Love v. State

514 N.E.2d 339, 1987 Ind. App. LEXIS 3173
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 27, 1987
Docket20A03-8606-PC-162
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 514 N.E.2d 339 (Love v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Love v. State, 514 N.E.2d 339, 1987 Ind. App. LEXIS 3173 (Ind. Ct. App. 1987).

Opinion

STATON, Judge.

John David Love appeals the denial of his petition for post conviction relief. This appeal raises seven issues which we have consolidated and restated as:

1. Whether the trial court erred in accepting Love's guilty plea without requiring that the plea agreement be in writing.
Whether the trial court erred in finding that Love's guilty plea was entered voluntarily, knowingly, and intelligently.
Whether the trial court erred in denying Love's motion to withdraw his guilty plea.
Whether the trial court erred in failing to issue specific and correct findings of fact and conclusions of law on all issues presented in Love's petition for post conviction relief.

We affirm.

On May 14, 1981, Love pleaded guilty to three counts of robbery, 1 a class B felony, pursuant to a plea agreement under which the State would dismiss a charge of theft, 2 a class D felony, and recommend concurrent sentences of twenty years for each count.

On June 8, 1981, Love appeared in court for his sentencing hearing and requested to withdraw his guilty plea to each count. The court denied his request and sentenced Love in accordance with the plea agreement.

Initially, we note the standard of review applied to post conviction relief proceedings. The petitioner bears the burden of establishing his grounds for relief by a preponderance of the evidence. The trial court which heard the post-conviction proceeding is the sole judge of the weight of the evidence and the credibility of witnesses. We reverse only when the evidence is without conflict and leads exclusively to a conclusion contrary to that reached by the post-conviction court. Silvers v. State (1986), Ind., 499 N.E.2d 249, 251. In the present case, the only evidence before the post-conviction court were the transcripts from the guilty plea and sentencing hearings. With this standard in mind, we turn to the specific allegations of error.

L.

Plea Agreement

Love contends that the trial court erred in accepting Love's guilty plea without requiring that the plea agreement be in writing. This issue was raised for the first time in Love's appellate brief, Failure to raise an alleged error in the petition for post-conviction relief waives the right to raise that error on appeal. Ind.Rules of Procedure, Post Conviction Rule 1, § 8; Layton v. State (1986), Ind., 499 N.E.2d 202, 203.

IL.

Guilty Plea

Love contends his guilty plea was not entered voluntarily, knowingly and intelli *342 gently because 1) he refused to admit his guilt when entering his plea, 2) the trial judge did not personally address him to determine if a factual basis existed for the plea, and 3) the trial judge did not advise him that his prior convictions could be used to enhance his sentence.

A trial judge may not accept a plea of guilty when the defendant both pleads guilty and maintains his innocence at the same time. Ross v. State (1983), Ind., 456 N.E.2d 420, 423. A review of the record does not support Love's contention that he maintained his innocence.

The transcript of the guilty plea hearing shows the following exchange:

Q. However, if you plead guilty, you are in fact testifying against yourself to the extent you are admitting your involvement in these offenses. Do you understand?
A. (No response)
Q. While I understand in a moment we are going through a procedure where a plea will be taken without your exactly admitting the offenses, you have to understand that by not having a trial you are giving up your right to remain silent.
A. Yes.
Q. Are you with me? Okay, John. And, do you understand that if you leave your plea of not guilty, you don't have to prove you're innocent, the State has to prove you're guilty beyond a reasonable doubt? You don't have to bring any evidence, you don't have to do anything, all you have to do is sit there and make them prove you're guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. However, if you enter a plea of guilty, you're giving up that right.
A. Yes.
Q. Okay. And, you understand that by entering a plea of guilty, you are in fact admitting, or there will be evidence introduced, to prove the truth of all the facts contained in these informations.
A. I don't understand.
Q. Well, if you were going to admit you did this, you would be admitting to me all the things that are charged in these three cases. My understanding is you are entering a plea of guilty and letting the State present evidence without challenge that all the things happened in these cases happened. Do you understand-does that make it clearer?
A. Ngt really.
Q. All right. In order for me to take a guilty plea, John-do you go by John or David? A. David.
Q. David, there has to be evidence presented to convince me that these three things happened. There has to be a basis for that. While you're not going to say, "I did it and that's all true," the State is going to present evidence, I see two policemen, somebody's going to testify, they're going to put some evidence in that these three things happened and you did it, okay, and you are, therefore, giving up your right to make the State prove it because you're not going to challenge that evidence. Do you understand, because I cannot accept the plea unless I am convinced that there are facts that support these three charges, okay?
A. Yes.

(Record 268-269).

At the beginning of the guilty plea proceedings, Love's attorney indicated to the trial court that Love was not admitting his involvement in the crimes. In addition, Love directs our attention to his unresponsiveness to one question to support his claim that he maintained his innocence. However, as the transcript shows, the trial judge continued to explain to Love, until he indicated he understood, that his guilty plea would be an admission of the facts alleged in the informations. In effect, the trial judge made it clear that if Love wanted to enter a plea of guilty he had to admit the facts alleged in the informations, not withstanding his attorney's comment to the *343 contrary. As we discuss below, Love did admit the facts alleged in the information were true. Frazier v. State (1986), Ind., 490 N.E.2d 315, 316, Furthermore, at no time during the guilty plea hearing or the sentencing hearing did Love assert that he was innocent of the charges.

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Bluebook (online)
514 N.E.2d 339, 1987 Ind. App. LEXIS 3173, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/love-v-state-indctapp-1987.