Opinion ID: 2062580
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Negotiation of a Plea Agreement

Text: McChristion testified at the post-conviction hearing that he was trying to arrange with Detective Green a plea agreement calling for a 15-year sentence. McChristion testified that he asked his trial counsel to talk to Green and to the deputy prosecutor assigned to the case, Perry Harrold. According to McChristion, trial counsel refused to speak to either individual because it would have been unethical. McChristion said his plea agreement was to be entered on the day of trial, but that counsel ignored the agreement and proceeded with trial. McChristion further testified that Harrold and he reached a subsequent agreement whereby McChristion would receive a reduction in sentence in exchange for testifying against Ingram at the retrial. Although McChristion ultimately did testify for the State, his life sentence was not altered. Detective Green testified at the post-conviction hearing that before trial McChristion gave him a clean-up statement with respect to numerous unsolved burglaries and robberies in which McChristion or others participated. Green testified that he informed Harrold of McChristion's cooperation and that he believed McChristion and Harrold were attempting to work out a plea agreement under which McChristion would receive ten years. Green was not certain that any agreement was ever reached. Green additionally noted that McChristion's attorney was not present at any of Green's conversations with McChristion and that McChristion repeatedly complained about his attorney's lack of cooperation. McChristion has not produced the testimony of his trial counsel or Harrold; consequently, the trial court was justified in inferring that the attorney would not have corroborated the acts and omissions which led to the alleged inadequate representation. Davis v. State (1983), Ind., 446 N.E.2d 1317, 1322. Green did not have the authority to produce a binding plea agreement, and he had no personal knowledge of any plea agreement reached between the prosecutor and McChristion. The only affirmative evidence of the existence of a plea agreement was McChristion's self-serving assertion that he would have received a ten-year sentence but for the uncooperative attitude of his lawyer. The defendant fell short of proving his claim by a preponderance of the evidence.