State v. Williams

913 P.2d 587, 259 Kan. 432, 1996 Kan. LEXIS 33
CourtSupreme Court of Kansas
DecidedMarch 8, 1996
DocketNo. 72,835
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 913 P.2d 587 (State v. Williams) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Williams, 913 P.2d 587, 259 Kan. 432, 1996 Kan. LEXIS 33 (kan 1996).

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Six J.:

The primary issue is the district court’s denial of David L. Williams’ motion to withdraw his plea of nolo contendere. Williams pled to first-degree premeditated murder, aggravated kidnapping, rape, aggravated criminal sodomy, and other charges. Our jurisdiction is under K.S.A. 22-3601(b)(l) (Williams was convicted of first-degree murder, an off-grid crime).

Additional issues are whether the district court erred in: (a) denying Williams’ request for funds to hire a psychologist to present evidence in mitigation; (b) finding that Williams’ counsel was effective; (c) determining that the notice requirements of K.S.A. 1993 Supp. 21-4624 (the hard 40) were complied with; and (d) completing the pronouncement of sentence after Williams was removed from the courtroom for disruptive behavior. Williams also [433]*433contends he was denied an opportunity to present evidence in mitigation at the time of his sentencing.

We find no error and affirm.

FACTS

Williams was charged in a multi-count complaint alleging criminal possession of a firearm, aggravated burglary, seven counts of kidnapping, three counts of aggravated criminal sodomy, three counts of rape, and premeditated murder. On July 26, 1993, carrying a semiautomatic handgun, Williams entered die home of Mildred Adams, with whom he had a discordant common-law marriage. Later, he told the police he took the gun to Adams’ home to kill her. Adams was not present. Seven persons in the home, all females or young children, were forced into the bathroom at gunpoint; one of the children was Williams’ 12-year-old daughter. The girls were ordered to remove their clothes. Williams took one of the girls into the bedroom, raped her, forced her to perform oral sex, and then tied her up. Williams raped and sodomized his daughter. When Adams’ teenage son arrived home, Williams tied and gagged him at gunpoint while repeatedly saying that he intended to kill Adams. Williams raped a third girl and forced her to perform oral sex. When Adams entered the house with a female friend, the friend was ordered into the bathroom. Adams struggled with Williams. He killed her by striking her repeatedly in the head with the butt of his gun and a glass lamp. The killing occurred in full view of some of the children.

Williams was on parole, having previously served 10 years in prison for convictions of rape and aggravated sodomy. The week before Adams was killed, she had obtained a protection from abuse order against Williams.

On January 20, 1994, Williams was arraigned. The prosecutor handed defense counsel and the judge copies of the notice of intent to seek the hard 40 sentence and requested that the judge accept filing of the notice with the court. The judge did accept the filing, but did not write the time and date of receipt on the notice handed to him by the prosecutor. The notice was date-stamped by the clerk of the district court on January 24, 1994.

[434]*434Williams entered into a plea agreement on the day his jury trial was to commence. Williams’ counsel discussed the plea agreement with him for an hour before he decided to accept it. The State agreed to drop three kidnapping charges and seek a hard 40 sentence, with the recommendation that sentences for all other crimes be served concurrent with the hard 40.sentence. Williams agreed to plead “no contest” to the remaining charges. After the judge questioned Williams at length, the district court accepted the plea and scheduled a sentencing date. The State then presented evidence of aggravating factors, including: (1) having a prior conviction' for a felony (rape) in which Williams inflicted great bodily harm, disfigurement, of death; (2) knowingly or purposely killing or creating a great risk of death to multiple persons; (3) committing the offense to avoid or prevent a lawful arrest or prosecution; (4) committing the crime in an especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel manner; and (5) killing the victim because she was a witness in a criminal proceeding..

Williams, through his counsel from the Public Defender’s office, offered in mitigation: (1) The crime occurred while he was under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbances; (2) the victim had treated him poorly in the past; (3) he killed the victim in the heat of passion rather than in cold blood; and (4) he is a good worker and has a family to support. The court determined that the aggravating factors outweighed the mitigating factors, ordered a presentence investigation (PSI) report, and scheduled sentencing for July 7, 1994.

Williams filed a pro se motion to withdraw his plea on the ground that his attorneys coerced him to enter into the plea agreement against his will. New counsel was appointed. Williams, through his new counsel, contested the sufficiency of the hard 40 notice and filed an amended motion to withdraw the plea, asserting that it was unknowing, involuntary, and the result of ineffective assistance of counsel. New counsel also filed a motion to reopen the disposi-tional phase of the case to present additional evidence in mitigation and to cross-examine the State’s evidence of aggravating factors.

The judge denied new counsel’s oral request for funds to employ a psychologist to examine Williams for purposes of presenting ev[435]*435idence in mitigation. At the hearing on the motion to withdraw the plea, Williams’ original counsel, Jillian Waesche, and her second chair testified about informing Williams of his rights when he decided to accept the plea agreement. The district court denied Williams’ motions, determining that his plea was knowing and voluntary, counsel was not ineffective, and sufficient evidence of aggravating and mitigating factors was presented.

The judge proceeded with the sentencing and gave Williams his right of allocution before imposing sentence. Williams declined to make any statement. The judge indicated that the sentence recommended in the plea agreement would be imposed and began reading the sentences for the crimes to which Williams pled. At that time, Williams became verbally abusive and, after repeated warnings from the judge, was found in contempt and escorted out of the courtroom. The judge finished pronouncing sentence. The court imposed a controlling sentence of life imprisonment without parole eligibility for 40 years. Williams also received a sentence of 1 year for the contempt citation, to be served consecutively.

DISCUSSION

The Nolo Contendere Plea

Statutory guidance for accepting a nolo contendere plea is furnished by K.S.A. 22-3210, which embodies the requirements of due process set forth in Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 243, 23 L. Ed. 2d 274, 89 S. Ct. 1709 (1969).

A district court has discretion to allow withdrawal of a plea for “good cause” before sentencing and to correct “manifest injustice” after sentencing. K.S.A. 22-3210(d); State v. Solomon, 257 Kan. 212, 219, 891 P.2d 407

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
913 P.2d 587, 259 Kan. 432, 1996 Kan. LEXIS 33, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-williams-kan-1996.