Court Opinion

ID: 9680841
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 07:39:41.976286+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:30.875918
License: Public Domain

*4OPINION ON REHEARING EN BANC ON THE COURT’S OWN MOTION
DALLY, Judge.
On original submission Panel No. 3 for the First Quarter, 1978, found that the evidence fairly raised an issue of the appellant's guilt, but held that since this evidence was not offered until after an adjudication of guilt, the court did not err in failing to withdraw the appellant’s plea of guilty. We now affirm the appeal on the authority of Moon v. State, 572 S.W.2d 681 (No. 54,352, decided Oct. 4, 1978 on the State’s motion for rehearing).
The appellant waived a jury trial and entered his plea of guilty before the court. We held in Moon v. State, supra, that when a plea of guilty is before the court it need not be withdrawn and a plea of not guilty entered when evidence is introduced that might reasonably and fairly raise the issue of fact as to the guilt of the defendant. The trial judge as the trier of the facts may without withdrawing the plea decide the issue either finding the defendant not guilty or guilty as he believes the facts require. The trial court did not err in failing to withdraw the appellant’s plea of guilty.
The judgment is affirmed.