Colbert v. State

496 S.W.2d 12, 1973 Mo. LEXIS 1045
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedJune 18, 1973
DocketMotion overruled
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 496 S.W.2d 12 (Colbert v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Colbert v. State, 496 S.W.2d 12, 1973 Mo. LEXIS 1045 (Mo. 1973).

Opinions

PER CURIAM.

Respondent, by the Attorney General, has filed a motion herein requesting this Court to vacate its prior opinion filed November- 13, 1972 (reported at 486 S.W.2d 219) and to docket the case for resubmission. The motion was filed pursuant to a Memorandum and Order entered April 18, 1973, by the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri, Western Division, in Victor A. Colbert v. Swenson, Warden, No. 20741-1. Said Memorandum and Order construes the recent case of Fontaine v. United States, 411 U.S. 213, 93 S.Ct. 1461, 36 L.Ed.2d 169 (1973), as establishing federal constitutional standards with which it concludes that our opinion at 486 S.W.2d 219 is in conflict. The District Court further concludes that this Court, in the light of Fontaine, should have an opportunity to withdraw its opinion and hear the case again. On that basis, the proceeding in the District Court was ordered held in abeyance pending action by this Court on the Attorney General’s motion.

We have concluded, for the reasons which follow, that our opinion of November 13, 1972, should not be vacated.

In the first place, it is our judgment that the Fontaine decision is not applicable to the situation in Colbert. Fontaine was not represented by counsel. His petition alleged that his plea of guilty was coerced and for that reason it was not a voluntary plea. He alleged physical abuse, illness from gunshot wounds, other severe illnesses and difficulties resulting from heroin addiction, all of which, he alleged, coerced his waiver of counsel and his uncounseled plea of guilty. The Court’s opinion shows that it was dealing only with a plea claimed to be coerced where the record before them did not conclusively show Fon-taine was not entitled to relief. Colbert was represented by counsel. He alleged no such circumstances and did not allege a coerced plea of guilty. His grounds for relief are quite different and it seems to us do not bring his case within the Fontaine doctrine. Under cases such as Brady v. United States, 397 U.S. 742, 90 S.Ct. 1463, 25 L.Ed.2d 747, McMann v. Richardson, 397 U.S. 759, 90 S.Ct. 1441, 25 L.Ed.2d 763, Parker v. North Carolina, 397 U.S. 790, and the recent case of Tollett v. Henderson, 411 U.S. 258, 93 S.Ct. 1602, 36 L. Ed.2d 235, (decided April 17, 1973, after Fontaine), deprivation of constitutional rights that antedate the plea of guilty does not entitle a defendant to have his plea of guilty vacated. When a petitioner alleges only grounds which, if sustained by evidence, would not entitle him to relief, he is not entitled to a hearing.

In seeking relief, Colbert first alleges that he had inadequate legal representation from October 17, 1968, to October 15, 1969, and he alleges that for three months he had no counsel. However, he entered his plea of guilty November 11, 1969, and he was not sentenced until February 16, 1970, following receipt of a presentence report. His petition does not allege inadequate legal representation at the time of his plea or his sentencing.

Next, Colbert alleges that he was incarcerated a year without trial, during which he was constantly being persuaded by the prosecutor to enter a plea of guilty. However, he does not allege that the prosecutor coerced him into pleading. Hence, Fon-taine is inapplicable. Furthermore, the trial judge actually held an extensive hearing on Colbert’s motion and the testimony shows that Colbert had reference to conversations which he said occurred in the hallway of the court house in which the [14]*14then prosecuting attorney (not the one in office when his plea was entered and he was sentenced) suggested that he plead guilty and said that he would give him 20 years, and in a subsequent conversation, 12 years. However, according to Colbert himself, he rejected both of those suggestions. Hence, he did not act thereon in pleading guilty.

With reference to the claim of incarceration without trial, Colbert does not allege that he sought an earlier trial. He changed lawyers several times, which would cause delay. In addition, he made no complaint of delay and he elected to file a plea of guilty. Under the Brady trilogy, he would not be entitled to have that plea set aside on the basis of earlier delay.

Next, Colbert alleges that he entered a plea of guilty only after the newly appointed prosecutor promised him that he would recommend a 5 year sentence with immediate parole or probation. Again, this is not an allegation of a coerced plea. At most if would amount to an allegation of a plea based on misrepresentation as to what the prosecutor would do, purely in the form of a recommendation. Hence, it does not fall within Fontaine. Furthermore, an examination of the transcript shows that Colbert’s own testimony did not fully substantiate this allegation in his petition. It further shows that both the then prosecuting attorney, Frazier Baker, and defendant’s own counsel at the time, Granville Collins, testified as to conversations about possible recommendations or the absence of recommendations which were quite different from Colbert’s allegations. It shows that Granville Collins, defendant’s attorney, testified that he did not tell the defendant that if he entered a plea, the prosecutor would recommend a sentence of 5 years with immediate probation. The trial court heard the testimony and found against the position of Colbert on this proposition. Furthermore, it is extremely significant that an examination of the transcript shows that when the plea of guilty was entered and the prosecutor made no recommendation, no complaint of any kind was made by the defendant or by his attorney or by the defendant’s father (himself a third-year law student at the time who had done some work with the Legal Aid Office in Kansas City), who was present and participated in the proceeding. Again, when the defendant was sentenced in February, 1970, after the court received a pre-sen-tence investigation report and the court then sentenced the defendant to 20 years, there was no complaint by the defendant, by his attorney, or by the defendant’s father that the prosecuting attorney had made no recommendation or that the sentence exceeded what the prosecutor said he would recommend. Again, on March 9, 1970, when they all again appeared before the circuit judge on an application for parole and the court denied the parole, no one made any suggestion of or complaint about an alleged failure of the prosecutor to make a recommendation which supposedly he had said he would make. That contention first appears in the motion under Rule 27.26, V.A.M.R., filed a year and a half after the defendant was sentenced and probation was denied.

At the hearing on defendant’s motion under Rule 27.26, he amended his petition to include an allegation that he should be granted relief because he was denied an opportunity to see the probation report. This relates solely to whether or not he was entitled to probation and would not be any basis upon which the judgment and sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment would be subject to attack. It has nothing to do with whether .the plea of guilty was voluntary.

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Bluebook (online)
496 S.W.2d 12, 1973 Mo. LEXIS 1045, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/colbert-v-state-mo-1973.