Court Opinion

ID: 9762153
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 02:14:11.992886+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:31.243577
License: Public Domain

SEILER, Judge
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. In my opinion the majority is reading too much significance into the statement of the trial court that “for this reason alone” the plea of guilty was permitted to be withdrawn. The majority takes this as meaning, and as being the only possible meaning, that the trial court granted relief because it believed that inasmuch as rule 25.04 had not been followed it literally had to set aside the plea, regardless of the other facts.
In so doing the majority opinion ignores the effect of the acknowledgment by the trial court that it failed to advise the defendant fully of his constitutional rights, which may have been the only way the de*52fendant could have appreciated what his rights were, no matter what counsel and prosecutor said to him on the subject. This constituted evidence which supported the granting of relief, and, this being so, we cannot declare the action of the trial court was clearly erroneous. As I have understood it, on these 27.26 reviews we look to see if there is evidence supporting the decision of the trial court. If there is, then we cannot say it was clearly erroneous. We have affirmed countless denials of relief on this basis. The same principle would apply, of course, to the affirming of the granting of relief.
Additionally it should be pointed out that in taking the view that the trial court thought it had to grant relief because the court had not complied with 25.04 at the time of sentencing, the majority overlooks the citing by the trial court of State v. Blaylock (Mo.Sup.), 394 S.W. 364, which shows the trial court correctly understood rule 25.04 and the effect of the failure of the court to advise the defendant fully of of his constitutional rights.