THOMPSON v. the STATE.
THOMPSON v. the STATE.
Opinion
Eric Ferdinand Thompson appeals from the trial court's order, which dismissed his motion to withdraw guilty plea as a matter of right, and only partially granted his motion to vacate a void sentence. Although the trial court removed an improper no-contact parole condition from Thompson's sentence, Thompson argues on appeal that this condition rendered his entire sentence void, and he was therefore entitled to withdraw his guilty plea as a matter of right. We determine that because the trial court was not required to vacate Thompson's entire sentence, it properly dismissed Thompson's motion to withdraw guilty plea for lack of jurisdiction.
It is well settled that when the term of court has expired in which a defendant was sentenced pursuant to a guilty plea, the trial court lacks jurisdiction to allow the withdrawal of the plea. After the expiration of the term the only remedy available to the defendant for withdrawing a plea is through habeas corpus proceedings.
(Citations and punctuation omitted.)
Rhone v. State
,
On November 8, 2000, Thompson pleaded guilty to rape ( OCGA § 16-6-1 ), aggravated sodomy ( OCGA § 16-6-2 ), two counts of aggravated sexual battery ( OCGA § 16-6-22.2 ), aggravated battery ( OCGA § 16-5-24 ), and robbery by force ( OCGA § 16-8-40 ). The Douglas County Superior Court sentenced Thompson to two life sentences and three terms of 20 years' incarceration, with the sentences running concurrently with one another. The trial court's sentencing sheet stated, "[a]s a special condition of parole, the defendant shall have no contact, directly or indirectly, with [the] victim ...."
In January 2018, Thompson filed a "motion to vacate a void sentence/and motion to withdraw guilty plea as a matter of right." Thompson argued that his sentence was illegal because the trial court had no authority to impose conditions on his parole. The trial court ruled that the no-contact provision was in fact improper, but that the invalidation of the parole condition did not render the remainder of the sentence void. Thus, the trial court removed the no-contact condition, left the remainder of the sentence intact, and ruled that the motion to withdraw guilty plea was untimely because it was filed out of term. 1 This appeal followed.
*687 In interrelated enumerations of error, Thompson claims that the no-contact provision was part of his negotiated plea agreement with the State, his entire sentence was rendered void due to the illegality of the no-contact provision, and he therefore had an absolute right to withdraw his guilty plea. This argument is not meritorious.
Certainly, "[p]arole is a matter for the Executive Branch."
Pate v. State
,
First, the record does not support Thompson's assertion that the no-contact provision was one of the negotiated plea terms, as there is no plea agreement form to this effect, and the State did not mention any such provision when it offered its recommendation to the trial court at the plea hearing. Further, Thompson does not demonstrate that the illegality of the portion of the sentence regarding the no-contact provision on his parole required the trial court to vacate the sentence in its entirety.
For instance, in
Ellison v. State
,
We are unpersuaded by Thompson's attempt to analogize this appeal to
Kaiser v. State
,
*688
Because the trial court properly vacated only the discrete portion of the sentence relating to the improper parole condition, the remainder of Thompson's sentence - which had long been entered since November 2000 - was still in force, and Thompson had no absolute right to withdraw his plea.
Humphrey v. State
,
Thus, Thompson was required to file his motion to withdraw his plea "within the term of court in which [he] was sentenced under the plea, as the trial court lacks jurisdiction to entertain a motion to withdraw filed beyond the term of sentencing."
Humphrey
, supra, 299 Ga. at 198 (1),
Judgment affirmed.
Brown and Goss, JJ., concur.
The record appears to indicate that as part of a separate case, Thompson also pleaded guilty on November 21, 2000, to aggravated assault, kidnapping, and rape, and was sentenced to life imprisonment and two 20-year sentences to be served concurrently with the sentence entered on November 8, 2000. Although no corresponding sentencing sheet appears in the record, we glean that this sentence apparently had a similar no-contact parole condition concerning a separate victim, and the trial court removed this condition and left the remainder of this sentence intact as well. This does not alter our conclusion that the trial court properly denied Thompson's motion to withdraw guilty plea.
In
Kaiser II
, we explained that in "many circumstances it is appropriate to view the final negotiated plea agreement as a 'package' deal, the terms of which should not be treated in isolation from one another but rather as a cohesive whole."
Kaiser
, supra,
This case is also dissimilar to
Clue v. State
,
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.