State v. Nicholson, 2012 Ohio 4591

Defendant Johnathan Nicholson, who is mentally ill, fatally shot two men during a dispute after a dice game on September 8, 2007, with his cousin Franco Stephens present.
Nicholson and Stephens were indicted on multiple counts, including aggravated murder and aggravated robbery; Stephens was later convicted on other counts.
Nicholson pled guilty on January 22, 2009 to two counts of aggravated murder, four counts of aggravated robbery, and one count of attempted aggravated murder, with a negotiated sentence of aggregate life to 50 years without parole.
On December 3, 2009, this court reversed Stephens’s robbery convictions for insufficiency of evidence, concluding there was no proof Stephens aided and abetted Nicholson.
In April 2011, Nicholson moved to withdraw his guilty plea; after counsel was appointed and several hearings and briefs followed, the motion was denied on December 27, 2011 without an evidentiary hearing.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether the denial of the Crim.R. 32.1 motion to withdraw plea was an abuse of discretion	Nicholson	Nicholson contends manifest injustice due to Stephens’s reversed robbery verdict and new affidavits.	No abuse of discretion; record shows no manifest injustice and no hearing was required.
Whether the trial court should have held an evidentiary hearing	Nicholson	New affidavits and alleged new evidence warranted a hearing.	No hearing required; affidavits conflicted with record and did not show manifest injustice.

State v. Smith, 49 Ohio St.2d 261 (Ohio 1977) (Crim.R.32.1 requires manifest injustice standard; deference to trial court)