By Ray King
A Grant County man who motion for a new trial was denied lost his appeal before the Arkansas Court of Appeals Wednesday.
Christopher Weatherly, 32, alleged that the judge who sentenced him to prison was disqualified because that same judge had been the prosecutor when Weatherly was first charged.
In 2014, Weatherly pleaded guilty in Grant County Circuit Court to residential burglary and theft of property. He was sentenced to 15-years of supervised probation.
Nearly 10-years later, the state filed a motion to revoke that probation, alleging among other things that he had violated conditions of his probation by testing positive for a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia, public intoxication and failure to attend inpatient and outpatient treatment.
He tested positive for a controlled substance at his first probation revocation hearing so a second one was scheduled. Before that hearing began, Circuit Judge Stephen Shirron realized that the probation the state was seeking to revoke stemmed from a 2014 case when he was prosecuting attorney.
Because of that, he asked both the prosecution and the defense if they had any objections to him presiding over the hearing and Weatherly’s attorney said he did not have a problem with it.
In his motion for a new trial, Weatherly argued that his due-process rights had been violated but the Appeals Court said Weatherly and his attorney had waived Sherron’s disqualification in writing so denying his motion for a new trial was not an abuse of discretion.
Weatherly is serving a 20-year sentence at the Delta Regional Unit at Dermott and will be eligible to apply for parole in April 2029.
