Williams v. State, KCD

• Decision Date: 01 April 1974
• Docket Number: No. KCD,KCD
• Citation: 508 S.W.2d 211
• Parties: Ronnell B. WILLIAMS, Movant-Appellant, v. STATE of Missouri, Respondent. 26694.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

Page 211

508 S.W.2d 211

Ronnell B. WILLIAMS, Movant-Appellant, v. STATE of Missouri, Respondent.

No. KCD 26694.

Missouri Court of Appeals, Kansas City District.

April 1, 1974.

James M. Reed II, Kansas City, for movant-appellant.

John C. Danforth, Atty. Gen., Neil MacFarlane, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, for respondent.

Before PRITCHARD, P.J., and SWOFFORD and SOMERVILLE, JJ.

SOMERVILLE, Judge.

This is an appeal from an order of the Circuit Court, entered after an evidentiary hearing, overruling movant-appellant's Rule 27.26, V.A.M.R., motion to vacate judgments and sentences imposed upon contemporaneous pleas of guilty to the offenses of raping a nun and robbery in the first degree, with a dangerous and deadly weapon, of a priest. The contemporaneous pleas of guilty were entered on March 17, 1970. The trial court fixed sentence on the rape charge at ninety-nine years and sentence on the robbery charge at forty-five years, both sentences to run concurrently.

Points asserted by movant in his Rule 27.26 motion were an amalgam--alleged procedural and constitutional infirmities antedating the pleas of guilty and alleged ineffective assistance of counsel prior to and at the time the guilty pleas were entered.

If the guilty pleas were knowingly and voluntarily made, any and all alleged procedural and constitutional infirmities antedating them were waived by entering the pleas of guilty. Geren v. State, 473 S.W.2d 704, 707 (Mo.1971); Simpson v. State, 487 S.W.2d 512, 513 (Mo.1972) and Pauley v. State, 487 S.W.2d 565, 566 (Mo.1972). Therefore, movant's charge of ineffective assistance of counsel impels initial consideration since it may well be dispositive of movant's appeal.

The myriad peculiarities inherent in sundry adversary proceedings between the state and accuseds in criminal cases, especially when viewed with an awareness that the desires and capacities of various accuseds are different and that all are distinct and different personalities in their own right, preclude laying down an absolute objective rule for determining the effectiveness of counsel in a given case. The net result is that the determination must be made in the concrete factual context of each individual case. Such determination is considerably narrowed where the accused has entered a guilty plea, because the issue of ineffective assistance of counsel then becomes concomitant with the issue of whether the guilty plea was knowingly and voluntarily entered. Colson v. Smith, 438 F.2d 1075, 1078 (5th Cir. 1971); and Hulett v. State, 473 S.W.2d 410, 411 (Mo.1971). Once a guilty plea has been entered, the concrete factual context of the particular case must be viewed from the standpoint of determining whether the plea was knowingly and voluntarily made, and all other aspects of the adequacy of counsel's representation become immaterial. Barylski v. State, 473 S.W.2d 399, 402 (Mo.1971); Hulett v. State, supra, 473 S.W.2d at 411; and Lee v. State, 460 S.W.2d 564, 567 (Mo.1970). If a guilty plea has been knowingly and voluntarily made, counsel can not be charged with affording ineffective assistance and the guilty plea must stand. The burden rested upon movant throughout to establish by a preponderance of the evidence that his guilty pleas were not knowingly and voluntarily made because of ineffective assistance of counsel. Rule 27.26(f); Babcock v. State, 485 S.W.2d 85, 89 (Mo.1972); Johnson v. State, 479 S.W.2d 416, 418, 419 (Mo.1972); and State v. Brown, 449 S.W.2d 664, 666 (Mo.1970).

Appellate review of the trial court's judgment is limited to determining whether the findings, conclusions and judgment of the trial court were clearly erroneous. Rule 27.26(j); Crosswhite v. State, 426 S.W.2d 67, 70 (Mo.1968); Walster v. State, 438 S.W.2d 1, 2 (Mo.1969); Shoemake v. State, 462 S.W.2d 772, 775 (Mo. banc 1971); and Richardson v. State, 470 S.W.2d 479, 481 (Mo.1971).

Attention must now focus on the predicates alleged by movant as constituting ineffective assistance of counsel, viewed in the concrete factual context of this particular case and measured by the above principles. Movant would have this court believe that the efforts of his court appointed counsel constituted nothing more than a facade because counsel (a) failed to investigate the facts to determine if movant had a legitimate justiciable defense to either or both of the charges, (b) failed to request an examination to determine movant's mental fitness to proceed as provided in Section 552.020, RSMo 1969, as amended Laws 1971, V.A.M.S., and (c) 'hinted at the possibility' of reduced sentences in exchange for pleas of guilty.

When movant was originally arraigned on the dual charges, he was represented by a different court appointed counsel. At arraignment, movant pleaded not guilty to both charges. Movant's original court appointed counsel was then permitted to withdraw. During the interim between withdrawal of movant's first court appointed counsel and the appointment of counsel who represented movant at the time he withdrew his pleas of not guilty and entered pleas of guilty to both charges, movant 'wrote letters' to the prosecuting attorney confessing the crimes with which he stood charged and advising the prosecuting attorney that he wanted to change his pleas from not guilty to guilty. It is crystal clear that movant himself conceived and initiated the notion of withdrawing his original pleas of not guilty and entering pleas of guilty. The maximum punishment for both offenses with which movant stood charged was death, and, timewise, Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238, 92 S.Ct. 2726, 33 L.Ed.2d 346 (June 29, 1972), outlawing the death penalty, was several years away.

The transcript of the proceedings concerning movant's contemporaneous withdrawal of his earlier pleas of not guilty and entry of pleas of guilty to both charged offenses discloses the following according to movant's own sworn testimony. Movant was twenty years of age and had 'completed the 10th grade and started the 11th'; he acknowledged that prior to the proceeding in question he had been given tests which disclosed he had a 'pretty fair I.Q.'; he desired to withdraw his earlier pleas of not guilty and enter pleas of guilty; he was entering pleas of guilty because he was, in fact, guilty of both offenses; he was entering pleas of guilty of his own free will; no 'force, threats, or coercion' induced him to withdraw his plea of not guilty and enter pleas of guilty; no 'promises of favors, or rewards, or immunity of any kind' had been made by anyone; he understood that the range of punishment on the rape charge was a minimum of two years imprisonment 'to death', and on the robbery charge a minimum of five years imprisonment 'to death'; he understood that the court was not bound by any recommendations which his counsel or anyone else might make in connection with the fixing of his sentence in each case, but that the matter rested solely in the discretion of the court; he understood that he was entitled to a jury trial, to confront the state's witnesses, to call witnesses on his own behalf, to testify on his own behalf or to remain silent, and that at the hands of a jury he might be acquitted or receive less or more severe punishments than those fixed by the court; no threats, coercion, or force of any kind prompted the voluntary letters of confession he mailed to the prosecuting attorney; he lucidly detailed to the court facts disclosing his unmitigated guilt of each charged offense; he had adequate opportunity to consult with counsel prior to pleading guilty, as well as adequate opportunity to consult with his mother, mother-in-law and wife; he was not suffering from any mental disease or defect at the time that he was aware of and he had never been treated for any mental condition or hospitalized for any mental or physical condition; he was fully aware of the nature of...