Ellis v. State, A99A1820.
| Decision Date | 21 October 1999 |
| Docket Number | No. A99A1820.,A99A1820. |
| Citation | 523 S.E.2d 914,240 Ga. App. 498 |
| Parties | ELLIS v. The STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Lenzer & Lenzer, Robert W. Lenzer, Thomas P. Lenzer, Norcross, for appellant.
Paul L. Howard, Jr., District Attorney, Bettieanne C. Hart, Assistant District Attorney, for appellee.
Frederick Ellis entered a guilty plea to one count of armed robbery, OCGA § 16-8-41, and was sentenced to serve ten years in prison. Following the denial of his motion to withdraw his guilty plea, Ellis appeals, contending that he received ineffective assistance from his trial counsel and that, as a result, his plea was not knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily entered. We conclude that Ellis received effective representation and affirm.
1. Ellis contends that his trial counsel Linda Lyons provided ineffective assistance in two ways: (1) that she represented him together with his co-defendant Robert Callahan at their guilty plea hearing despite a conflict of interest, and (2) that she failed to advise him accurately of the parole consequences of pleading guilty to armed robbery.
These undisputed facts are relevant to Ellis's first claim of ineffective assistance. Three men, one of whom wore a ski mask and held a sawed-off shotgun, robbed three restaurant patrons in a parking lot. One of the victims immediately called the police and described the car in which the three robbers left. About 30 minutes later, a car matching that description avoided a roadblock. During the ensuing chase, the police saw three men get out of the car, discard a backpack containing a ski mask and a shotgun, and run away. The police found Ellis, Callahan and Thomas Rollins hiding in the area and arrested them for the robbery. One of the victims identified Rollins and the shotgun at a showup that night; none identified Ellis or Callahan. Ellis and Callahan both maintained that they had been in the car during the robbery and that two other men had participated in the robbery with Rollins, but the other two alleged participants in the robbery were never identified.
Callahan hired Lyons to represent him and asked if she could also represent Ellis. Lyons represented both men at the preliminary hearing and during the pretrial phase. About one month before the trial date, Ellis told Lyons for the first time that he had been shown the gun and invited to take part in the robbery but that he had declined. Lyons believed that this statement compromised Ellis's ability to support Callahan's alibi and advised her clients that she could not represent either of them if they decided to go to trial. Lyons got two attorneys to agree to take over the representation if Ellis and Callahan decided to go to trial. She counseled her clients separately about the option of entering a guilty plea as authorized by North Carolina v. Alford, 400 U.S. 25, 91 S.Ct. 160, 27 L.Ed.2d 162 (1970). Lyons did not disclose to her clients what the other had decided about pleading or going to trial until both had decided to plead guilty.
(a) In ruling on Ellis's claim that a conflict of interest made his counsel ineffective, the trial court was required to apply the standard for proving ineffectiveness in the context of a guilty plea combined with the standard for proving ineffectiveness due to conflict of interest. Tarwater v. State, 259 Ga. 516, 517-518, 383 S.E.2d 883 (1989). To judge the effectiveness of counsel representing multiple defendants in negotiating and taking a guilty plea, the court must determine (1) whether the performance of counsel fell below an objective standard of reasonableness, and (2) whether there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's errors, the defendant would not have pleaded guilty and would have insisted on going to trial. Id. To judge the effectiveness of counsel representing multiple defendants with conflicting interests where a defendant raised no objection at trial, the court must determine whether an actual conflict of interest adversely affected the lawyer's performance. Id. at 518, 383 S.E.2d 883. A trial court's finding that a defendant has not been denied effective assistance of counsel will be affirmed unless clearly erroneous, and the defendant must overcome a strong presumption that trial counsel's conduct falls within the wide range of reasonable professional conduct. Kelly v. State, 267 Ga. 252, 253(2), 477 S.E.2d 110 (1996).
In this case, the undisputed evidence is that Ellis and Callahan each independently arrived at the decision to plead guilty to armed robbery. Lyons did not negotiate guilty pleas for Ellis and Callahan that were conditioned on both pleading guilty. Cf. Tarwater v. State, 259 Ga. at 519, 383 S.E.2d 883 (). Even though an actual conflict might have existed if Lyons had represented both co-defendants at trial, the trial court's conclusion that no conflict of interest existed when Ellis and Callahan each independently decided to plead guilty, and therefore that Lyons's performance was not ineffective on this basis, was not clearly erroneous.
(b) Secondly, Ellis claimed that his counsel was ineffective in that she failed to advise him...
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Ellis v. State
...of pleading guilty. The trial court denied the motions to withdraw and, on appeal, the Court of Appeals affirmed. Ellis v. State, 240 Ga.App. 498, 523 S.E.2d 914 (1999). We granted certiorari in order to address the holding of the Court of 1. To prevail on his ineffective assistance of coun......
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