Kresler v. State, 8 Div. 132
Decision Date | 09 October 1984 |
Docket Number | 8 Div. 132 |
Citation | 462 So.2d 785 |
Parties | Sheldon Lewis KRESLER v. STATE. |
Court | Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals |
Trey Riley, Huntsville, for appellant.
Charles A. Graddick, Atty. Gen., and Jane LeCroy Brannan, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.
Sheldon Lewis Kresler pled guilty to two indictments for first degree robbery and was sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment on each conviction. The trial judge ordered the two sentences to be served concurrently with each other but consecutive to the unexpired portion of an eighteen-year sentence previously given Kresler in a Montgomery Circuit Court proceeding. On appeal, Kresler claims that the State failed to abide by its negotiated plea agreement with him, and his case should be remanded for resentencing under the terms of the plea bargain.
The record reveals that, prior to the entry of Kresler's guilty pleas, he, his attorney, the assistant District Attorney and the trial court discussed a plea bargain which the State characterized, in open court, as follows:
After the prosecution stated the agreement, the following occurred:
The sentencing hearing was set for January 27, 1984, at which time the State refused to recommend that Kresler's term of imprisonment for the robbery convictions run concurrently with his previous sentence. The assistant District Attorney informed the court that Kresler had not lived up to his part of the bargain because he had not cooperated fully with law enforcement officials and had not given information concerning other criminal offenses.
Kresler took the stand and testified to the facts he had given Investigator Howard Turner of the Huntsville Police Department, which included information regarding drugs taken during the robberies of which he stood convicted, the buyers of the drugs, the name and extent of his codefendant's involvement in the robbery, and facts regarding other drug dealings in Madison County. The defendant also stated his willingness to discuss these drug transactions with the Huntsville Organized Crime Bureau, and he described the personal risk he had undertaken by telling the police what he knew.
Investigator Howard Turner testified that he visited Kresler in jail on two occasions. The first time the defendant refused to give Turner any information unless defense counsel was present, and the second time the defendant, with counsel present, did give Turner information. Turner testified that the defendant had, in fact, related to him all the information which Kresler described on the stand. Turner characterized the information given him by the defendant as "background information or intelligence type...
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Ex parte Fletcher
...the trial court is in the best position to ascertain the facts and to determine the intent of the parties. Kresler v. State, 462 So.2d 785, 789 (Ala.Crim.App.1984); see also Fuller v. State, 481 So.2d 1178, 1181 (Ala.Crim. App.1985). A trial court's determination regarding the existence and......
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Danley v. State
...(Emphasis added). This view has been followed or cited with approval in numerous state and federal jurisdictions. Kresler v. State, 462 So.2d 785, 788 (Ala.Cr.App.1984); State v. Warren, 124 Ariz. 396, 401, 604 P.2d 660, 665 (App.1979); People v. Cole, 195 Colo. 483, 584 P.2d 71, 75 (1978);......
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Sides v. State
...before us 'the governments's obligation to make a recommendation arises only if defendant performs his obligation.' " Kresler v. State, 462 So.2d 785, 788 (Ala.Cr.App.1984). See also Hagedorn v. State, 570 So.2d 780 (Ala.Cr.App.1990). Thus a form of contract law has been applied to plea bar......
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State v. Cortner
...we take note of the following relevant propositions of law: "`As this court, per presiding Judge Bowen, noted in Kresler v. State, 462 So.2d 785, 789 (Ala.Crim.App.1984): "`"The [trial] court is in the best position to ascertain the facts, assess the intent of the parties under the plea agr......