State v. Willis

2018 WI App 62, 921 N.W.2d 4, 384 Wis. 2d 272
CourtCourt of Appeals of Wisconsin
DecidedAugust 28, 2018
DocketAppeal No. 2017AP2250-CR
StatusPublished

This text of 2018 WI App 62 (State v. Willis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Willis, 2018 WI App 62, 921 N.W.2d 4, 384 Wis. 2d 272 (Wis. Ct. App. 2018).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

¶1 Felix Deonte Willis appeals from an order denying his postconviction motion to withdraw his guilty plea to one of two crimes of which he was convicted. He argues that he should be allowed to withdraw his guilty plea to that crime because his plea was not knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily entered. We reject his arguments and affirm.

BACKGROUND

¶2 Willis was charged with two counts of delivery of a controlled substance (heroin, three grams or less) for incidents that occurred on September 4, 2014, and September 18, 2014. See WIS. STAT. § 961.41(1)(d)1. (2013-14).1 According to the criminal complaint, law enforcement officers asked a confidential informant to contact Willis and arrange to purchase drugs. Willis sold the confidential informant heroin on September 4, 2014, which resulted in the first criminal charge (Count 1).

¶3 Count 2-the charge at issue on appeal-alleged that Willis was liable as a party to a crime. See WIS. STAT. § 939.05 (a party to a crime is a person who: "[d]irectly commits the crime," "[i]ntentionally aids and abets the commission of it," or "[i]s a party to a conspiracy with another to commit it"). The complaint alleged that the confidential informant arranged to meet Willis in a store parking lot to purchase drugs. The complaint continues:

The investigating officers observed a silver Nissan Murano pull into the parking lot ... and park next to [the confidential informant's] vehicle.
[The officers] advanced toward the Nissan in undercover police vehicles in an attempt to "box in" the target. The investigating officers observed the Nissan reverse and then advance in an apparent attempt to escape. The Nissan rammed into the front driver's side bumper of one of the unmarked cars. By this point, several of the investigating officers had exited their vehicles, and were ordering the Nissan to stop with firearms drawn. One of the investigating officers used a metal tool to smash the Nissan's driver's door window. The Nissan then stopped and the defendant was removed from the driver's seat.

Officers seized heroin from the driver after he removed it from his pants.

¶4 The complaint identified Willis as the driver who was pulled from the car. It also identified another man who was sitting in the front passenger seat, but he was not charged with a crime. Finally, the complaint noted that with respect to this count of delivery of a controlled substance, the complainant was aware "that [ WIS. STAT. ] § 961.01(6) defines 'deliver' and 'delivery' as 'the actual, constructive or attempted transfer from one person to another of a controlled substance.' " See id. (emphasis provided in complaint).

¶5 Willis accepted a plea agreement that required him to plead guilty as charged. The State agreed to recommend a global sentence of thirty months of initial confinement and four years of extended supervision.

¶6 At the plea hearing, the trial court questioned whether Count 2 should have been charged as possession with intent to deliver, rather than delivery of a controlled substance. The trial court also noted that Willis had been charged as a party to a crime in Count 2, which it speculated was "because there was another person in the vehicle." Ultimately, after the parties discussed the trial court's questions about the charges and assured the trial court that it could proceed, the trial court accepted Willis's guilty pleas and found him guilty.2 The trial court subsequently sentenced Willis to two consecutive sentences of thirty months of initial confinement and twenty months of extended supervision.3

¶7 Represented by postconviction counsel, Willis filed a postconviction motion seeking to withdraw his guilty plea to Count 2, asserting that confusion over the crime charged and the fact that he was charged as a party to a crime made his plea unintelligent, unknowing, and involuntary.4 The trial court denied the motion in a written order without a hearing, concluding "that in the end, the defendant did knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily enter his guilty plea to count two and that there was a factual basis for doing so, which he also understood."5 This appeal follows.

DISCUSSION

¶8 To withdraw a guilty plea after sentencing, a defendant must establish that plea withdrawal is necessary to prevent a manifest injustice. State v. Brown , 2006 WI 100, ¶ 18, 293 Wis. 2d 594, 716 N.W.2d 906. A defendant can show plea withdrawal is necessary to prevent a manifest injustice by establishing that the plea was not knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily made based on a defect in the plea colloquy (referred to as a Bangert claim) or facts extrinsic to the plea colloquy (referred to as a Nelson/Bentley claim). See State v. Howell , 2007 WI 75, ¶¶ 70, 74, 301 Wis. 2d 350, 734 N.W.2d 48 ; State v. Bentley , 201 Wis. 2d 303, 548 N.W.2d 50 (1996) ; State v. Bangert , 131 Wis. 2d 246, 389 N.W.2d 12 (1986) ; Nelson v. State , 54 Wis. 2d 489, 195 N.W.2d 629 (1972).

¶9 Willis's postconviction motion referenced both Bangert and Bentley , but it seemed primarily concerned with the trial court's plea colloquy with Willis. On appeal, the State asserts that Willis has "not clearly indicate[d] whether he is advancing his claim under the Bangert standard or the Nelson/Bentley standard." (Bolding added.) In response, Willis states:

The confusion arises from the fact that the circumstances in this case are so unusual that Willis's motion has elements of both.
While it may not be that the [trial] court's plea colloquy, per Bangert , was defective, in the strictest of senses, neither can it be said the [trial] court ever managed to elicit a real understanding of Count 2 from Willis.

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Related

State v. Pettit
492 N.W.2d 633 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 1992)
State v. Brown
2006 WI 100 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 2006)
State v. Howell
2007 WI 75 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 2007)
State v. West
571 N.W.2d 196 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 1997)
Nelson v. State
195 N.W.2d 629 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1972)
State v. Allen
2004 WI 106 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 2004)
State v. Bangert
389 N.W.2d 12 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1986)
State v. Bentley
548 N.W.2d 50 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1996)
State v. Jenkins
2007 WI 96 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 2007)

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Bluebook (online)
2018 WI App 62, 921 N.W.2d 4, 384 Wis. 2d 272, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-willis-wisctapp-2018.