Washington v. Lamb
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Defendant Kenneth Lamb was charged with, among other things, 10 counts of unlawful possession of a firearm. The State alleged that Lamb was precluded from possessing firearms because of his 1991 juvenile adjudication for second degree burglary. Defendant moved to withdraw his 1991 plea of guilty and vacate the juvenile adjudication. The trial court granted his motion. The trial court also denied the State’s motion to amend the information to instead rely on another juvenile adjudication and, ultimately, dismissed the 10 unlawful possession of a firearm counts. The State appealed and the Court of Appeals reversed all three of the trial court’s rulings. The issue before the Supreme Court was the trial court's exercise of discretion in vacating judgments, in disallowing the State to amend an information in a criminal case, and in dismissing counts of an information. Upon review, the Court affirmed in part, and reversed in part, holding that in this case the trial court abused its discretion when it vacated Defendant's juvenile adjudication for second degree burglary and dismissed the 10 unlawful possession of a firearm counts against him. On these two issues, the Court affirmed the Court of Appeals. The Court reversed the Court of Appeals with respect to the trial court’s refusal to permit the State to amend the information and held that the trial court did not abuse its discretion. The case was remanded to the trial court for further proceedings.
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