People v. DengPeople v. Deng
(Note: This syllabus constitutes no part of the opinion of the court but has been prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader.)
Defendant‘s agreement to plead guilty to first-degree murder in exchange for a sentence of 35 years’ imprisonment for shooting the victim of a residential burglary was void, since he was not admonished about thе mandatory sentencing enhancement of 25 years to life that applied to his offense; therefore, the judgment was vacated and the cause was remanded to allow defendant to withdraw his plea and proceed to trial.
JUSTICE ZENOFF delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion.
Justices Hutchinson and Jorgensen concurred in the judgment and opinion.
¶ 1 Defendant, Gareng Deng, appeals his sentence of 35 years’ incarceration for first-degree murder (
I. BACKGROUND
¶ 2 ¶ 3 In November 2007, defendant was charged with multiple counts in connection with events that occurred in October 2005. He later pleaded guilty to count III, which charged that defendant, without lawful justification, while committing the forcible felony of residential burglary, shоt Marilyn Bethell with a firearm, causing her death.
¶ 4 At the preliminary hearing, the State told the court that сounts I and II alleged that defendant personally discharged a firearm, such that a mandatory enhancement of 25 years to life applied to those counts.
¶ 6 The State informed the court that, in exchange for the plea, defendant would be sentenced to 35 years’ incarceration to be served at 100% and the other counts would be dismissed. The court admonished defendant that the offense carried a penalty of 20 to 60 years’ incarcerаtion and it accepted the plea.
¶ 7 Defendant moved to withdraw his plea, arguing ineffective assistance of counsel and alleging that a person named Robert actually committed the crime. The motion was denied. Defendant apрeals.
II. ANALYSIS
¶ 8 ¶ 9 Defendant contends that, under People v. White, 2011 IL 109616, his sentence is void because it was subject to a mandatory enhancement of 25 years to life and the failure to properly admonish him of the enhancement made the plea agreement void.
¶ 10 Under section 5-8-1 of the Unified Code of Corrections (
¶ 11 Illinois Supreme Court Rule 402(c) (eff. July 1, 1997) provides that a trial court cannot enter a final judgment on a plea of guilty without first determining that there is a factual basis for the plea. White, 2011 IL 109616, ¶ 17. “The factual basis for a guilty plea generally will consist of an express admission by the defendant that he сommitted the acts alleged in the indictment or a recital to the court of the evidence that supports the allegations in the indictment.” Id. “[T]he factual basis will be established as long as there is a basis anywhere in the record up to the final judgment from which the judge could reasonably reach the conclusion that the defendant actually committed the acts with the intent, if any, required to constitute the offense to which he is pleading guilty.” People v. Brazee, 316 Ill. App. 3d 1230, 1236 (2000).
¶ 12 “Once a trial court accepts a plea of guilty, it is the duty of the court to fix punishment.” White, 2011 IL 109616, ¶ 20. The supreme court has ” ‘repeatedly recognized that the legislature has the power to prescribe penalties for defined offenses, and that power necessarily includes the authority to prescribe mandatоry sentences, even if such sentences
¶ 13 In White, the defendant pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and possession of contraband in a penal institution, in exchange for consecutivе prison sentences of 28 and 4 years. White, 2011 IL 109616, ¶ 4. The factual basis for the plea established that, if the case proceeded to trial, the evidence would show that the defendant and a codefendant planned to rob a taxi driver and were both inside the taxi when the driver was shot in the temple with a handgun. It was further stipulated that, after the driver was shot, the defendant took the handgun from the codefendant and put it in his back pocket. Id. ¶ 6. The defendant later moved to withdraw his plea, arguing in part that he was not properly admonished about the sentencing range because he was subject to a 15-year mandatory enhancement for being armed with a firearm while committing the offense. Id. ¶ 9; see
¶ 14 Our supreme court held that the defendant‘s sentence was void. Id. ¶ 21. The court noted that a trial court may not impose a sentence inconsistent with the governing statutes even where the parties and the trial court agreе to the sentence. Id. ¶ 23. The court then specifically rejected an argument that the intent of the parties to agree to a murder conviction without the sentencing enhancement was controlling, noting that, in enacting
¶ 15 Here, the State presented a factual basis that included the fact that defendant “shot” Bethell with a firearm, causing her death. Thus, defendant argues, he wаs subject to the mandatory enhancement. The State attempts to distinguish White, arguing that the factual basis did not include the words “personally discharged” or otherwise show that defendant “personally discharged” a firearm. Instead, the State suggests, the record shоws an intent to plead guilty to an offense based on an accountability theory. In doing so, the State relies on a case holding that the term “personally discharged” in section 5-8-1 distinguishes cases in which the defendant actually fired the shot from cases in whiсh the defendant could be held accountable for a shooting done by another. People v. Rodriguez, 229 Ill. 2d 285, 294-95 (2008). The State then relies on a case in which multiple people fired shots, the defendant
¶ 16 The State asserts that the factual basis, by referring to defendant‘s entering another vehicle, could have implied the involvement of another person. But that reference was not sufficient to show that defendant was guilty only under an accountability theory. There was no allegation that any other person shot Bethell or was even present when the shooting occurred. To the contrary, the charge, which was specifically included in the factual basis, stated that defendant “shot” Bethell, causing her death, and the additiоnal facts provided served to place defendant at Bethell‘s home. The brief mention of another vehicle does not transform the matter into one involving accountability.
¶ 17 While it is possible that the State intended to remove the enhancement when it was negotiating the plea, as evinced by the State‘s telling the court at the preliminary hearing that only counts I and II involved the enhancement, it did nothing to remove the enhancement from the factual basis for the plea. Had the State wishеd to negotiate a plea based on an accountability theory, it could have amended the factual basis to support such a theory. In the alternative, it could have amended the factual basis to allege that defendant causеd the death with a dangerous weapon, as suggested by Justice Theis specially concurring in White. But it did not do so. Accordingly, the trial court was left with no sufficient basis to find that anyone other than defendant personally discharged the firearm that caused Bethell‘s dеath. It was thus required to sentence defendant with the 25-year-to-life enhancement, making 45 years the minimum possible sentence. Because defendant was sentenced to less than that amount, and was not admonished of the enhancement, his sentencе and the plea agreement that led to it are void.
III. CONCLUSION
¶ 18 ¶ 19 Defendant‘s sentence and plea agreement are void. Accordingly, under White, the judgment of the circuit court of Kane County is vacated and the cause is remanded to the trial court with directions to allow defendant to withdraw his guilty plea and proceed to trial if he chooses to do so.
¶ 20 Vacated and remanded.