Avery v. StateAvery v. State
- Reporters:
- ,
- Before:
- Hunter
The petitioner, Robert Avery, is before this Court appealing from the denial of his petition for post-conviction relief. The petitioner had pled guilty to murder and had been sentenced to a forty-year term of imprisonment. This appeal from the denial of relief presents three issues for review, one of which compels us to reverse the trial court‘s judgment and order the guilty plea vacated.
The petitioner was charged with murder on July 12, 1978. On December 20, 1978, the petitioner entered a plea of guilty, which was conditionally accepted by the trial court. The plea was eventually accepted, and the trial court advised the petitioner of the rights he was waiving by pleading guilty.
On June 19, 1980, the petitioner filed for post-conviction relief, After a series of continuances, the trial court held a hearing on July 28, 1982. The trial court denied post-conviction relief on August 6, 1982.
The petitioner now claims that his plea of guilty was not knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily entered. The error requiring us to reverse relates to the requirement contained in
“Informing him of the maximum possible sentence and minimum sentence for the offense charged and of any possible increased sentence by reason of the fact of a prior conviction or convictions, and of any possibility of the imposition of consecutive sentences....”
Failure to strictly comply with this statute is a failure to meet an absolute prerequisite to the acceptance of a guilty plea. Johnson v. State, (1983) Ind., 453 N.E.2d 975; Collins v. State, (1979) Ind.App., 394 N.E.2d 211. The record in this case shows that the trial judge did inform the petitioner of the maximum and minimum sentences for murder and of the possibility of receiving a consecutive sentence. The record, however, fails to disclose that the trial judge informed the petitioner “of any possible increased sentence by reason of the fact of a prior conviction or convictions.”