Appeals Court Will Not Review Judge’s Order on Wing Plea Deadline

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The Washington state Court of Appeals will not review Lewis County Superior Court Judge Andrew Toynbee’s October 2017 order that Danny Wing must decide by a set date whether to withdraw his guilty plea in the 2014 death of 3-year-old Jasper Henderling-Warner, as allowed by an earlier Court of Appeals ruling, according to the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office.

That means Wing could be back in Lewis County Superior Court as early as mid-February, at which point the could could again set a timeline for action in his case, Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Sara Beigh told The Chronicle

Danny and his wife Brenda Wing were each sentenced to 34 years in prison in 2015 after pleading guilty to first-degree manslaughter and third-degree assault in the toddler’s 2014 death in Vader. They had been the child’s guardian in the months before his death from what the Lewis County Coroner’s Office ruled to be prolonged abuse.

The boy had a septic MRSA infection and healing fractures, burns and bruises, according to the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office.

Last year, the state Court of Appeals ruled in each case that the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office incorrectly calculated the Wings’ offender score, a number based on criminal history that determines a standard sentencing range, affecting the sentence for the third-degree assault charges, but not the manslaughter charge.

Both Danny and Brenda Wing were granted the right to either be resentenced on the charges, or to withdraw their guilty pleas and begin their cases anew.

Neither has formally made up their mind.

In October, Superior Court Judge Andrew Toynbee ruled that Danny Wing needed to either exercise his right to change his plea in the next month or lose it.

Wing filed a request for the state Court of Appeals to review Toynbee’s order, putting the case on hold until his request was dealt with.

On Jan. 18, the appeals’ court declined to review Toynbee’s order, Beigh said, and ruled that the stay on the case be lifted in 30 days.

At that point, Lewis County Superior Court can set a new deadline for him to withdraw or affirm his plea, she said.

Brenda Wing has not been given a deadline to withdraw her plea.

Danny Wing also has an ongoing personal restraint petition in the state Court of Appeals, which argues that his case should be dismissed altogether based on misconduct by the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office and the prosecutor’s office. He argues in the case that prosecutors and detectives listened to privileged phone calls with his attorney while he was in the Lewis County Jail.

A judge has ordered a stay in that case, putting it on hold until Wing decides whether or not to withdraw his plea as allowed by the appeals court in the earlier ruling, Beigh said.

Wing has filed to lift the stay in that case. Beigh is scheduled to file her response next week.

Wing has also filed a federal civil rights complaint against members of the sheriff’s office and prosecutor’s office making similar allegations as in the personal restraint petition.

In addition, he has filed a motion in Lewis County Superior Court under court rule 7.8, asking that his sentence be set aside due to a diagnosis of fetal alcohol syndrome.

Brenda Wing also filed a motion under CR 7.8 but has since withdrawn it. She was back in Lewis County Superior Court last week for a hearing to appoint a new attorney in her case.