State v. Crump

826 N.W.2d 838, 2013 WL 776782, 2013 Minn. App. LEXIS 14
CourtCourt of Appeals of Minnesota
DecidedMarch 4, 2013
DocketNo. A12-0912
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 826 N.W.2d 838 (State v. Crump) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Crump, 826 N.W.2d 838, 2013 WL 776782, 2013 Minn. App. LEXIS 14 (Mich. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

OPINION

HOOTEN, Judge.

Appellant challenges the district court’s denial of his pre-sentence motion to withdraw his guilty plea on the basis that the plea was unintelligent and therefore invalid. Appellant claims, at the time of his plea, he did not know that he would subsequently be charged with another crime resulting from a separate prior incident and that the conviction associated with his plea could adversely affect any conviction and sentence for the new charge. Because the effect of a guilty plea on a future charge arising out of a separate incident is a collateral consequence, we affirm.

FACTS

On December 23, 2011, at approximately 12:25 a.m., a Minneapolis police officer observed appellant Willie James Crump’s vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed. The officer activated the emergency lights of his squad car and pulled up behind appellant’s vehicle. In response to the officer’s actions, appellant stopped his vehicle in the middle of the road, then quickly drove away as the officer exited his vehicle and approached appellant’s car. The police officer, with his emergency lights on, followed appellant as other police officers joined in the chase. Appellant’s vehicle was eventually stopped when the police officers rammed it with their squad cars. As the officers approached his vehicle, appellant threw a baggie of what was suspected to be crack cocaine out his window. Following his arrest, appellant was [840]*840charged with fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle in violation of Minn.Stat. § 609.487, subd. 3 (2010).

On January 17, 2012, at a pretrial hearing, the prosecutor indicated that appellant had accepted a plea agreement. The prosecutor outlined the expected sentence and indicated that the plea was being offered in forbearance of a potential controlled-substance charge. In response to the district court’s inquiry as to whether appellant would accept the plea, both appellant and his attorney responded in the affirmative. Appellant stated that he understood that he would be pleading guilty and that he did not have any questions for the court. In conjunction with his plea, appellant acknowledged that: he did not have to plead guilty; he understood that he could go to trial on the charge; he and his attorney had discussed the plea agreement “line by line,” as well as the rights being waived, including his right to trial; no one forced him into the agreement; and he did not have any questions about the process. Appellant then pleaded guilty to the charge of fleeing a police officer and provided a factual basis for the offense. The district court accepted the plea, found appellant guilty of the charge, and scheduled sentencing.

At the sentencing hearing, appellant moved to withdraw his guilty plea. Appellant’s attorney explained that appellant was suspected of driving while intoxicated (DWI) on November 11, 2011 — before his arrest for fleeing a police officer on December 23, 2011 — but was not charged with that crime until January 18, 2012, one day after pleading guilty to the fleeing charge. Appellant’s attorney argued that the delay in charging appellant with the DWI caused his plea to be unintelligent because his conviction for the fleeing charge would potentially affect his sentence in the DWI case. Appellant’s attorney did not specify any particular consequences from his plea on the DWI case, but stated that the delay in charging the DWI “certainly changed ... the landscape” of appellant’s cases.

In response, the prosecutor argued that the DWI charge that was filed after appellant’s guilty plea was unrelated to the fleeing charge and that his plea was intelligent and voluntary. The prosecutor argued that at the time of his plea, appellant must have known of the potential for a future charge because “he was stopped and arrested” for a DWI offense. Further, the prosecutor argued that “[bjecause [appellant] has three criminal history points he’s looking at a presumptive prison commit on the DWI, even absent his guilty plea for the fleeing.” Finally, the prosecutor stated that the “offer on [the] fleeing case would have been the same” even if the DWI had been charged at the time of the plea agreement.

The district court denied the motion to withdraw the guilty plea, noting that it had “a recollection of the entry of the plea” and “it was a knowing, voluntary, intelligent entry of the plea.” After denying the motion to withdraw the plea, the district court dealt with the November 11, 2011 DWI charge; the district court found probable cause, arraigned appellant, accepted appellant’s not guilty plea, and set bail. The district court then asked appellant if he had anything to add before sentencing on the fleeing charge. Appellant declared that he would have never agreed to the plea agreement if he had known that he was going to be charged with another crime. Appellant indicated that part of his displeasure with the result of the agreement was that he would “still have to go to other counties,” ostensibly because of other unrelated criminal charges. Despite these protestations, the district court sen[841]*841tenced appellant according to the terms of the guilty plea. This appeal follows.

ISSUES

I. Does ignorance of a plea’s potential consequences on other future criminal charges render the plea unintelligent and invalid?

II. Did the district court apply the correct standard and adequately express its reasons for the denial of appellant’s motion to withdraw his guilty plea?

ANALYSIS

Appellant challenges the district court’s denial of his motion to withdraw his plea. First, appellant argues that his ignorance as to the effects of his guilty plea on a subsequent charge resulting from a prior, separate incident caused his plea to be unintelligent and therefore invalid. Second, appellant argues that the district court applied the wrong standard and did not adequately express its reasons for denying his plea withdrawal motion.

A district court “must allow a defendant to withdraw a guilty plea upon a timely motion and proof to the satisfaction of the court that withdrawal is necessary to correct a manifest injustice.” Minn. R.Crim. P. 15.05, subd. 1. But where the motion is made prior to sentencing, the district court has discretion to allow a defendant to withdraw a guilty plea “if it is fair and just to do so” giving “due consideration to the reasons advanced by the defendant in support of the motion and any prejudice” to the prosecution. Id., subd. 2. Although it is a lower burden, the fair-and-just standard “does not allow a defendant to withdraw a guilty plea for simply any reason.” State v. Theis, 742 N.W.2d 643, 646 (Minn.2007) (quotation omitted). Allowing a defendant to withdraw a guilty plea “for any reason or without good reason” would “undermine the integrity of the plea-taking process.” Kim v. State, 434 N.W.2d 263, 266 (Minn.1989). Regardless of the standard applied, a plea must be valid, meaning that it must be accurate, voluntary, and intelligent. Theis, 742 N.W.2d at 646; see also State v. Raleigh, 778 N.W.2d 90, 94 (Minn.2010).

We review a district court’s decision to deny a motion to withdraw a guilty plea under the fair-and-just standard for an abuse of discretion, reversing only in the “rare case.” Kim, 434 N.W.2d at 266.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
826 N.W.2d 838, 2013 WL 776782, 2013 Minn. App. LEXIS 14, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-crump-minnctapp-2013.