Eisaman v. State, 82-941

• Decision Date: 03 November 1983
• Docket Number: No. 82-941,82-941
• Parties: Ronald E. EISAMAN, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

Page 470

440 So.2d 470

Ronald E. EISAMAN, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 82-941.

District Court of Appeal of Florida Fifth District.

Nov. 3, 1983.

James B. Gibson, Public Defender, and David A. Henson, Asst. Public Defender, Daytona Beach, for appellant.

Jim Smith, Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, and Sean Daly, Asst. Atty. Gen., Daytona Beach, for appellee.

ORFINGER, Chief Judge.

Defendant appeals a judgment of conviction based on a negotiated plea of guilty to a charge of false imprisonment, reduced from the original charge of kidnapping. We dismiss the appeal without prejudice to the right of defendant to seek appropriate collateral relief in the trial court.

Defendant was charged with one count of armed robbery, one count of kidnapping and one count of aggravated assault. Following plea negotiations, he entered a plea of guilty to the armed robbery and aggravated assault counts, and also pleaded guilty to the reduced charge of false imprisonment. The factual basis developed at the plea hearing indicated that defendant and an accomplice gained entry at gunpoint to a restaurant shortly after closing hours, that they took money from the safe, bound the two employees' hands and eyes with tape, and placed them in the restaurant cooler, came back to check on the employees a few minutes later, and then made good their escape. The employees managed to unbind themselves, opened the cooler door by an inside latch, and called the police.

Appellant recognized the accuracy of this recitation except for the statement that he and his accomplice returned to check on the employees, which he denied, and then added that when the employees were bound, one of them requested that they be placed in the cooler. The trial court advised defendant that this allegation could be a defense to the false imprisonment charge because it would tend to negate the involuntary nature of the confinement, a necessary element of the charge of false imprisonment. Both defendant and his counsel stated that they understood that a jury could find that the confinement was not against the will of the victims, but because they believed the evidence would also support a finding that the confinement was not voluntary (and most likely because under those circumstances the defendant could be convicted on the charge of kidnapping), defendant and his counsel advised the court that defendant specifically waived that defense. On that basis, the court accepted the plea.

Under both Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.140(b) and section 924.06(3), Florida Statutes (1981), a defendant who pleads guilty has no right to a direct appeal, except for such matters as would invalidate the plea itself. Robinson v. State, 373 So.2d 898 (Fla.1979). Whatever right exists to appeal from a guilty plea, such appeal should never be a substitute for a motion to withdraw the plea, and in presenting such motion after sentence is imposed, the burden is on the defendant to show that a manifest injustice has occurred. Robinson at 902-903.

Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.170(j) requires that there be a factual basis for the plea. See also, Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.172(a). Where it is clear from the factual basis presented at the plea hearing that the defendant could not have been convicted of the crime to which he has pleaded guilty, fundamental error has occurred, which can be corrected on appeal. See Dydek v. State, 400 So.2d 1255 (Fla. 2d 1981); Waugh v. State, 388 So.2d 253 (Fla. 2d DCA 1980). Where, however, the trial court fails completely to develop a factual basis for the...