Case ID: mich-app_36/html/0702-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Per Curiam.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

PEOPLE v. MILTON
    1. Criminal Law — Plea of Guilty — Factual Basis.
    The requirement that there be a substantial factual basis for the proper acceptance of a plea of guilty is satisfied when it appears on the record that, upon trial, the defendant might well have been convicted (MCLA § 768.35; GCR 1963, 785.3 [2]).
    2. Criminal Law — Plea of Guilty — Truth—Weight of Evidence.
    The trial court’s task in evaluating a tendered plea of guilty is not to weigh the evidence, but to determine that the plea is truthful, and that it is freely, understandingly, and voluntarily made (MCLA § 768.35; GCR 1963, 785.3[2]).
    References for Points in Headnotes
    [1, 2] 21 Am Jur 2d, Criminal Law § 484 et seq.
    
    Court’s duty to advise or admonish accused as to consequences of plea of guilty, or to determine that he is advised thereof. 97 ALR2d 549.
    Appeal from Oakland, James S. Thorburn, J.
    Submitted Division 2 October 11, 1971, at Lansing.
    (Docket No. 11746.)
    Decided October 27, 1971.
    Leave to appeal denied, 386 Mich 781.
    L. B. Milton was convicted, on his plea of guilty, of attempted felonious assault. Defendant appeals.
    Affirmed.
    
      Frank J. Kelley, Attorney General, Robert A. Derengoski, Solicitor General, Thomas G. Plunkett, Prosecuting Attorney, and William G. Wolfram, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, for the people.
    
      William R. Buesser, for defendant on appeal.
    
      Before: McGregor, P. J., and Holbrook and Van Valkenburg, JJ.
    
      
       Former circuit judge, sitting on the Court of Appeals by assignment pursuant to Const 1963, art 6, § 23 as amended in 1968.
    
   Per Curiam.

Defendant, charged with assault with intent to commit murder (MCLA § 750.83 [Stat Ann 1962 Rev § 28.278]), pleaded guilty while represented by counsel to the reduced charge of attempted felonious assault. MCLA § 750.82 (Stat Ann 1962 Rev § 28.277) and MCLA § 750.92 (Stat Ann 1962 Rev § 28.287). Defendant was sentenced to 1-1/2 to 2 years in prison, and appeals as of right, contending that the trial court did not elicit from him a factually sufficient basis for accepting his plea of guilty.

The requirement that there be a substantial factual basis for the proper plea of guilty is satisfied when it appears on the record that, upon trial, the defendant might well have been convicted. People v. Lown (1971), 30 Mich App 121, 122.

Additionally in reviewing the propriety of the acceptance of this guilty plea by the trial court, we have looked at the testimony taken at the preliminary examination and determine that it also shows a factual basis for the acceptance of the guilty plea. People v. Zaleski (1965), 375 Mich 71; People v. Lown, supra.

While it is true that .a question of fact as to defendant’s actual secret intent was raised which, upon a jury trial, would have been submitted to the jury, the record taken at the plea hearing reveals sufficient evidence of defendant’s apparent intention to support a conviction. The trial court’s task in evaluating a tendered guilty plea is not to weigh the evidence, but to determine that the plea is truthful, and that it is freely, understandingly, and voluntarily made.

Affirmed.