Ringold v. State
Decision Date | 10 August 2020 |
Docket Number | S20A0580 |
Citation | 309 Ga. 443,847 S.E.2d 181 |
Parties | RINGOLD v. The STATE. |
Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Edwin J. Wilson, for appellant.
Daniel J. Porter, District Attorney, Lee F. Tittsworth, Daniel Sanmiguel, Assistant District Attorneys; Christopher M. Carr, Attorney General, Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Deputy Attorney General, Paula K. Smith, Senior Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.
Following the grant of an out-of-time appeal, Richard Terrance Ringold appeals from the trial court's November 2013 order denying his motion to withdraw his guilty plea on ineffective assistance of counsel grounds in what is now the second time this case has been before this Court. The State contends that this Court cannot reach the merits of Ringold's ineffective assistance claim because he was still represented by counsel when he filed his pro se motion to withdraw. For the reasons set forth below, we agree and conclude that Ringold's pro se filing was a legal nullity and that the trial court therefore should have dismissed the void motion rather than reach its merits.
The procedural history of this case was summarized in Ringold v. State , 304 Ga. 875, 876-77, 823 S.E.2d 342 (2019), as follows:
Ringold appealed the denial of the motion for out-of-time appeal, and in January 2019, this Court issued an opinion vacating the trial court's order denying Ringold's motion and remanding the case with instruction for the trial court to determine whether Ringold's motion-to-withdraw counsel was ineffective in failing to file a timely notice of appeal consistent with the test set out in Roe v. Flores-Ortega , 528 U.S. 470, 120 S.Ct. 1029, 145 L.Ed.2d 985 (2000). See Ringold , 304 Ga. at 882, 823 S.E.2d 342.
On remand, the trial court appointed new counsel, who filed a motion for new trial that was treated as a motion for out-of-time appeal. At a hearing on February 28, 2019, the State conceded that the trial court had not advised Ringold of his right to appeal and proffered that Ringold's post-conviction counsel could not recall if he properly advised Ringold on that matter. Therefore, the State consented to Ringold's out-of-time appeal, and on May 23, 2019, the trial court granted the out-of-time appeal as well as Ringold's request for the appointment of appellate counsel. With the assistance of counsel, Ringold now appeals and in his sole enumeration of error asserts that the trial court erred in denying his motion to withdraw his guilty plea because his plea counsel rendered constitutionally ineffective assistance during the guilty plea.
We begin by noting that, although Ringold's pro se motion to withdraw his guilty plea was timely filed on November 30, 2012,1 the record shows that he was still represented by counsel at the time of his filing. His attorneys’ motion to withdraw as counsel of record, which was not granted by the trial court until December 12, 2012, does not change this fact. See Tolbert v. Toole , 296 Ga. 357, 362 (3), 767 S.E.2d 24 (2014) ( . See also White v. State , 302 Ga. 315, 319 (2), 806 S.E.2d 489 (2017) (). Cf. Walker v. State , 308 Ga. 749, –––– (1), 843 S.E.2d 561 (2020) (...
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