State v. Gilnite

521 A.2d 547, 202 Conn. 369, 1987 Conn. LEXIS 766
CourtSupreme Court of Connecticut
DecidedFebruary 24, 1987
Docket12859
StatusPublished
Cited by87 cases

This text of 521 A.2d 547 (State v. Gilnite) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Connecticut primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Gilnite, 521 A.2d 547, 202 Conn. 369, 1987 Conn. LEXIS 766 (Colo. 1987).

Opinion

Novack, J.

The defendant, Maureen Gilnite, was convicted upon a plea of nolo contendere of being a persistent larceny offender. She appealed to the Appellate Court claiming, inter alia, that the trial court had erred in denying her motion to dismiss this charge. The Appellate Court held that she had waived her right to appeal the trial court’s determination by pleading nolo contendere. Upon the granting of certification, the defendant appealed and now claims that the Appellate Court erred in deciding, sua sponte, that she had waived her right to appeal by pleading nolo contendere, because she had entered her nolo contendere plea conditional upon the right to appeal the trial court’s denial of her motion to dismiss. The defendant also contends that if her plea was not conditional upon her right to appeal, the plea was not made knowingly, voluntarily [371]*371and intelligently. Finally, the defendant claims that the trial court erred in denying her motion to dismiss the persistent larceny offender charge against her. We find no error and therefore affirm the Appellate Court’s judgment.

The following facts surrounding the defendant’s plea are not in dispute. On December 3, 1983, the defendant was issued a misdemeanor summons, stemming from an incident which occurred at a Mansfield department store earlier that evening, charging her with larceny in the sixth degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-125b.1 The defendant pleaded not guilty to the charge and elected a trial to the jury. Subsequently, the state amended the information to include a second part (part B), charging the defendant with being a persistent larceny offender in violation of General Statutes § 53a-40 (c).2

Prior to the commencement of the trial on the charge of larceny in the sixth degree, the state filed a substitute information charging the defendant as an accessory to larceny in the sixth degree, and amended part B of the information to correct the dates of the previous larceny convictions. The defendant entered a plea of not guilty to the charge of committing larceny as an accessory and elected a jury trial. The defendant also moved for a continuance at the time of the plea [372]*372and election. After the parties had presented argument on whether the continuance should be granted, the state withdrew the substitute information charging the defendant as an accessory, and the defendant stood trial on the original information charging her with larceny in the sixth degree.

The jury returned a verdict of guilty on the larceny charge, and the defendant was then put to plea on part B of the information, the persistent larceny offender charge. She entered a plea of not guilty and elected a trial to the jury. On March 15, 1984, the defendant filed a motion to dismiss the information, arguing that she had not “been, at separate times prior to the commission of the present larceny, twice convicted of the crime of larceny,” and therefore could not be tried as a persistent larceny offender. On March 20, 1984, the parties stipulated that the defendant had entered pleas of guilty to two separate charges of larceny in the sixth degree which occurred on separate occasions, but she was sentenced on both guilty findings at the same time. The trial court then heard arguments on the defendant’s motion to dismiss part B of the information, after which the court denied the motion. The defendant withdrew her plea of not guilty and entered a plea of nolo contendere on part B of the information.

The defendant appealed to the Appellate Court claiming that the trial court had made several errors during her trial on the charge of larceny in the sixth degree, and had erred in denying her motion to dismiss the charge of being a persistent larceny offender. After disposing of the defendant’s claims of error with respect to her trial, the Appellate Court held that the defendant had waived her right to appeal the denial of her motion to dismiss by pleading nolo contendere to the charge of being a persistent larceny offender; State v. Gilnite, 4 Conn. App. 676, 682, 496 A.2d 525 (1985); and thus did not address whether the trial court [373]*373had erred in denying her motion to dismiss. The defendant, on the granting of certification, appealed to this court.

I

The defendant first claims that the Appellate Court should not have decided that she had waived her right to appeal the trial court’s denial of her motion to dismiss. Specifically, the defendant argues that the Appellate Court’s holding violated the principles of fundamental fairness and the statutory rules governing appeals because the issue of waiver was never raised before the trial court nor did the parties brief or argue the issue before the Appellate Court.

As we have stated previously, “this court is not limited in its disposition of a case to claims raised by the parties and has frequently acted sua sponte upon grounds of which the parties were not previously apprised.” Greenwood v. Greenwood, 191 Conn. 309, 315, 464 A.2d 771 (1983). Likewise, the Appellate Court has similar discretion in addressing claims not raised by the parties. See Practice Book §§ 2000, 4187 (formerly § 3164). Thus, although neither party briefed or argued the issue of whether the defendant had waived her right to appeal by pleading nolo contendere, the Appellate Court acted well within its discretion in addressing this issue sua sponte.

II

The defendant next claims that, even if the issue of waiver could have been addressed, the Appellate Court erred in concluding that she had waived her right to appeal because she entered her plea of nolo contendere pursuant to General Statutes § 54-94a3 and thus pre[374]*374served her right to appeal the trial court’s decision denying her motion to dismiss. We disagree.

It is well established that an unconditional nolo contendere plea, when intelligently and voluntarily made, operates as a waiver of all nonjurisdictionai defects and bars later challenges to pretrial proceedings.4 State v. Madera, 198 Conn. 92, 97, 503 A.2d 136 (1985); State v. Martin, 197 Conn. 17, 25, 495 A.2d 1028 (1985). Thus, usually only those issues fully disclosed on the [375]*375record which concern either the court’s jurisdiction or the intelligent and voluntary nature of the plea are appealable after a nolo contendere plea has been entered and accepted. State v. Madera, supra, 98; see, e.g., State v. Badgett, 200 Conn. 412, 415-20, 512 A.2d 160, cert. denied, 479 U.S. , 107 S. Ct. 423, 93 L. Ed. 2d 373 (1986); State v. Godek, 182 Conn. 353, 356, 438 A.2d 114 (1980), cert. denied, 450 U.S. 1031, 101 S. Ct. 1741, 68 L. Ed. 2d 226 (1981); cf. Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 242-43, 89 S. Ct. 1709, 23 L. Ed. 2d 274 (1969).

In 1982, the General Assembly altered this implicit waiver rule by enacting Public Acts 1982, No. 82-17 (General Statutes § 54-94a), which provides for a conditional plea of nolo contendere, so that a defendant may now appeal pretrial decisions after entering such a plea. State v. Madera, supra.

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Bluebook (online)
521 A.2d 547, 202 Conn. 369, 1987 Conn. LEXIS 766, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-gilnite-conn-1987.