Steinle v. State

861 S.W.2d 141, 1993 Mo. App. LEXIS 1234, 1993 WL 295008
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedAugust 10, 1993
DocketWD 46933
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 861 S.W.2d 141 (Steinle v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Steinle v. State, 861 S.W.2d 141, 1993 Mo. App. LEXIS 1234, 1993 WL 295008 (Mo. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinion

ULRICH, Judge.

Jay D. Steinle appeals the denial of his Rule 24.035 postconviction motion which sought to vacate the judgment of conviction entered on his guilty plea to each of five counts of sodomy, section 566.060.3, RSMo 1986. Mr. Steinle was sentenced to a consecutive ten-year sentence of imprisonment on each of the five counts for a total of fifty years imprisonment. Mr. Steinle claims that the motion court erred in denying his Rule 24.035 motion because (1) his trial counsel failed to fully and properly advise him of the potential punishment to which his pleas of guilty subjected him; (2) that his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to file a motion to suppress his inculpatory statement to law enforcement officers; and (3) that his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to speak to the court at his sentencing hearing in support of his candidacy for probation. The judgment denying Mr. Steinle’s Rule 24.035 postconviction motion is affirmed.

Mr. Steinle pleaded guilty to five counts of sodomy, section 566.060.3, RSMo 1986. The plea agreement between the prosecuting attorney and Mr. Steinle provided that in exchange for his plea of guilty to each of the five sodomy counts, Mr. Steinle would not be prosecuted on similar counts involving a second minor child victim. Additionally, the State agreed not to speak at the sentencing hearing, and the two parties agreed that the court would impose sentence based upon the presentence investigation report. Each of the five counts of sodomy in violation of section 566.060, RSMo 1986, constituted class B felonies, and Mr. Steinle was sentenced pursuant to section 558.011.1(2), Supp. RSMo 1992.

Following sentencing and commitment to the Department of Corrections, Mr. Steinle timely filed his pro se Rule 24.035 posteonviction motion. Counsel was appointed, and an amended motion was timely filed. The motion court conducted an evidentiary hearing. Following the hearing, the motion court issued its findings of fact and conclusions of law and denied the motion. Mr. Steinle timely appealed the court’s order denying his motion.

Appellate review of Rule 24.035 postconviction motions is limited to determining whether the findings and conclusions of the motion court are clearly erroneous. Rule 24.035(j); Thurlo v. State, 841 S.W.2d 770, 771 (Mo.App.1992). The motion court’s findings and conclusions are clearly erroneous only if review of the entire record leaves the appellate court with a definite and firm impression that a mistake has been made. Tipton v. State, 838 S.W.2d 138, 139 (Mo.App.1992). After entering a guilty plea, the ineffective assistance of a defendant’s counsel is relevant only to the extent that it affected the voluntariness of defendant’s plea. Wha *143 ley v. State, 833 S.W.2d 441, 444 (Mo.App.1992). A guilty plea is involuntary when counsel is so ineffective as to have affected the voluntariness of movant’s guilty pléa. Id.

I.

As his first point on appeal, Mr. Steinle claims that the motion court erred in finding that he was aware of the potential punishment to which he subjected himself when he entered his pleas of guilty to the five counts of sodomy.

Rule 24.02, Supreme Court Rules, provides for tendering and accepting pleas in criminal misdemeanor and felony cases. Rule 24.02(b) requires the court to “address the defendant personally in open court and to inform him of, and determine that he understands” several factors, including the maximum possible penalty provided by law for the offense to which the defendant is pleading guilty. Rule 24.02(b)l. The rule requires the trial court to advise the defendant of the “direct consequences” of his plea, which definitely, immediately and largely automatically follow the entry of his guilty plea. Huffman v. State, 703 S.W.2d 566, 568 (Mo.App.1986).

Among the purposes of Rule 24.02 is the intention that the court be convinced that the defendant understands the specific charges and the maximum penalty confronting him and that the defendant recognizes that by pleading guilty, he waives a number of legal rights. However, the requirements and procedures articulated in Rule 24.02 do not constitute an unalterable script that a court must follow before accepting a defendant’s guilty plea. Because the defendant is waiving well established rights and subjecting himself to penalty, the record must reflect that the defendant understood the consequences of his plea and consciously waived the rights articulated by the rule. Therefore, the wisest course for the court accepting a defendant’s guilty plea may be to meticulously follow in detail the specific items enumerated by Rule 24.02, but the failure to methodically trace in succession each of the items pronounced by the rule does not necessarily constitute prejudicial error. For example, the Missouri Supreme Court in Matthews v. State, 501 S.W.2d 44 (Mo.1973), held that the failure of the trial court to advise the defendant of the range of punishment prior to accepting his guilty plea did not prejudice the plea where the sentence imposed was agreed upon in advance. Id. at 46. In Huffman the court found that the failure of the trial court to inform the defendant of his right against self-incrimination, as required by Rule 24.02(b)3., did not prejudice the defendant’s guilty plea where the defendant never contemplated proceeding to trial and was willing to serve a two-year sentence of probation. Huffman, 703 S.W.2d at 569-70.

Review of the transcripts of both the plea hearing and the postconviction motion evi-dentiary hearing disclose that Mr. Steinle understood the consequences of his guilty pleas to the five counts of the information. When he entered his pleas of guilty, Mr. Steinle stated that he understood that each of the five counts was a class B felony punishable by five to fifteen years incarceration. Mr. Steinle stated that no promises had been made to him that he would receive probation or that he would receive any specific amount of time in jail. Mr. Steinle acknowledged that the only plea agreement between the state and himself was that the state would not file charges which had been drafted alleging sexual misconduct with another minor child in exchange for Mr. Steinle’s pleas of guilty to each of the pending five counts of sodomy.

At Mr. Steinle’s Rule 24.035 postconviction motion hearing, he testified that his attorney explained to him that he could be punished by incarceration of between five to fifteen years on each count. He stated that he was sure that his attorney had discussed with him the possibility of consecutive sentencing, although he did not recall specifically such discussion. He stated that he and his attorney discussed many times the length of incarceration that he could expect to serve, and he understood from those discussions that his attorney believed he would be imprisoned two to three years before he would be eligible for parole. Mr. Steinle acknowledged that he “might have known that it was possible to receive a long sentence.”

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Bluebook (online)
861 S.W.2d 141, 1993 Mo. App. LEXIS 1234, 1993 WL 295008, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/steinle-v-state-moctapp-1993.