Michael Troupe v. StateMichael Troupe v. State
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In April 2023, Michael Troupe was charged with felony offenses while serving a first offender probated sentence under
The trial court considered the parties’ agreement and rejected it, as it was entitled to do. At the same time it announcеd its rejection of the guilty plea, and without the benefit of a full hearing on the petition in the first offender case, the trial court proceeded to resentence Troupe to 25 years to serve in that case. When asked to explain the basis for the resentencing, the trial court unequivocally stated that its deсision to resentence Troupe to serve more than four times the amount of time the parties agreed to was based on the fact that Troupe was a first offender who “has admitted his guilt with regard to [the new case] during the course of this hearing.” In other words, the trial court used Troupe‘s rejected plea agreеment and its corresponding admission of guilt as the basis for resentencing in the first offender case. The question before us is whether the trial court was authorized to do that. We conclude that it was not and therefore reverse the trial court‘s sentencing order.
We agree with Troupe that his resentencing was fundamentally unfair under the circumstances of this case, that the trial court erred by using his negotiated plea and its corresponding admission of guilt as the basis for that resentencing, and that the trial court‘s order was supported by insufficient evidence. In this regard, the record shows that in April 2021, Troupe pled guilty to one count of making terroristic threаts as a lesser-included offense of aggravated assault and one count of a Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act violation. Troupe was sentenced as a first offender to two concurrent five-year terms of probation. The trial court‘s sentencing order specifically noted that “[u]pon violation оf the terms of probation . . . the Court may enter an adjudication of guilt and proceed to sentence the Defendant to the maximum sentence as provided by law.”
In April 2023, the State filed a petition for an adjudication of guilt and resentencing in the first offender case, alleging that Troupe had committed several nеw felony offenses in January 2023. The State later amended its
The State entered into a negotiated plea agreement with Troupe to resolve the new charges arising from the May 2022 offenses; if approved by the trial court, this agreement would have also resolved the resentencing petition filed by the State in the first offender case.1 The parties’ agreement specified that Troupe would plead guilty to the new charges and be sentenced to six years to serve, followed by a term of probation to be determined by the triаl court, while at the same time having six years of his probation revoked in the first offender case, with that period of revocation to run concurrently with the six year sentence in the new case. In other words, Troupe agreed to admit his guilt and accept responsibility for the May 2022 offenses in return for a sentence оf six years to serve followed by a period of probation to be determined by the trial court. The terms of the plea agreement were recorded on an acknowledgment and waiver-of-rights form, which was signed by Troupe, his counsel, and the State. This form makes it clear that Troupe‘s guilty plea and correspоnding admission of guilt were based entirely on the parties’ agreement to resolve these two matters pursuant to the terms described above.
The trial court held a hearing on May 4, 2023, at which Troupe appeared via video conference. At the beginning of the hearing, Troupe‘s probation officer outlined thе basis for the State‘s position with respect to the first offender case and requested that the trial court revoke the balance of Troupe‘s probation. While giving the trial
court a summary of the expected evidence, the probation officer stated that two deputies had been subpoenaed to testify at the hearing. These deputies never testified, and no other evidence of Troupe‘s alleged guilt was admitted for the trial court‘s consideration.
After hearing from the probation officer, the trial court turned its attention to the parties’ plea agreement and conducted a Boykin2 colloquy with Troupe. During this colloquy, Troupe admitted that he had signed the negotiated plea agreement form and understood its contents. The trial court asked the State to provide a factual basis for the new charges, and the State did so. Troupe‘s counsel did not object to the factual basis for the plea and asked the trial court to accept the “negotiated resolution of this case.”
The trial court rejected the plea agreement and announced, without the benefit of a full hearing on the first offender probation matter, that it was resentencing Troupe in that case to 30 years to serve. After being told that this sentence еxceeded the statutory maximum for the charges, the trial court proceeded to sentence Troupe to the statutory maximum, 25 years to serve. While the trial court correctly recognized
that its rejection of the plea agreement meant that Troupe was “without any sort of commitment or admission of guilt in that case” and that his “right to a jury trial on that charge [was] restored,” it nonetheless used that rejected plea agreement and its corresponding admission of guilt as the sole basis for resentencing Troupe in the first offender case. The record shows that when asked for the “factual basis for the resentencing,” the trial court responded that the “factual basis is he‘s a first offender, and [Troupe] has admitted his guilt with regard to [the new charges] during the course of this hearing.”
Troupe argues that his resentencing was “fundamentally unfair” under the circumstances of this case, that the trial court erred by using his negotiated plea and its corresponding admission of guilt as the basis for that resentencing, and that the trial court‘s order was supported by insufficient evidence. We agree.
As a general rule, “[t]his court will not interfere with a [probation] revocation unless there has been a manifest abuse of discretion on the part of the trial court.” (Punctuation and footnote omitted.) Dugger v. State, 260 Ga. App. 843, 843 (581 SE2d 655) (2003). The same is true of resentencing of first offenders whо have violated the terms of their probation. Wright v. State, 279 Ga. App. 299, 299 (630 SE2d 774) (2006) (same standard of review applies in probation revocation and first offender revocation appeals); Camaron v. State, 246 Ga. App. 80, 82 (1) (539 SE2d 577) (2000) (resentencing of first offender who has violated terms of probation is “within the sound discretion of the trial court“). However, “the loss of liberty entailed by а probation revocation proceeding [or a resentencing of a first offender probationer] is a serious deprivation requiring that the probationer be accorded due process.” (Citation, punctuation, and footnote omitted.) Meadows v. Settles, 274 Ga. 858, 860 (3) (561 SE2d 105) (2002).
