In what appeared to be an ordinary court hearing, Melissa Lara Livingston was ordered last week to serve 8 years in prison for her involvement in several thefts that cost Cochise County residents tens of thousands of dollars.
But the Jan. 30 sentencing hearing was only the latest chapter in a prosecution marred with delays even though the case appeared to be a slam dunk when Livingston was first identified as a suspect in 2016.
The sentence also raises questions of why Livingston will spend less time in prison than could have been imposed under Arizona’s sentencing guidelines, particularly in light of the fact she absconded for more than three years after pleading guilty.
Court records show Livingston, now 51, took part in a series of thefts along with various friends throughout 2016 in the Hereford / Palominas area south of Sierra Vista. She accepted a plea deal in August 2017 in which she admitted her role in four specific thefts.
Because each theft occurred on a different date and involved different victims and locations, they were considered separate criminal offenses. As such, a judge could order the term for each offense to run consecutively, or back-to-back.
For Livingston, that would have totaled 12 years under the presumptive, mid-range guidelines of three counts at 3.5 years and one at 2.5 years.
Livingston, however, was not immediately scheduled for sentencing. Instead, then-prosecutor Sara Ransom of the Cochise County Attorney’s Office requested a delay so Livingston could testify against some co-defendants and answer questions about other criminal matters she had knowledge of in Cochise County.
Ransom also asked Judge James Conlogue to allow Livingston to remain out of custody even though prison-mandatory plea deals often call for the defendant to be jailed awaiting sentencing.
It was during that pre-sentencing period that Livingston sought permission from Conlogue to withdraw from the plea deal. She argued ineffective assistance of
counsel on the part of defense attorney Stephanie Stoltman who was contracted by Cochise County on an as-needed basis to provide legal services to indigent parties.
Public records showed Stoltman had been assigned only 14 cases by Cochise County as of August 2017 when Livingston’s plea deal was negotiated – 10 were family court assignments and the other 4 were Livingston’s criminal cases.
Similar records from Pima County Superior Court showed Stoltman handled more than 250 cases in that court prior to August 2017 but none were felony criminal case assignments.
Conlogue rejected Livingston’s request to withdraw the plea deal, ruling there was no “manifest injustice” to necessitate doing so. The judge noted Livingston failed to show Stoltman’s representation was ineffective in light of the fact 7 other felonies were dismissed under the plea deal and Livingston would serve a much shorter time in prison than if convicted of all counts at trial.
The judge set sentencing for early 2018 but everything was put on hold while Livingston tried to get the Arizona Court of Appeals and the Arizona Supreme Court to intercede. Both higher courts rejected Livingston’s efforts and Conlogue ordered Livingston to appear for sentencing in November 2018.
By then, Livingston had fled Arizona. A nationwide fugitive warrant was issued but the warrant was not executed until January 2022 when Livingston was arrested in Nevada. She was transported to Cochise County a few months later to be held in jail without bond to await sentencing.
That is when yet another twist occurred which delayed Livingston’s sentencing for more than a year after her capture.
Judge Laura Cardinal was assigned to Livingston’s four cases due to Conlogue’s retirement. She held a series of review hearings to give the new court-appointed defense attorney, Efthymios Katsarelis, time to wade through the years of pleadings and get prepared for sentencing.
Cardinal eventually announced the sentencing hearing would occur in September 2022. But the judge made a startling discovery while reviewing the files – the 2017 plea agreement in the Cochise County files did not match the version Stoltman gave to Livingston nor the version included in the filing to the Arizona Supreme Court.
As a result, Cardinal voided “any and all” plea agreements and ordered Katsarelis and Cochise County Attorney Brian McIntyre to present her a new agreement. This would avoid any future question about the legitimacy of Livingston’s convictions, the judge explained.
Katsarelis described the situation more bluntly, saying during the hearing that the judge’s move was necessary “to clean up someone else’s mess.”
A new plea agreement was presented to the Court on Dec. 12, but by then the Livingston cases had been reassigned to another judge because Cardinal was slated to retire at the end of the year. Judge Jason Lindstrom accepted the new plea deal but sent the cases back for sentencing to Cardinal’s old division where Judge Joel Larson is now presiding.
Like the 2017 plea deal, the new agreement left sentencing to Larson’s discretion. But a provision agreed to by McIntyre prohibited the State from arguing for a specific sentence, or even to urge that Larson take Livingston’s three-year run from justice in consideration.
Larson held the sentencing hearing on Jan. 30, more than five years after Livingston first entered her guilty pleas. He imposed slightly aggravated terms of 4.5 years in two cases, citing the financial and emotional harm to the victims with no mention of the abscondence.
Larson also imposed the presumptive 3.5 and 2.5 terms in the other cases.
But then the judge grouped the two 4.5-year terms together to be served concurrently, or at the same time. He did the same with the other two terms before ordering the two groups to be served consecutively.
This means Livingston will serve 4.5 years followed by 3.5 years, for a total of 8 years, although she is eligible for early release after completing 85 percent of the time.
Livingston, who is preparing for transport to the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC), was also given 409 days of jail credit for time already served in jail in Cochise County and Nevada awaiting resolution of her cases.
In the meantime, Livingston’s victims have until late March to submit formal restitution claims to Larson. Livingston acknowledged in the new plea agreement that restitution will likely be at least $50,000 and that she is both jointly and individually liable for the debt with any co-defendants.