State v. Hall, Unpublished Decision (1-22-1999)
State v. Hall, Unpublished Decision (1-22-1999)
Opinion of the Court
The Miami County Court of Common Pleas' overruling of Steven R. Hall's motion to withdraw a guilty plea prompts this appeal.
In March 1994, a "Complaint by Individual" charged Hall with attempted aggravated murder, an aggravated felony of the first degree, stemming from a November 11, 1993 bombing incident. Hall's cooperation with the authorities resulted in the abandonment of the attempted aggravated murder charge. By information filed March 6, 1994, Hall was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit aggravated arson, a second degree felony in violation of R.C.
On April 22, 1998, Hall filed a Crim.R. 32.1 motion to withdraw his guilty plea, asserting that his defense counsel, the state, and the trial court had misled him to believe that he would be eligible for probation when in fact, the unlawful possession of a dangerous ordnance offense was a nonprobationable offense. He claimed that he would not have pleaded guilty had he known he was not eligible for probation. On May 4, 1998, the trial court denied Hall's motion because Hall had already served the sentence for the unlawful possession of a dangerous ordnance offense and remained in prison for the conspiracy to commit aggravated arson offense, which "was, in theory, probationable." The trial court nonetheless addressed the merits of Hall's motion and concluded that no manifest injustice existed to warrant the withdrawal of his guilty plea because, in exchange for Hall's guilty plea, the state had reduced the "onerous charge of attempted aggravated murder," and because Hall's and his co-conspirators' confessions had implicated Hall in the bombing incident. Hall filed a notice of appeal on May 29, 1998. Because his three assignments of error address the same alleged deficiency in the plea proceedings, we will treat them together.
I. DEFENDANT-APPELLANT WAS DEPRIVED OF EFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF TRIAL COUNSEL IN VIOLATION OF THE UNITED STATES AND OHIO CONSTITUTIONS.
II. THE TRIAL COURT ERRED TO THE PREJUDICE OF DEFENDANT-APPELLANT BY SUMMARILY DISMISSING HIS MOTION TO WITHDRAW HIS GUILTY PLEA PURSUANT TO CRIM. RULE 32.1
III. THE DEFENDANT-APPELLANT WAS PREJUDICED BY NOT BEING ABLE TO RECEIVE A FAIR ADVERSARIAL PROCESS BY PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT.
Hall contends that the trial court erred in summarily overruling his Crim.R. 32.1 motion. He complains that prior to sentencing, his defense counsel told him that "he would be out of prison in six months on probation," that the state represented to him that it "would not object to probation" and should have informed the trial court that he was ineligible for probation, and that the trial court failed to advise him that he was ineligible for probation as required by Crim.R. 11(C)(2)(a).
Pursuant to Crim.R. 32.1, the trial court "may set aside a judgment of conviction and permit a defendant to withdraw a guilty plea after imposition of sentence only tocorrect a manifest injustice." (Emphasis added.) State v.Blatnik (1984),
The state does not dispute that, pursuant to the version of R.C.
Because the misconception of the trial court and both counsel that Hall was eligible for probation was apparent from the transcripts, Hall should have brought his challenge to the proceedings on direct appeal and by not doing so he thus waived the right to assert his challenge at this late date. SeeState v. Perry (1967),
Nevertheless, in our judgment, Hall did not demonstrate that his guilty plea must be vacated to correct a manifest injustice. See Crim.R. 32.1; Smith,
Nor do we think, from what we can glean from this record, that a manifest injustice resulted from Hall's pleading guilty to a fourth degree felony without having been advised that it was nonprobationable. As indicated, the one and one-half year sentence was run concurrently with, and subsumed by, the four to fifteen year sentence on the probationable second degree felony.
In State v. Shackleford (Aug. 31, 1990), Montgomery App. No. 11666, unreported, we upheld a guilty plea on somewhat similar facts. Shackleford was told when he pleaded guilty that he was eligible for probation although he was prima facie a repeat offender. A repeat offender was not eligible for probation. Shackleford was sentenced to prison and, on appeal, he contended that the trial court had erred in accepting his guilty plea when he was not eligible for probation. We held that absent a determination by the trial court that Shacklefordwas a repeat offender — a determination not apparent from the record — there was no basis for setting aside the guilty plea as violative of Crim.R. 11 (C)(2)(a). Here, as in Shackleford,supra, the trial court appears to have thought that Hall was eligible for probation on the fourth degree felony and sentenced him as a matter of discretion because of the gravity of the offense rather than because the trial court had no discretion in the matter. In Shackleford, we concluded that error had not been demonstrated. Here we are constrained to conclude that error occurred, but considering the surrounding circumstances, we think the trial court acted well within its discretion in concluding that no manifest injustice occurred.
Finally, the case against Hall — had he not pleaded guilty — appears to have been impressive.
In sum, we conclude that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in summarily refusing to vacate Hall's guilty plea because the trial court reasonably concluded that Hall failed to show that a manifest injustice had occurred.
The assignments of error are overruled.
The judgment of the trial court will be affirmed.
FAIN, J. and GRADY, J., concur.
Copies mailed to:
James D. Bennett Steven Hall Hon. Robert J. Lindeman
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