After more than 11 years of court proceedings, a Clark County man has been sentenced to three years in community custody on child molestation charges.
Kristopher Michael Martin, 46, was arrested in January 2014 and charged with molesting a young girl who was known to him while living in Bellingham. He pleaded not guilty to all charges, and the case went to trial in late 2017. A jury found him guilty of all three charges, according to court records, and Martin was sentenced in March 2018 to 100 months in prison, followed by life in community custody.
Martin appealed his sentence immediately after, alleging that the trial court’s communication with the jury without informing either party in the case violated his constitutional right to appear and defend in person and by counsel…