Is it unusual to sentence him as an adult and then reverse it to a YO case?
That's not what happened in this case.
YO cases are very complicated.
Someone 17 when they commit 1st Degree Murder HAS to be charged as an adult.
Someone 17 when they commit some (most) of the crimes for which this person was convicted HAVE to be filed as YO cases.
Someone 17 when they commit first degree rape or attempted first degree rape can be filed as a YO or an adult at the sole discretion of the DA.
Once a case is filed as a Youthful Offender case, the Defendant can file a Motion to Certify as a Juvenile. The State can file a Motion to change a YO case into an adult case. That procedure is very complicated in when you can do it and what you have to show to win it. If the Youthful Offender pleads guilty as a YO, the State can't then try to bump it up to adult punishment.
If the Defendant is found guilty as a YO, the best way to explain it is that the offender gets an "adult sentence", but he will never have to serve that "sentence" if he successfully completes his "rehabilitation plan" by the time he is 19. The OJA determines what that "rehabilitation plan" involves and have different levels of security they can place the YO in.....all the way from in-custody and a juvenile corrections facility to secure group homes they can't leave, to doing their rehab plan in the community (like this guy). YOs are supervised by the Oklahoma Juvenile Authority (not the Department of Corrections.
It's only IF he doesn't successfully complete his rehabilitation plan by the time he is 19 that he could be "bridged over" into DOC supervision and have to serve his "adult sentence".
In my experience OJA is way to lenient on Youthful Offenders regarding their rehabilitation plans and where the YO completes them. They have very limited juvenile corrections space, and not much more than that group home space.
The way YO cases usually go in my experience is:
1. The DA has to file it as a YO.
2. The offender comes in and either files to turn it into a juvenile case or pleads immediately to a YO case.
3. For a whole lot of very complicated and boring reasons, it's very hard to get a YO certified as an adult in the worst of cases. Rarely successful. It's almost as hard to get them certified as a juvenile in a YO case. Consequently, they almost always get sentenced as a YO.
Then they get an "adult sentence", but they only have to serve that sentence if they do not successfully complete their rehab plan and get "bridge over" into DOC supervision. Even then, there is no guarantee that they serve all of that sentence in prison, they could (and often do) end up on DOC probation rather than DOC incarceration.
That's a very long explanation to call it "in a nutshell", but the ins and outs of YO cases is even more complicated than what I explained.
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