Opinion
DA 21-0425
01-18-2022
JAY DONALD WITKOWSKI, Petitioner and Appellant, v. STATE OF MONTANA, Respondent and Appellee.
ORDER
On November 24, 2021, seli-represented Petitioner Jay Donald Witkowski filed with this Court a "Motion for Amendment to Connect Case DA 21-0425 to DA 18-0621." Witkowski's instant appeal concerns a denial of his petition for postconviction relief The State of Montana did not file a response to his motion.
Witkowski requests that this Court "allow his sentences to run concurrently instead of consecutively." He explains that he has multiple mental health diagnoses as well as other health and learning disabilities "that have impacted [his] cognitive and comprehension skills." He states that even though his offenses occurred "months apart" they are connected. Witkowski adds that he was under extreme mental stress during his underlying criminal cases in Valley County and that, while detained at the Valley County Jail, his prescriptions were mismanaged, Some background is necessary. In February 2017, the State charged Witkowski with deliberate homicide. In September 2017, the State charged Witkowski with five other offenses, including attempted escape and aggravated kidnapping. The Valley County District Court sentenced Witkowski to prison for a seventy-year term for deliberate homicide and a consecutive ten-year term for use of a dangerous weapon. He appealed. This Court affirmed. State v. Witkowski, No. DA 18-0621, 2021 MT 297N, 2021 Mont. LEXIS 937. In the other matters, the District Court sentenced Witkowski on February 22, 2018, to a forty-year prison term for aggravated kidnapping and dismissed the other four charges. The court specifically stated the sentence was to run consecutively with Witkowski's prior sentence. On November 10, 2020, we denied Witkowski's petition for an out-of-time appeal of this conviction and sentence. State v. Witkowski, No. DA 20-0528, Order (Mont. Nov. 10, 2020).
Witkowski has no remedy with this Court. His direct appeals for his convictions and sentences have been decided. He can find no relief with his motion here. Therefore, IT IS ORDERED that Witkowski's "Motion for Amendment to Connect Case DA 21-0425 to DA 18-0621" is DENIED.
The Clerk is directed to provide a copy of this Order to counsel of record and to Jay Donald Witkowski personally.