Garcia v. State

391 N.E.2d 604, 271 Ind. 209
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 12, 1979
DocketNo. 1078S241
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 391 N.E.2d 604 (Garcia v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Garcia v. State, 391 N.E.2d 604, 271 Ind. 209 (Ind. 1979).

Opinion

HUNTER, Justice.

The petitioner is before this Court appealing from the denial of his petition for relief under Post-Conviction Relief, Rule 1. The petitioner had previously entered a guilty plea to murder in the second degree and was sentenced to a term of fifteen to twenty-five years. His petition now raises the following issues:

1. Whether the plea of guilty was knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily entered by petitioner who spoke only Spanish; and

2. Whether the trial court made a true and complete transcript of the guilty plea proceedings in accordance with Ind.R. Crim.P. 10.

The facts from the record show that the petitioner came from Puerto Rico and spoke only Spanish. He had been in the United States about three months when he spent the early part of one evening drinking with his uncle. He left his uncle’s house briefly; then returned and stabbed him to death. At the guilty plea hearing, an interpreter, Mr. L. Daniel Ferrer, was appointed by the court to translate all the court’s questions into Spanish and the petitioner’s answers into English. The court noted that the court reporter did not have the equipment or the knowledge of Spanish necessary to take down any of the Spanish translation. Therefore, the record of the proceeding showed only the English words. The court allowed the petitioner’s pastor, who spoke Spanish very well, to be present during the entire proceeding.

I.

The petitioner first contends that his guilty plea was not voluntary because of the difficulty and confusion in translating from English to Spanish and then back to English. He argues that the confusion in translation was more serious in his case because the interpreter spoke Spanish with a Mexican dialect instead of a Puerto Rican dialect. He also claims the confusion is more severe in his case since he is a person of subnormal intelligence. This last claim, however, is unsubstantiated in the record, so we do not consider it further.

In considering the voluntariness of a guilty plea we start with the standard that the record of the guilty plea proceeding must demonstrate that a defendant was advised of his constitutional rights and knowingly and voluntarily waived them. Boykin v. Alabama, (1969) 395 U.S. 238, 89 S.Ct. 1709, 23 L.Ed.2d 274. Our Court has consistently held that the record must provide a sufficient basis for the conclusion that defendant was meaningfully informed of the specific rights enumerated in Boykin. Laird v. State, (1979) Ind., 385 N.E.2d 452; Williams v. State, (1975) 263 Ind. 165, 325 N.E.2d 827.

We then turn to the facts of the instant case to determine whether the record shows a voluntary, knowing, and intelligent plea. Here, the record clearly demonstrates that the judge did carefully advise the petitioner of his constitutional rights as enumerated in Boykin and did adequately establish the factual basis of the crime before he accepted the guilty plea. However, there is nothing in the record to show the exact Spanish words used by the interpreter when he translated each of the judge’s statements or the Spanish answers given by the petitioner. The record shows the petitioner’s responses as given in English by the interpreter. The response was usually the statement, “He understands, your Honor,” but sometimes a yes or a no response was given.

At one point the judge was not satisfied with the statement, “He understands,” and [606]*606told the interpreter he needed a specific statement of the plea petitioner was entering. The interpreter then gave the response, “He says, T am guilty of Murder in the Second Degree, your Honor.’ ” There was some discussion at the sentencing hearing, when a different interpreter was used, about whether the petitioner understood what sentence he was receiving. The petitioner thought he had been promised six years and not fifteen to twenty-five. This confusion was subsequently explained as arising from discussions the petitioner had with his attorney in which he had asked about the effect good behavior would have on his sentence and how much time he would actually serve if he were a model prisoner.

The facts from the above which tend to support petitioner’s contention that the guilty plea was not knowingly and voluntarily given are the absence of any of the Spanish words from the record, the general nature of most of petitioner’s responses as given by the interpreter, and the confusion over the length of the sentence.

There is other evidence from the record, however, which supports the trial judge’s determination that the guilty plea was voluntarily given. First, the interpreter was experienced and testified that he had appeared in court as an interpreter on several occasions before the petitioner’s case. He had also worked with the petitioner and his attorney during interviews in prison and testified that he had no difficulty communicating with the petitioner at those times. The court had admonished him to translate, verbatim, everything that went on in the court. The court accepted the general answer “He understands, your Honor” for most of the questions, but he did stop and require more specific answers at several important points. One time the court asked, “Mr. Garcia, did you kill Pedro Colon?” The answer, through the interpreter was, “Yes, sir, he did.” At another point, the judge specifically asked whether any threats or promises had been made other than the fifteen to twenty-five year sentence. The response, through the interpreter, was, “No, sir, your Honor.”

Most significant, to us, is the fact that the court allowed petitioner’s pastor, who spoke Spanish very well, to be present during the entire guilty plea proceeding. At the end of the proceeding, before he accepted the guilty plea, the judge questioned the pastor and asked him if he felt the translation had been accurate and correct. The pastor responded that the wording was a little mixed up because of the difference between Mexican and Puerto Rican dialects. However, he said he had asked petitioner if he understood everything and the petitioner responded that he did. The petitioner also told the pastor that he did kill Colon but he didn’t do it intentionally because he was intoxicated at the time.

In post-conviction proceedings the burden of proof rests with the petitioner to establish his grounds to relief by a preponderance of the evidence. Ind.R.P.C. 1 § 5; Laird v. State, (1979) Ind., 385 N.E.2d 452; Davis v. State, (1975) 263 Ind. 327, 330 N.E.2d 738. The judge hearing the petition is the sole judge of the weight of the evidence and the credibility of the witnesses. Carroll v. State, (1976) 265 Ind. 423, 355 N.E.2d 408. His decision will be reversed only where the evidence is without conflict and leads unerringly to a result not reached by the trial court. Laird, supra; Cottingham v. State, (1978) Ind., 379 N.E.2d 984.

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391 N.E.2d 604, 271 Ind. 209, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/garcia-v-state-ind-1979.