Court Opinion

ID: 9797933
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 04:32:44.73386+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:59:52.519640
License: Public Domain

*474Johnson, J.,
dissenting: McGoldrick’s counsel failed to appeal the denial of the motion to withdraw his plea. Citing to Chamberlain v. State, 236 Kan. 650, 657, 694 P.2d 468 (1985), the majority apparently found counsel’s performance deficient but not prejudicial under the second part of the ineffective assistance of counsel test. The majority then sets forth the reasons that such an appeal would have been unsuccessful. I disagree.
K.S.A. 2003 Supp. 22-3210 establishes certain prerequisites to the taking of a guilty or no contest plea. The majority acknowledges the requirement in a felony case that the court address the defendant personally and determine that the plea is being made voluntarily and knowingly. K.S.A. 2003 Supp. 22-3210(a)(3). No mention is made of the condition precedent in K.S.A. 2003 Supp. 22-3210(a)(2), which requires, inter alia, that “in felony cases the court has informed the defendant ... of the maximum penalty provided by law which may be imposed upon acceptance of such plea.”
At the plea hearing, the court first reviewed the plea agreement and recited that “the State is agreeing to recommend that the Court find that the aggravated robbery, as set out in Count Seven, is the primary offense and that the Court impose a sentence corresponding to the middle number in the appropriate sentencing guidelines grid box on each count and that the sentences on each count be served concurrently.” The court then asked whether McGoldrick understood that the plea agreement’s sentencing provisions were only a recommendation and that “the Court is not required to follow it but will be considering recommendations from both attorneys at your sentencing hearing.” The court then advised McGoldrick: (1) that the robbery charges carry a range of sentence from as low as 31 months to as high as 136 months, depending upon criminal history; (2) that the aggravated robbery charge carries a range of sentence from 46 months to as high as 206 months, depending on criminal history; and (3) that the cocaine possession charge carries a sentence range of 10 to 42 months, depending on criminal history.
Conspicuously, McGoldrick was not advised that the sentencing judge had the discretion to impose the sentences consecutively, *475which could result in a prison term as high as 412 months. See K.S.A. 2003 Supp. 21-4720(b)(4). Although the court identified aggravated robbery as the “primary offense,” it did not explain that the “base sentence” was the penalty imposed for the primary offense. Further, the court’s explanation that die possible sentences on all counts depended upon criminal history was misleading, given that full criminal history is only applied to the base sentence. See K.S.A. 2003 Supp. 21-4720(b)(5).
The district court did refer to the form entitled “Defendant’s Acknowledgment of Rights and Entry of Plea” and ascertained that McGoldrick understood the document. That document did recite that McGoldrick understood that the court had the discretion to order the sentence for each offense to be served concurrently or consecutively, with the limitation that the length of the total sentence imposed “may not exceed twice the base sentence.” Conspicuously, the form did not identify which of the 12 counts listed was to carry the “base sentence,” i.e., which sentence was to be doubled to establish the outer limit of prison time. The document did not state the maximum sentence in terms of 412 months.
McGoldrick’s trial counsel did not tell his client that the total prison sentence could be 412 months. When asked at the plea withdrawal hearing whether he made it clear to his client that the court did not have to follow the plea agreement, the attorney responded:
“You know, I have to say that there’s some ambiguity with that. I told him there was a possibility of consecutive sentences. There is no question about that. There is a question in my mind as to whether — you know, I might have tried to be persuasive, say something like, ‘You might want to do this. In this case this is my best advice for you. I think the Judge will follow it. So, therefore, this is your best opportunity.’ I’m sure I gave him that land of speech, because I certainly felt that way. I thought it was in his own best interests and welfare. It turned out to be very wrong, but that’s what I thought at the time.”
The majority intimates that McGoldrick could have done his own calculation of what the actual maximum term of imprisonment would be with consecutive sentences, given the information he was provided. Such a presumption assumes McGoldrick had a working knowledge of the complexities of the Kansas Sentencing Guide*476lines Act (KSGA), K.SA. 21-4701 et seq., and could have pieced together the various bits of information to apply that Act. That burden should not be placed upon a defendant.
That McGoldrick was unaware that the calculation was his responsibility is highlighted by his question to the prosecutor during the hearing on his plea withdrawal motion, where he asked, “I mean shouldn’t the Judge or the D.A. or somebody notify me that the maximum penalty I can receive is 412 months versus the 194 I was pleading to? Shouldn’t somebody have said something?”
I would answer that question in the affirmative. We invest our district judges with unfettered discretion to disregard joint sentencing recommendations without the necessity of making any findings or proffering any explanation and without having any appellate review of their discretionary actions. It is not too much to ask that, prior to accepting a guilty plea, the district court clearly and unequivocally advise the defendant of the maximum penalty that may lawfully be imposed, in terms that a defendant can readily understand without knowing the intricacies of the KSGA. Such notice would include the total prison sentence, as set forth in K.S.A. 2003 Supp. 21-4720(b)(4), where multiple convictions are involved.
The majority cites to Wadsworth v. State, 25 Kan. App. 2d 484, 486, 967 P.2d 337, rev. denied 266 Kan. 1116 (1998), for the rule of law that the court is not required to inform the defendant of the possibility that sentences could run consecutively. I agree with that rule in the context of Wadsworth’s facts. There, the district court advised the defendant that he could be facing up to 172 months in prison; the waiver of rights form declared that the defendant understood he could be sentenced to “ ‘a maximum term of not less than seventy-seven (77) months nor more than eighty-six (86) months.’ ” 25 Kan. App. 2d at 485. The sentencing court imposed two consecutive prison terms of 38 months, for a total prison sentence of 76 months. The gist of the required holding in Wadsivorth was that, if a defendant is advised of the maximum number of months to which he or she may be sentenced, it is immaterial whether the defendant is told the manner in which the court can arrive at that maximum sentence. However, I reject an expansion *477of the Wadsworth rule to excuse a district court from advising a defendant of the maximum prison term based upon a consecutive sentencing calculation.