State v. Carley, Unpublished Decision (4-15-2004)

2004 Ohio 1901
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 15, 2004
DocketNo. 81001.
StatusUnpublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 2004 Ohio 1901 (State v. Carley, Unpublished Decision (4-15-2004)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Carley, Unpublished Decision (4-15-2004), 2004 Ohio 1901 (Ohio Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

JOURNAL ENTRY and OPINION
{¶ 1} Appellant Richard Carley appeals from a judgment of the common pleas court entered pursuant to his plea of guilty to two counts of murder with firearm specifications. On appeal, he assigns the following errors for our review:

{¶ 2} "I. Trial counsel was ineffective under the Sixth andFourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution and the appellant's guilty plea was not knowingly and voluntarily made."

{¶ 3} "II. Prosecutorial misconduct deprived appellant of a fair trial in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment."

{¶ 4} Having reviewed the record and pertinent law, we affirm the judgment of the court. The apposite facts follow.

{¶ 5} After a jury found Richard Carley guilty of two counts of aggravated murder and robbery with specifications and before his sentence, Richard Carley with his attorneys plea bargained with the State to reduce the charges to two counts of murder with firearm specifications. The trial court accepted the plea bargain and the record showed the trial court advised Carley pursuant to Crim.R. 11(C) and explained all the constitutional rights he was entitled to, in the absence of a plea bargain.

{¶ 6} Further, the trial court inquired as to any promises, threats, or inducements that Carley's defense attorneys, the prosecutor, or the court may have made to cause him to enter a plea of guilty. At the end of its colloquy with Carley, the court stated: "this court makes a factual finding that you have knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily made these pleas, and this court will accept them."1 The court accepted Carley's guilty plea to two counts of murder with firearm specifications and sentenced him to the agreed upon term of thirty-three years to life imprisonment.

{¶ 7} We note the record showed the evidence against Carley consisted of the coroner's autopsy reports of the two victims, Carley's written confession, Carley's fingerprint found in the vehicle of one of the victims, one of the victim's pagers with three calls from Carley, which were placed on the day of the shooting, and drugs found at Carley's home.2

{¶ 8} Carley appeals his second conviction and claims his plea should be vacated because his lawyers were ineffective. Specifically, he argues one of his appointed counsels was not certified to handle death penalty cases; during the trial, his lawyers failed to object to the prosecution's use of the term "mass murder"; his lawyers failed to prepare for the mitigation phase of his trial; his lawyers failed to call a psychologist to explain why his confession was false; and his lawyers were ineffective for failing to move to suppress his confession because the confession was obtained 72 hours after his arrest. It is important to note Carley was arrested on Friday, October 3, 1997 and his written confession was taken on Monday, October 6, 1997.

{¶ 9} In his first assigned error, Carley argues his plea was invalid because of the various allegations of ineffective assistance of counsel. The issue before us is whether Carley waived these errors when he entered his plea after his jury trial, in which he was convicted, and before his sentence.

{¶ 10} The law in Ohio is "a plea of guilty following a trial and prior to sentencing effectively waives all appealable errors which may have occurred at trial unless such errors are shown to have precluded the defendant from voluntarily entering into his or her plea pursuant to the dictates of Crim.R. 11 and Boykin v.Alabama (1969), 395 U.S. 238, 243."3

{¶ 11} The facts of this case are strikingly similar toState v. Kelly. After a jury convicted Kelly of murder with a three-year gun specification, but prior to sentencing, Kelly entered a plea of guilty to the charge of involuntary manslaughter, without the gun specification. Included in the plea negotiation, Kelly agreed to forgo his right to appeal. After reviewing the plea, the trial court concluded Kelly willingly waived the right. Kelly subsequently appealed and this court reversed and remanded. The State appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court. The Ohio Supreme Court reversed this court and remanded to the trial court for execution of sentence. In doing so, the court observed "we do not foreclose an appellate court from reviewing other proceedings which affirmatively show that a defendant was improperly coerced into submitting his plea. However, we note under App.R. 12(A), the court of appeals' inquiry is limited to the record on appeal and cannot address issues which were previously waived by the defendant."4

{¶ 12} Consequently, "when a criminal defendant has solemnly admitted in open court that he is in fact guilty of the offense with which he is charged, he may not thereafter raise independent claims relating to the deprivation of constitutional rights that occurred prior to the entry of the guilty plea. He may only attack the voluntary and intelligent character of the guilty plea by showing that the advice he received from counsel was not within the standards set forth in McMann v. Richardson (1970),397 U.S. 759, 90 S.Ct. 1441, 25 L.Ed.2d 763."5

{¶ 13} In Spates, the Ohio Supreme Court made it clear that our inquiry should entail a review of the record to ensure that Crim.R. 11 was followed by the trial court upon the submission of the defendant's guilty plea; the Supreme Court of Ohio pointed out that this was its holding in State v. Kelly.6

{¶ 14} Accordingly, we have reviewed the record in Carley's case and concluded the trial court complied with Crim.R. 11, and Carley has failed to establish affirmatively that he was coerced or induced into making his plea. Additionally, he has not shown that any of his claimed errors induced or coerced him into entering the plea. The effect of Carley's plea was to waive all errors that may have taken place at his trial.7

{¶ 15} Nevertheless, Carley, relying on the United States Supreme Court case, Riverside Cty. v. McLaughlin, argues his pre-trial confession was tainted because it was taken beyond 48 hours and his lawyers failed to notice this error and as such were ineffective. Although we conclude that this error was waived as well,8 we feel compelled to address Carley's argument that the delay in bringing him before the magistrate tainted his written confession and should be excluded.

{¶ 16} In McLaughlin, the United States Supreme Court was asked to define the term "prompt" as used in its Gerstein v.Pugh opinion.9 In Gerstein, the United States Supreme Court held the Fourth

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Related

State v. Carley
2023 Ohio 4646 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2023)

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Bluebook (online)
2004 Ohio 1901, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-carley-unpublished-decision-4-15-2004-ohioctapp-2004.