Court Opinion

ID: 9538481
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 07:36:55.299794+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:57:55.253162
License: Public Domain

Williams, J.
(dissenting) — The trial court did not accept Swindell's testimony as true. Rather, the court said:
If the prosecuting attorney had in fact related what the defendant has related, it would be well within the prosecution's discretion to amend the complaint, considering this is 1969, upward from second degree to first degree assault, noting on Page 4 of Exhibit 4 that the defendant picked up the knife and ended up stabbing one of the *632people he states was following him in the back. That is Lines 2 and 3 of that transcript, Page 4.
The exhibit 4 referred to is a transcript of the court proceedings in which Swindell changed his plea from not guilty to guilty of second-degree assault.
It appears in the transcript that after changing his plea, Swindell heard the prosecutor recite the facts of the crime:
The victim came in about — entered this restaurant about an hour' before the assault took place. The defendant states that he was leaving. There had been some words between the eventual victim and another at this restaurant or cocktail lounge, and that he was leaving the place when the victim and another came after him, in his words, and that he picked up a knife with a blade 8 to 10 inches long as they passed from the cocktail lounge area on out in back of the restaurant part or cafe, and the knife was laying on a table. They apparently have to go through the kitchen to get out. He picked this knife up and ended up stabbing one of the people he states was following him, in the back.
The statement from the victim and the statements from all parties who were at or near the scene of this assault, indicate that there was no difficulty of any serious nature prior to the stabbing. That the first thing anybody knew, that the victim had been stabbed, he walked out of the kitchen area and collapsed on the floor and was later taken to Sacred Heart Hospital with a knife wound in the back. Then he spent two days in the hospital and has since been discharged.
The prosecutor discusses the aftermath of the stabbing and then states:
Mr. -Swindell has made a statement to me prior to. the arraignment today regarding this crime.
The prosecutor then reviewed Swindell's criminal record. Following this, Swindell's attorney addressed the court:
The Court: Mr. Deglow?
Mr. Deglow: May it please the court, Mr. Swindell has employed me as his counsel. I have talked to him and we prepared this case for a proper defense, investigating it to the best of my self-limited capacity. I got his instructions today, and was ready to go to trial.
*633Defense counsel then describes the events as follows:
That one of them comes after him, saying something. He was on his way out of the cocktail lounge, and had no words with anybody; hadn't had any argument; nobody had jumped him or knocked any of his drinks over, and he hadn't knocked any drinks of anybody over. He didn't cause any disturbance. He had paid for his drinks and was on the way out, when words were exchanged between them, indicating to him that they were going to beat the living devil out of him. He didn't know these people at all, had never seen them before. They were close to him and he was very close to the kitchen. His fear was that they were going to beat him, and he grabbed the knife and somehow intentionally used it on one of the individuals. When the bartender asked him for the knife, he' didn't fight with anybody. He just put it down and waited a few minutes and left.
Counsel then discusses Swindell's personal situation. Following this, the court speaks:
The Court: The defendant will please rise. Mr. Swin-dell, do you have any legal reason to assign why sentence should not now be pronounced against you?
Defendant: No.
The Court: Is there anything else you wish to state to the court?
Defendant: No, sir.
Mr. Deglow: Now is the time to say anything if you want to say anything.
Defendant: No.
The Court: On your plea of guilty to the crime of Second Degree Assault, it is the judgment of the court you are so guilty,
Later in the sentencing process the following occurred:
Mr. Deglow: Your honor, he feels you are fixing a mandatory period of time for him to serve. I informed him before your sentence here is the maximum one, and after six months the Board of Prison Terms and Paroles will make a review of this case and will indicate the time he will serve. I request, if that isn't clear — .
The judge is not sentencing you to 10 years, so to speak. He has to give you what is called the maximum sentence. He is not entitled to determine the length of *634time. By state statute, the Board of Prison Terms and Paroles will make the determination of what your sentence is. He is not sentencing you to any mandatory time, but he has to give you the full sentence.
Now, if that isn't clear, perhaps you could clarify it for him, your Honor.
The Court: I think you have perhaps stated better than I did before what I said before. The sentence is for not morte than ten years, but the actual time is not set by the court, but is set by the state agency.
The hearing was then concluded.
With this record of the circumstances, occurring prior to Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 23 L. Ed. 2d 274, 89 S. Ct. 1709 (1969), which established standards for the acceptance of guilty pleas, the court was justified in finding that Swindell was not coerced into changing his plea. The court was not required to believe Swindell's version of what happened.
The judgment should be affirmed.
Reconsideration denied March 22, 1979.
Appealed to Supreme Court April 6, 1979.