Ex Parte Griffin

679 S.W.2d 15, 1984 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 795
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 31, 1984
Docket69321
StatusPublished
Cited by82 cases

This text of 679 S.W.2d 15 (Ex Parte Griffin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ex Parte Griffin, 679 S.W.2d 15, 1984 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 795 (Tex. 1984).

Opinion

OPINION

THOMAS G. DAVIS, Judge.

This is an application for habeas corpus filed pursuant to the provisions of Art. 11.07, V.A.C.C.P. On April 15, 1981, applicant was charged by felony information in *16 Harris County with burglary of a motor vehicle. That same day he pled guilty in return for dismissal of a second case pending against him in Harris County, and was assessed five years.

At the time he committed the burglary offense in Harris County, applicant was on ten years probation for burglary of a habitation in Walker County. Applicant was convicted in that case on October 9, 1979. A motion to revoke probation had been filed on May 9, 1980, and a capias had issued.

Applicant claims that as part of the plea agreement, the Harris County prosecutor promised him that his Walker County probation would be revoked and the sentence would be reformed to five years in that case, the time to run concurrently with his Harris County sentence.

Instead of revoking the probation, however, Walker County officials placed a “hold” on applicant when he entered the penitentiary to serve his five years on the Harris County conviction. The contents of the Walker County case file are reproduced in the record. As far as the record shows, the motion to revoke probation is still pending, and applicant continues on probation.

Applicant contends that the State broke its bargain, and that his conviction on a plea of guilty in the Harris County burglary is therefore invalid under the rule of Santobello v. New York, 404 U.S. 257, 92 S.Ct. 495, 30 L.Ed.2d 427 (1971).

. The State denies that disposition of the Walker County case was part of the agreement. The trial court held an evidentiary hearing, made findings of fact and conclusions of law, and recommended that relief be denied.

The State claims that we have no jurisdiction to hear this application, because applicant is not now in custody for the conviction he attacks. Applicant remains vulnerable to the collateral consequences of his conviction even if he is no longer in custody. Ex parte Ormsby, 676 S.W.2d 130 (Tex.Cr.App.1984). The record shows that applicant is under indictment in Harris County for theft, and that the conviction he attacks has been used to enhance the indictment, as provided in V.T.C.A. Penal Code, Sec. 12.42. A habeas corpus applicant may collaterally attack a prior conviction used to enhance an indictment after conviction on the indictment even though he obtains no meaningful relief by his effort. Ex parte Ridley, 658 S.W.2d 177 (Tex.Cr.App.1983). It follows this applicant may attack the prior conviction used to enhance the indictment before he is convicted on it, and thereby diminish the punishment he risks.

At the evidentiary hearing, the assistant district attorney who had represented the State in the Harris County burglary prosecution testified that he had no independent recollection of the case. He said that he had reviewed the file of the case before the hearing, and that notations in it showed that the plea agreement was for five years confinement and dismissal of the second case. He said a notation in his handwriting indicated applicant was on ten years probation in Walker County. The file contained a note in someone else’s hand “to contact someone in Walker County,” but the witness did not know how the note got there.

The witness testified that it had been his practice to note on the file whether a plea bargain included running another case concurrently. He said that in the four months he had worked in the 262nd District Court, he and applicant’s defense counsel worked on a number of cases together and that they would call “different jurisdictions for similar situations,” but that, again, he had no memory of calling Walker County on that particular case.

Applicant’s defense counsel testified that she had been court-appointed to represent him in the Harris County burglary prosecution. She said that applicant was charged with two cases, and that she learned he was on ten years probation out of Walker County. She remembered the Harris County prosecutor’s calling Walker County and speaking to a prosecutor there. She remembered the Harris County prosecutor represented to her “that he had indeed *17 okayed a five-year plea to run concurrently.” She made a notation in her case file that said “CC, okay”—“meaning that Walker County would run their time concurrently—had agreed to run their time concurrently with the time in Harris County.” She understood the agreement to consist of a plea of guilty to the burglary and a five year sentence in return for dismissal of the second case and “that his time, if any, in Walker County would run concurrently.” Counsel testified that she told applicant “that there was an agreement that his time could run concurrently.”

Applicant testified that his understanding of the plea agreement was, “That if I would accept the five years offer from Harris County that Walker County would revoke my probation and give me five years to run CC.” Applicant testified that his court-appointed counsel was the person who told him that his probation would be revoked in Walker County. He testified further that he was sent to the penitentiary in 1981 for the Harris County conviction, and that his Walker County probation was not revoked in 1981 or 1982.

After hearing the evidence summarized above, the trial court concluded as a matter of law that applicant had failed to prove that disposition of the Walker County case was a part of the plea agreement.

Applicant’s burden is to prove his allegations by a preponderance of the evidence. Ex parte Bates, 640 S.W.2d 894 (Tex.Cr.App.1982). Defense counsel remembered that the prosecution “represented” to her that Walker County would revoke and run its sentence concurrently. She noted “CC okay” in her file and told her client that this concession was part of the plea bargain. The prosecutor’s file, on the other hand, reflected an agreement of only two elements—a five year sentence and a dismissal. The prosecutor said that it had been his practice to note on the file if the plea bargain “involved running another case concurrently.” On this disputed issue there is adequate evidence to support the trial court’s conclusion that applicant failed to prove that disposition of the Walker County case was part of his plea bargain.

While this is not a broken bargain under Santobello v. New York, supra, it is nevertheless clear that applicant’s plea was not knowing and intelligent under the standard of Brady v. United States, 397 U.S. 742, 90 S.Ct. 1463, 25 L.Ed.2d 747 (1970).

In Brady the Court wrote:

“The standard as to the voluntariness of guilty pleas must be essentially that defined by Judge Tuttle of the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit:

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
679 S.W.2d 15, 1984 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 795, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ex-parte-griffin-texcrimapp-1984.