Brown v. State

896 S.W.2d 327, 1995 WL 108944
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided June 14, 1995·No. 01-94-00682-CR·Published·Cited by 27 cases

Opinion

OPINION

O’CONNOR, Justice.

The issue here is whether a defendant’s plea is voluntary when the trial court does not give the admonishments required by Tex. Code Crim.P. art. 42.12, § 5(a) (Vernon Supp.1995). We hold it is and affirm.

Fact Summary

The appellant, Rick Eugene Brown, pled guilty to the felony offense of burglary of a motor vehicle, and the trial court sentenced him to five-years deferred adjudication probation. The appellant later committed another offense, violating the terms of his probation. The court then found the appellant guilty of the burglary of a motor vehicle charge and assessed punishment at 10-years confinement. On appeal, the appellant contends his guilty plea was involuntary because the trial court did not tell him, as required by statute, that he could not appeal the court’s adjudication of guilt if he violated the terms of his probation.

Statutory requirements

In his sole point of error, the appellant contends his plea of guilty was involuntary because the court did not admonish him as required under Tex.Code CRIM.P. art. 42.12, § 5(a) of the consequences of any violation of his probation under Tex.Code CRIM.P. art. 42.12, § 5(b) (Vernon Supp.1995).

A defendant may not ordinarily appeal the trial court’s determination to adjudicate guilt after a deferment. Tex.Code CRIM.P. art. 42.12, § 5(b) (“No appeal may be taken from [the] determination” to proceed with an adjudication of guilt); Olowosuko v. State, 826 S.W.2d 940, 942 (Tex.Crim.App.1992). But after the adjudication of guilt, a defendant may appeal proceedings on the original charge, including the voluntariness of his original guilty plea. Joyner v. State, 882 S.W.2d 59, 60 (Tex.App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 1994, pet. granted).

The standard of review when an appellant contends that his plea was not knowingly and voluntarily given is whether the record discloses that defendant’s plea represents a voluntary and intelligent choice among the alternative courses of action open to the defendant. See North Carolina v. Alford, 400 U.S. 25, 31, 91 S.Ct. 160, 164, 27 L.Ed.2d 162 (1970). However, a defendant’s plea of guilty will not support a conviction if that plea is made after the defendant receives significant misinformation from the *329 court or one of its officers. McGuire v. State, 617 S.W.2d 259, 261 (Tex.Crim.App. 1981); Shepherd v. State, 673 S.W.2d 263, 266 (Tex.App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 1984, no pet.).

There are two separate admonishments the court must make in a case like this. First, before accepting the guilty plea, the court must admonish the defendant according to the terms of Tex.Code CRIM.P. art. 26.13 (Vernon 1989). 1 After accepting the guilty plea, if the court is going to grant the defendant deferred adjudication, the court must admonish the defendant about the consequences of violating his probation according to Tex.Code CRIM.P. art. 42.12 §§ 5(a), (b). The relevant subparts to article 42.12 read:

Sec. 5(a) [W]hen in the judge’s opinion, the best interest of society and the defendant will be served, the judge may, after receiving a plea of guilty or a plea of nolo contendere, hearing the evidence, and finding it substantiates the defendant’s guilt, defer further proceedings without entering an adjudication of guilt, and place the defendant on community supervision. The judge shall inform the defendant orally or in writing of the possible consequences under subsection (b) of this section of a violation of community supervision.
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(b) On violation of a condition of community supervision imposed under subsection (a) of this section, the defendant may be arrested and detained as provided in Section 21 of this article. The defendant is entitled to a hearing limited to the determination by the court of whether it proceeds with an adjudication of guilt on the original charge. No appeal may be taken from this determination. After an adjudication of guilt, all proceedings, including assessment of punishment, pronouncement of sentence, granting of community supervision, and defendant’s appeal continue as if the adjudication of guilt had not been deferred.

(Emphasis added.) The language which is highlighted above, at issue in this case, was added to the statute, effective September 1, 1989. 2

The State contends that the record is inconclusive as to whether the trial court admonished the appellant about his appellate rights after a later adjudication of guilt. The State contends it is the appellant’s burden to provide a sufficient record showing error on appeal, and because he did not, he has waived his point of error. See Tex.R.App.P. 50(d). Article 42.15, § 5(a) requires the trial court record oral admonishments. Joyner, 882 S.W.2d at 60. In this case, the trial court did record the oral admonishments. The appellant did not waive this point of error.

In this case, the record shows that the trial court told the appellant that he could not appeal the court’s granting of deferred adjudication. There is nothing in the record to show that the judge told the appellant he could not appeal an adjudication of guilt if his probation was revoked. At the hearing and before the court accepted the defendant’s guilty plea, the trial court stated the following:

The Court: This is a third degree felony offense. It is punishable by up to 1 year confinement in a community correctional facility, not less than 2 years nor more than 10 years in the Texas Department of Corrections. In addition, you may be fined any amount not to exceed $10,000. Do you understand the full range of punishment for this offense?
Appellant: Yes, sir.
The Court: Do you further understand that this court is not bound by any recommendations or agreements made between you, your lawyer and the state’s lawyer; *330 that is, upon a finding of guilty, you could be sentenced to any term of years within that range?
Appellant: Yes, sir.
The Court: The court will advise you it will follow [the] agreement [reached between you and your lawyer and the state’s lawyer]. By following that agreement, you will not be allowed to appeal this case absent permission from this court. The court will further advise you that it will not grant that permission. Do you understand that, sir?
Appellant: Yes, sir.
The Court: Knowing that, do you still want to plead guilty?

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Brown v. State, 896 S.W.2d 327, 1995 WL 108944 (Tex. Ct. App. 1995).

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