JAMES EVERETT WALDROP, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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A defendant should be permitted to withdraw a plea entered under a mistake about sentencing possibilities.
Appellant sought to withdraw his plea after his attorney admitted to misinforming him about potential sentencing outcomes, including probation and no …
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PER CURIAM.
In this direct criminal appeal, appellant seeks review of an order denying his motion to withdraw his plea. Because it is apparent from the record that appellant entered his plea based upon erroneous information given to him by his attorney, we reverse.
At the hearing on the motion to withdraw the plea, appellant’s attorney testified that, prior to the plea, he' misinformed appellant that a withhold of adjudication of guilt, probation, and nó sex-offender registration were possibilities at sentencing. The plea colloquy corroborated this insofar as the attorney confirmed with appellant that the trial court could withhold adjudication and order probation if it chose to do -so. The attorney further testified that the plea strategy was premised on having the opportunity to convince the trial court to withhold adjudication and place appellant on probation without requiring sex-offender registration. However, the attorney conceded that had he known that appellant’s scoresheet called for a minimum term of incarceration, he would have pursued a different strategy because it would have been fruitless to argue for a withhold of adjudication. According to the attorney, appellant entered his plea based on a false assumption. “A defendant who enters into a plea under a mistake or misapprehension about sentencing possibilities should be permitted to withdraw his plea.” Ganey v. State, 873 So. 2d 445, 447 (Fla. 2d DCA 2004). Accord Johnson v. State, 834 So. 2d 384 (Fla. 2d DCA 2003).
The record demonstrates that “a manifest injustice” would occur were appellant not permitted to withdraw his plea. See Fla. R.Crim. P. 3.170®. Accordingly, the trial court abused its discretion when it denied appellant’s motion to withdraw his plea. • The order denying that motion is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
REVERSED and REMANDED, with directions.
WOLF, C.J., BARFIELD and WEBSTER, JJ., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
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Murray v. State, 36 So. 3d 792 (Fla. 1st DCA 2010)…tence and his pleas were entered based on erroneous information provided by his counsel and the prosecutor. Under these circumstances, the appellant’s pleas were not voluntary and he should have been permitted to withdraw them. See Waldrop v. State, 882 So. 2d 1047 (Fla. 1st DCA 2004). Accordingly, we reverse and remand on the second issue for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. AFFIRMED in part, REVERSED in part, and REMANDED. WEBSTER and LEWIS, JJ., concur.…
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Quintana v. State, 917 So. 2d 991 (Fla. 3d DCA 2005)…ed to withdraw a plea of guilty where the plea was based upon a misunderstanding or misapprehension of facts considered by the defendant in making the plea.”); Wade v. State, 488 So. 2d 127, 129 (Fla. 3d DCA 1986)(accord); see also Waldrop v. State, 882 So. 2d 1047 (Fla. 1st DCA 2004)(trial court abused its discretion in denying defendant’s motion to withdraw where defendant was misinformed that a withholding of adjudication of guilt, probation, and no sex-offender registration were possibilities at sentencing…
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Aguirre-Garcia v. State, 889 So. 2d 206 (Fla. 2d DCA 2004)…r. Aguirre-Garcia also testified that he made his plea based on his attorney’s representations. The trial court denied the motion to withdraw from the plea. When the trial court denied the motion, the First District had not issued Waldrop v. State, 882 So. 2d 1047 (Fla. 1st DCA 2004). In Waldrop, the court considered a similar case in which the lawyer had mi-sadvised his client that probation was a possibility when the scoresheet called for a minimum term of incarceration. The First District concluded that th…
Authorities Cited
- Johnson v. State, 834 So. 2d 384 (Fla. 2d DCA 2003)
- Ganey v. State, 873 So. 2d 445 (Fla. 2d DCA 2004)