Case Title: Ex parte Torey Jones. PETITION FOR WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS (In re: Torey Jones v. State of Alabama) (Houston Circuit Court: CC-08-1155.60; Criminal Appeals : CR-12-1850). Writ Denied. No Opinion.

Citation: 

Docket Number: 1130406

State: alabama

Court: Alabama Supreme Court

Date: 2014-02-28T00:00:00Z

Document:
REL: 02/28/2014
Notice: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the advance
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SUPREME COURT OF ALABAMA
OCTOBER TERM, 2013-2014
____________________
1130406
____________________
Ex parte Torey Jones
PETITION FOR WRIT OF CERTIORARI
TO THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS
(In re: Torey Jones
v.
State of Alabama)
(Houston Circuit Court, CC-08-1155.60;
Court of Criminal Appeals, CR-12-1850)
MURDOCK, Justice.
1130406
WRIT DENIED.  NO OPINION.
Bolin, Main, and Bryan, JJ., concur.
Moore, C.J., concurs specially.
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1130406
MOORE, Chief Justice (concurring specially).
In 2009, Torey Jones pleaded guilty to attempted murder
and received a 20-year sentence. He filed a Rule 32, Ala. R.
Crim. P., petition in 2013, claiming that he actually had
agreed to a split sentence (five years in prison followed by
five years on probation). See § 15-18-8, Ala. Code 1975. Jones
claimed that had he known he would be sentenced to 20 years
rather than the split sentence, he would not have pleaded
guilty. The trial court summarily dismissed his petition, and
the Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the dismissal.
Jones did not appeal his 2009 sentence. Thus, we have no
transcript from the trial proceedings to verify his claims.
The record on appeal in this Rule 32 proceeding contains what
appear to be four pages from the original trial proceedings.
In one of those pages the trial judge states: "I will give him
a five-year split, I believe, on a 20, followed by five years'
probation." No transcript of the actual sentencing hearing
(held at a later date) appears in the record on appeal.
Therefore, the ultimate significance of the trial judge's
statement is impossible to discern.
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1130406
In his Rule 32 petition, Jones stated as a ground for
relief: "Guilty plea was involuntarily given, due 
to 
erroneous
legal advice." On appeal, however, he argues that he
voluntarily pleaded guilty, understanding that he would
receive a split sentence but that he wrongly was sentenced to
20 years in prison. Whether his attorney or the trial judge
misled him, if at all, is impossible to tell in the absence of
the transcript of the sentencing hearing, which he does not
provide. Although a district attorney is obligated to offer a
freely bargained plea agreement to the court for its
consideration, the trial court itself is not bound by the
agreement. See Ex parte Yarber, 437 So. 2d 1330, 1336 (Ala.
1983); Rule 14.3(b), Ala. R. Crim. P. Furthermore, although 
a defendant "would not be precluded from raising, in a timely
filed post-conviction proceeding, the question of the
voluntariness of the guilty plea," Cantu v. State, 660 So. 2d
1026, 1029 (Ala. 1995), Jones's petition, filed four years
after the expiration of the time for filing an appeal of his
sentence, is indeed untimely. Rule 32.2(c), Ala. R. Crim. P.
Insofar as Jones claims that his sentence is illegal, I
note 
that 
"a 
challenge 
to 
an 
illegal 
sentence 
is
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1130406
jurisdictional and can be raised at any time." Ginn v. State,
894 So. 2d 793, 796 (Ala. Crim. App. 2004). However, Jones's
20-year sentence for attempted murder, a Class A felony, §
13A-4-2(d)(1), Ala. Code 1975, falls within the statutory
range of punishment for that offense. See § 13A-5-6, Ala. Code
1975. 
For the reasons stated, I concur in denying Jones's
petition for a writ of certiorari.
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