DAVIS v. THE STATE.
S19A0643
Supreme Court of Georgia
August 5, 2019
306 Ga. 430
FINAL COPY
On March 14, 2016, Appellant Brandon Davis pled guilty in the Superior Court of Bibb County to the felony murder of Chassity Lester. Pursuant to a negotiated plea agreement, the State nolle prossed one count of malice murder (the only other charge for which Davis had been indicted in this matter), and the trial court sentenced Davis to life imprisonment. Approximately two wеeks later, and during the same term of court, Davis moved, through plea counsel, to withdraw his guilty plea. At a hearing on that motion — during which Davis was still represented by the same attorney whо represented him during his guilty plea — Davis personally told the trial judge that he felt that his plea counsel did not have enough time to prepare for the case. Davis’s attornеy also argued that Davis was “psychologically coerced” into pleading guilty. Without appointing new counsel or receiving evidence on that claim, the trial court denied Davis’s motion to withdraw his guilty plea. In Davis v. State, 301 Ga. 658 (802 SE2d 246) (2017), we reversed that denial and remanded the case for the trial court to hold a hearing with new counsel on Davis’s ineffectiveness claim. On remand, the trial court again denied Davis’s motion to withdraw his guilty plea. This Court dismissed as untimely Davis’s first attempt to appeal that ruling, but Davis then requested, and was granted, this out-of-time appеal. For the reasons explained below, we affirm.
On appeal, Davis contends that his plea counsel was constitutionally ineffective by failing adequately to prepare for trial, and that the trial court’s denial of his motion to withdraw his guilty plea was therefore a “manifest injustice.” “In the absence of a showing that withdrawal is necessary to cоrrect a manifest injustice, a defendant may not withdraw a plea of guilty or nolo contendere as a matter of right once sentence has been pronounced by the judge.”
In support of his argument that his plea counsel was inadequately prepared for trial, Davis contends that plea counsel, who had only represented him for three months, had a heavy case load and was preparing for other major felony trials at the same time he was preparing for Davis’s trial. Davis also comрlains that five days before his trial-date setting, the State produced GBI lab tests connecting Davis to the murder through DNA evidence and disclosed that it had spoken to witnesses, including Davis’s fаmily members, and confirmed that those witnesses could positively authenticate Davis’s voice in an anonymous 911 call that implicated him in Lester’s murder. Davis contends that after these disclosures, his plea counsel pressured him to plead guilty without interviewing these witnesses, conducting any further DNA testing, or doing anything else to confirm the State’s representations.
Davis’s contentions, however, are contradicted by the record. For example, at the motion to withdraw hearing, plea counsel testified that he treated Davis’s case аs a “top priority” when it was assigned to him, and that he immediately began meeting with Davis and reviewing discovery, spending about 35 hours preparing for trial and meeting with Davis at least three times. See, e.g., Rice v. State, 301 Ga. 746, 748 (804 SE2d 5) (2017) (“[T]here exists no magic amount of time which counsel must spend in actual conference with his client.” (citation and punctuation omitted)). Moreover, plea counsel testified unequivocally that he was prepared to try Davis’s case. See Berrien v. State, 300 Ga 489, 492 (796 SE2d 718) (2017) (trial court entitled to credit plea attorney’s testimony that he was prepared for trial over defendant’s evidence to the contrary). Regarding the voice-authentication witnesses, trial counsel testified that the names of those witnesses had been disclosed previously to the defense on the State’s witness list. Trial counsel testified that after learning of the State’s voice-authentication witnesses and DNA evidence, he met with Davis and explained that although the evidence did not destroy his defense, it weakened it. Counsel confirmed that after discussing all of the evidence with Davis, Davis decided to plead guilty.
After hearing this and additional evidence and argument on remand, the trial court recounted its exchange with Davis at the plea hearing: “I said, are you satisfied with your lawyer’s reprеsentation; Mr. Davis said yes, so he wrote it down and then he said it to me when I asked the question.” The trial court then found that “[i]f Mr. Davis legitimately had any of these issues, he had two opportunities there to raise those issues, and we
“The trial court was authorized to credit the testimony of [the defendant’s] counsel, and its factual findings and credibility determinations will be accepted unless clearly erronеous,” Jones v. State, 287 Ga. 270, 272 (695 SE2d 271) (2010) (citation and punctuation omitted), whereas its “legal conclusions are reviewed de novo.” Arnold v. State, 292 Ga. 95, 96 (734 SE2d 382) (2012) (citation and punctuation omitted). And in the absence of explicit fаctual and credibility findings by the trial court, we presume implicit findings were made supporting the trial court’s decision. See Arnold, 292 Ga. at 96-97. Given the circumstances discussed above, we can identify nо clear error in the trial court’s factual findings and credibility determinations and no abuse of discretion in its denial of Davis’s motion to withdraw his guilty plea based on alleged ineffectiveness of counsel. See, e.g., Rice, supra, 301 Ga. at 748 (newly appointed plea counsel not deficient where, among other things, she reviewed the file and met with defendant “at least three times,” аnd defendant “fail[ed] to articulate with any specificity how [plea counsel] could have better represented him,” including how additional, unidentified witnesses that defendant claimed should have been subpoenaed “would have benefitted his defense”); Glover v. State, 300 Ga. 88, 90-91 (793 SE2d 408) (2016) (defendant failed to show plea counsel performed deficiently where plea counsel, among other things, met with defendant numerous times and reviewed evidence with defendant); Wright v. State, 292 Ga. 825, 827-828 (742 SE2d 468) (2013) (plea counsel not deficient where plea counsel testified that he reviewed case, met with defendant “several times” to discuss “forensic evidence, potential witnesses, and possible defenses,” and defendant did not “offer any evidence that further investigаtion would have uncovered”); Jones, supra, 287 Ga. at 271-272 (defendant failed to show plea counsel was deficient where plea counsel testified that she had prepared for trial and met with dеfendant several times to discuss “the State’s evidence and anticipated witnesses,” and defendant acknowledged that “he met with counsel three or four times,” but “felt that she cоuld have done more to get in contact with witnesses”). Because the trial court did not err in ruling that Davis failed to show that his plea counsel’s “conduct fell below an objective standard of reasonableness,” Davis’s appeal fails.
Judgment affirmed. All the Justices concur.
DECIDED AUGUST 5, 2019.
Murder. Bibb Superior Court. Before Judge Simms.
Cooper, Barton & Cooper, Michael D. Cooper, Ashley A. Cooper, for appellant.
K. David Cooke, Jr., District Attorney, Cara R. Fiore, Assistant District Attorney; Christopher M. Carr, Attorney General, Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Deрuty Attorney General, Paula K. Smith, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Scott O. Teague, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.