State v. Andrews

729 A.2d 232, 53 Conn. App. 90, 1999 Conn. App. LEXIS 159
CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedApril 27, 1999
DocketAC 17984
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 729 A.2d 232 (State v. Andrews) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Connecticut Appellate Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Andrews, 729 A.2d 232, 53 Conn. App. 90, 1999 Conn. App. LEXIS 159 (Colo. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

Opinion

SHEA, J.

The defendant appeals from the judgment convicting him of murder in violation of General Statutes § 53a-54a (a)1 and imposing a sentence of imprisonment for thirty-three years. The only claim relied on for reversal of the judgment is that the failure of the trial court to inform him when he pleaded guilty to the murder charge that a murder conviction would make him ineligible for parole pursuant to General Statutes § 54-125a (b) (l)2 rendered the pleading canvass defective and entitled him to withdraw his plea. We reject that claim and affirm the judgment.

Originally, the defendant pleaded not guilty to the murder charge and to two additional charges involving his possession and use of a firearm. After a jury had [92]*92been selected, the trial began on September 4, 1996. The trial court denied the defendant’s motion to suppress the testimony of an eyewitness who identified the defendant as the person who had shot the victim.

On the following day, the defendant agreed to plead guilty to the murder charge and the state agreed not to prosecute the other two charges. Before accepting the guilty plea, the trial court canvassed the defendant in accordance with the requirements of Practice Book §§ 711 through 713, now §§ 39-19 through 39-21. The defendant’s responses to the court’s inquiries disclosed that he was thirty years of age and a high school graduate who had attended college for one year. He had discussed the murder charge and the evidence against him with his attorney and was satisfied with his attorney’s services. He was not under the influence of alcohol, drugs or any medication and he understood that murder was a class A felony that carried a maximum sentence of sixty years and a minimum sentence of twenty-five years with a maximum fine of $20,000. During the canvass, the defendant said that he realized he was waiving various constitutional rights related to a criminal trial by pleading guilty, but, nevertheless, was pleading guilty voluntarily without any force or threats by other persons.

The court informed the defendant that, after discussing the case with the prosecutor and defense counsel, it was prepared to impose a sentence of thirty-three years for the crime that the defendant had committed. The court asked the defendant whether he wanted to plead guilty to murder when the sentence indicated was thirty-three years. The defendant answered yes. The court then proceeded to accept the guilty plea.

On December 3,1996, before the sentencing proceeding, the defendant filed a written motion to withdraw his guilty plea, alleging that the plea was made unknowingly and involuntarily. Previously, in a brief letter received [93]*93by the clerk’s office on October 18, 1996, the defendant had claimed that the trial court did not canvass him properly on an unspecified critical element of his case.

On January 9, 1997, there was an evidentiary hearing on the motion to withdraw the guilty plea. The only witness presented was the defendant, who testified that he did not understand the consequences of his plea when the trial court questioned him during the plea acceptance proceeding. He claimed that he was then under the impression that he would have to serve only eight to fifteen years of his thirty-three year sentence.3 He also testified that his plea was not voluntary because his trial attorney had pressured him into pleading guilty.4 After listening to the arguments of the state’s attorney and the defendant’s new counsel, the court reviewed the transcript of the plea canvass and denied the motion to withdraw the defendant’s guilty plea. The court then sentenced the defendant to thirty-three years imprisonment as agreed at the time that his guilty plea was accepted.

On appeal, the defendant claims that the trial court should have permitted him to withdraw his plea in accordance with Practice Book § 721 (2)5 because of [94]*94his mistaken belief that the thirty-three year sentence would result in only eight to fifteen years of actual imprisonment. He maintains that the court should have informed him that he would not be eligible for parole because § 54-125a (b) (1) provides that persons convicted of murder as defined in § 53a-54a are ineligible for parole.

I

The state argues initially that the defendant has not properly preserved his claim for appellate review because he merely filed a “boilerplate motion to withdraw, asserting in a generic fashion that his guilty plea was unknowing and involuntary.” There is little substance to this contention.

Although the defendant’s written motion to withdraw his plea does not state the basis for his claim that the plea was unknowing and involuntary, the grounds for his motion were sufficiently articulated at the hearing thereon prior to sentencing. The defendant testified at the hearing that he thought he would be imprisoned for only eight to fifteen years of the thirty-three year sentence because that would have been the result under New York law. In this appeal, he is raising essentially the same claim, that he was not fully aware of the consequences of his plea because of his misunderstanding concerning the time he would have to remain in prison. The state’s reliance on State v. Brown, 19 Conn. App. 640, 642, 563 A.2d 1379, cert. denied, 212 Conn. 821, 565 A.2d 540 (1989), in which this court declined to review an unpreserved claim regarding a plea canvass, is misplaced because the defendant in that case first challenged the sufficiency of the canvass after he had been sentenced. Practice Book § 7206 prohibits the withdrawal of a plea after the conclusion [95]*95of the sentencing proceeding. Because the defendant sufficiently raised the issue on which he seeks appellate review in the trial court, we need not consider his alternative ground for such review, that his claim involves the deprivation of a constitutional right and satisfies the criteria for review of claims not raised in the trial court as set forth in State v. Golding, 213 Conn. 233, 239-40, 567 A.2d 823 (1989).

II

“We have never held that the United States Constitution requires the State to furnish a defendant with information about parole eligibility in order for the defendant’s plea of guilty to be voluntary, and indeed such a constitutional requirement would be inconsistent with the current rules of procedure governing the entry of guilty pleas in the federal courts.” Hill v. Lockhart, 474 U.S. 52, 56, 106 S. Ct. 366, 88 L. Ed. 2d 203 (1985). The federal courts of appeal have rejected claims that a plea was involuntary because of the failure to inform a defendant that the sentence imposed following a plea of guilty would result in ineligibility for parole. United States v. Posner, 865 F.2d 654, 659-60 (5th Cir. 1989); Hunter v. Fogg, 616 F.2d 55, 60 (2d Cir. 1980);7 Armstrong v. Egeler,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
729 A.2d 232, 53 Conn. App. 90, 1999 Conn. App. LEXIS 159, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-andrews-connappct-1999.