COURT OF APPEALS DECISION DATED AND RELEASED January 16, 1997 |
NOTICE |
A party may file with the
Supreme Court a petition to review an adverse decision by the Court of
Appeals. See § 808.10 and
Rule 809.62, Stats. |
This opinion is subject to
further editing. If published, the
official version will appear in the bound volume of the Official Reports. |
No. 95-3485-CR
STATE
OF WISCONSIN IN COURT OF
APPEALS
DISTRICT IV
STATE OF WISCONSIN,
Plaintiff-Respondent,
v.
PHILLIP K. ADAMS,
Defendant-Appellant.
APPEAL from a judgment
and an order of the circuit court for Dane County: RICHARD J. CALLAWAY, Judge.
Affirmed.
Before Eich, C.J.,
Dykman, P.J., and Vergeront, J.
PER
CURIAM. Phillip Adams appeals from a judgment convicting him
of possession of cocaine with intent to deliver and from an order denying his
motion to withdraw his no contest plea.
The issues are: (1) whether
the trial court properly exercised its discretion in denying Adams' motion to
withdraw his no contest plea; and (2) whether the trial court properly
denied Adams' request for a postconviction hearing to determine whether he had
received ineffective assistance of trial counsel. We affirm.
Pursuant to a plea
agreement, Adams pleaded no contest to possession of cocaine with intent to
deliver. The trial court accepted
Adams' plea and convicted him based on its colloquy with Adams and on Adams'
acknowledgments in a Plea Questionnaire and Waiver of Rights form. The trial court sentenced Adams to ten
years' imprisonment, the presumptive minimum for the crime.
Adams first argues he
should have been allowed to withdraw his no contest plea after sentencing. Adams contends that a manifest injustice has
occurred because the trial court did not establish an adequate factual basis
for conviction before accepting his plea and he "has consistently denied
that he committed the crime."
A guilty or no contest
plea may be withdrawn after sentencing only when it is necessary to correct a
manifest injustice. White v.
State, 85 Wis.2d 485, 491, 271 N.W.2d 97, 100 (1978). We review the trial court's decision denying
a motion to withdraw a guilty or no contest plea for a misuse of
discretion. Id.
The trial court did not
misuse its discretion in denying Adams' motion to withdraw his plea because the
entire record provided a factual basis for the plea, even though the plea
colloquy was, in and of itself, insufficient.
In the plea questionnaire, Adams acknowledged that he understood that,
if he pleaded no contest, he would be found guilty based on the facts in the
complaint. During the hearing in which
Adams waived his right to a preliminary examination, he stated that he had
reviewed the complaint. The complaint
alleged that the police executed a search warrant for Adams' home and found
cocaine. The complaint further alleged
that Adams told the police that he had concealed the cocaine behind the
refrigerator and in a vacuum cleaner and that a friend was paying him to store
the cocaine. Because Adams' plea was
the result of plea negotiations, the trial court was not required to go the
same length to determine whether the facts would sustain the charge as it would
when there was no negotiated plea. See
Broadie v. State, 68 Wis.2d 420, 423-24, 228 N.W.2d 687, 689
(1975). The trial court did not misuse
its discretion in concluding that there was a factual basis for the plea.
Adams next argues that
he should be allowed to withdraw his plea because he received ineffective
assistance of trial counsel. He
contends that his trial attorney was under partial or complete disability when
she represented him. In support of his
claim, Adams points to the fact that his trial counsel did not recall at
sentencing, as she acknowledged by affidavit, that Adams had explained to her
that the $600 in cash found on his person during the execution of the warrant
came from general assistance and AFDC and was going to be used to pay the
rent. Adams argues that his attorney
was thus unable to rebut the prosecutor's argument that Adams was unable to
explain the source of the $600, implying that the funds had come from drug
transactions.
To prove a claim of
ineffective assistance of trial counsel, a defendant must establish that
counsel's performance was deficient and that the deficient performance was
prejudicial. Strickland v.
Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687 (1984).
Even if everything
alleged in Adams' affidavit about his trial counsel's performance is true,
Adams was not entitled to a hearing because he has not alleged facts sufficient
to constitute ineffective assistance of counsel. Adams alleges that at sentencing, his trial counsel failed
to explain the source of funds found on him during execution of the search
warrant. There is no nexus between
counsel's failure to mention the source of the funds at sentencing and
Adams' decision to enter his no contest plea.
The trial court stated in its decision denying the postconviction motion
that counsel's failure to mention the source of the funds did not affect the
sentence it imposed, presumably because it imposed the presumptive minimum
sentence. The trial court did not
erroneously exercise its discretion in denying Adams' claim of ineffective
assistance of trial counsel without holding a hearing because Adams has not
shown that he was prejudiced by counsel's conduct at sentencing.
By the Court.—Judgment
and order affirmed.
This opinion will not be
published. See Rule 809.23(1)(b)5, Stats.