Although such liberty is not the equivalent of that enjoyed by an ordinary citizen, it is greater than that enjoyed by one incarcerated for a crime. However this liberty may be restricted, it may not be terminated without the rudiments of procedural due process. What is at stake is not simply technical legal notions of what steps must be followed in a revocation hearing. Instead, there is involved a profound attitude of fairness between man and man, and more particularly between the individual and government.
(Citation and punctuation omitted.) Id. We review de novo the question of whether such a proceeding afforded the defendant due process. Dave v. State, 365 Ga. App. 1, 5 (3) (876 SE2d 882) (2022).
“The requirements of due process are flexible and call for such procedural protections as the pаrticular situation demands,” (citation and punctuation omitted) Dave, 365 Ga. App. at 5 (3), and “[i]t is well-settled that a probationer facing revocation is not entitled to the full panoply of constitutional due process rights which attach to an accused in a criminal prosecution.” (Citation and punctuation omitted.) Murphy v. State, 370 Ga. App. 738, 746 (2) (899 SE2d 307) (2024). But “where a probationer carries the burden of adducing independent evidence that reflects that his or her admission of probation violations was not knowing and voluntary, a reviewing court may determine whether fundamental fairness requires the reversal of the probation revocation.” Meadows, 274 Ga. at 862 (3).
The critical fact in this case is that the trial cоurt based its resentencing entirely on Troupe‘s admissions made in connection with his negotiated guilty plea that was rejected by the trial court and subsequently withdrawn by Troupe.
“It is well established in Georgia that the end result of a negotiated plea agreement is, in essence, a contract between a defendant and thе State. As such, in many circumstances it is appropriate to view the final negotiated plea agreement as a package deal, the terms of which should not be treated in isolation from one another but rather as a cohesive whole.”
(Citation and punctuation omitted.) Arnold v. State, 352 Ga. App. 777, 780 (835 SE2d 759) (2019). “[A] trial judge has wide discretion to accept or reject a negotiated plea.” (Citation and punctuation omitted.) Torres-Toledo v. State, 366 Ga. App. 526, 527 (1) (883 SE2d 545) (2023). If, however, a trial court intends to reject a negotiated plea, it is required under Uniform Superior Court Rule 33.10 “to inform the defendant that [he] thus has the right to withdraw [his] plea[,]” with the end result being that the rejected and subsequently withdrawn plea cannot be used against the defendant in the ensuing trial or other judicial proceeding.
Our courts have long held that if a negotiated plea agreement is rejected or withdrawn, any admission of guilt made as part of the agreement cannot be used as evidence against the defendant at trial. See Corthran v. State, 268 Ga. 443, 443 (491 SE2d 66) (1997) (videotaped statement made as part of a negotiated plea bargain agreement was inadmissible where guilty plea was later withdrawn); Williams v. State, 239 Ga. 327, 327-328 (1) (236 SE2d 672) (1977) (reversing defendant‘s conviction when he confessed to a crime as part of a later-rejected plea agreement because “a confession induced by the slightest hope of benefit or remotеst fear of injury may not be used against a defendant“). For the same reason, such admissions should not be used against the defendant in a probation revocation or first offender resentencing proceeding. To hold otherwise would be fundamentally unfair to defendants who seek to accept responsibility
There is another reason why admissions made in connection with rejected guilty pleas should not be used against the defendant in a subsequent trial or other judicial proceeding. Specifically, in order to be admissible, confessions must be “made voluntarily, without being induced by another by the slightest hope of benefit or remotest fear of injury.”
We also reject the State‘s argument that its proffer made in connection with the rejected guilty plea supports the resentencing.
First, it is clear that the trial court did not resentence Troupe based on this proffer. Rather, as discussed above, the improper basis for the resentencing consisted of Troupe‘s admissions of guilt made in connection with the rejected and withdrawn plea agreement.
Second, the proffer upon which the State relies was not evidenсe submitted in connection with a hearing on the merits of the State‘s petition to resentence Troupe in the first offender case. Rather, it was simply the State‘s recitation of the factual basis for the guilty plea on the new charges, as was required by Uniform Superior Court Rule 33.9. See State v. Evans, 265 Ga. 332, 333 (454 SE2d 468) (1995). While Troupe did not object to the stated factual basis for the plea, there was no reason for him to do so. His interests mirrored the State‘s interest in obtaining court approval of the proposed plea agreement.
Third, even if, for the sake of argument, we were to consider the State‘s factual basis for the guilty plea as evidence in thе first offender resentencing case, the record plainly shows that the trial court never conducted a full hearing in that matter. Troupe was not given the opportunity to testify or present evidence in the first offender case, and he never consented to the revocation of any portion of his probatiоn outside the terms of his negotiated agreement with the State. Absent an admissible admission of a probation violation or a full hearing with evidence of such a violation, the trial court was not permitted to revoke Troupe‘s probation or adjudicate him guilty and resentence him in the first offender case. See
For these reasons, the State‘s reliance on the proffer made by the State in connection with the rejected guilty plea is misplaced,
Judgment reversed. Miller, P. J., and Markle, J., concur.