.

Davis “indicated that no promises had been made to induce him to enter a guilty plea and that the decision to plead guilty was his own” Nichols wrote. Therefore, he “is bound by his statements at the plea hearing…which demonstrate that his plea was knowing, voluntary, and intelligent,” she found.

Nichols also discounted Davis’ contention that Baldwin didn’t consider his needs for rehabilitation. Baldwin did weigh that factor, yet “ultimately concluded that consecutive sentences were necessary in light of the impact of (Davis’) crimes on the minor victim and in order to protect the public,” she wrote.

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