Alden B. Thomas v. State

• Court: Court of Appeals of Georgia
• Decided: June 28, 2022
• Docket: A22A1398
• Status: Published

Opinion

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia

ATLANTA,____________________ June 28, 2022

The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order:

A22A1398. ALDEN B. THOMAS v. THE STATE.

In November 2013, a jury found Alden B. Thomas guilty of rape. Thomas’s conviction was affirmed on appeal. See Case No. A20A0784 (decided Sept. 4, 2020). In November 2021, Thomas filed a pro se “Motion to Vacate a Void, Illegal, and Unconstitutional Sentence.” The trial court subsequently granted Thomas’s motion for the limited purpose of re-sentencing pursuant Upton v. State, 350 Ga. App. 535, 539-540 (3) (829 SE2d 791) (2019). In February 2022, counsel was appointed to represent Thomas at the re-sentencing hearing. On March 9, 2022, after the hearing, the trial court re-sentenced Thomas. On April 7, 2022, Thomas filed a pro se notice of appeal from the amended sentence. “A criminal defendant in Georgia does not have the right to represent himself and also be represented by an attorney, and pro se filings by represented parties are therefore unauthorized and without effect.” Tolbert v. Toole, 296 Ga. 357, 363 (3) (767 SE2d 24) (2014) (punctuation omitted). Here, the record shows that Thomas was represented by counsel at his re-sentencing hearing, and nothing in the record indicates that the attorney who represented him at that time either withdrew or was relieved from representing Thomas. See White v. State, 302 Ga. 315, 318 (2) (806 SE2d 489) (2017) (rejecting defendant’s argument that representation terminates upon entry of judgment and sentence and holding that it continues for at least 30 days after entry of judgment). Under these circumstances, Thomas’s pro se notice of appeal is a legal nullity. See Soberanis v. State, 345 Ga. App. 403, 405 (812 SE2d 800) (2018). Accordingly, the appeal is hereby DISMISSED. Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia Clerk’s Office, Atlanta,____________________ 06/28/2022 I certify that the above is a true extract from the minutes of the Court of Appeals of Georgia. Witness my signature and the seal of said court hereto affixed the day and year last above written.

, Clerk.