State of North Dakota, Plaintiff and Appellee v. Said Abdulkadir Ali, Defendant and Appellant
No. 20240281
IN THE SUPREME COURT STATE OF NORTH DAKOTA
2025 ND 73, Filed 04-10-2025
2025 ND 73
Appeal from the District Court of Grand Forks County, Northeast Central Judicial District, the Honorable Theodore T. Sandberg, Judge.
AFFIRMED.
Opinion of the Court by Bahr, Justice.
Lindsey Trotter (argued), under the Rule on Limited Practice of Law by Law Students, and Carmell F. Mattison (appeared), Assistant State‘s Attorney, Grand Forks, ND, for plaintiff and appellee.
Tyler J. Morrow, Grand Forks, ND, for defendant and appellant.
Bahr, Justice.
[¶1] Said Ali appeals from a criminal judgment entered upon guilty pleas to eight counts of possession of certain materials prohibited. On appeal, Ali argues the district court abused its discretion in denying his motion in limine to exclude video evidence because the evidence was inadmissible under
I
[¶2] In April 2023, the State charged Ali with eight counts of possession of certain materials prohibited, a class C felony, alleging Ali knowingly possessed videos containing sexual conduct by a minor. The district court scheduled trial for May 2024. Before trial, Ali filed a motion in limine seeking to exclude the videos and witness testimony of the videos. After a hearing, the court denied the motion.
[¶3] Later, Ali, his attorney, and the State signed a “Stipulation for Entry of
II
[¶4] Ali entered guilty pleas to the possession of certain materials prohibited charges. He claims his pleas were conditioned on the right to appeal the district court‘s ruling on the motion in limine.
[¶5] ”
Conditional Plea. With the consent of the court and the prosecuting attorney, a defendant may enter a conditional plea of guilty, reserving in writing the right to have an appellate court review an adverse determination of a specified pretrial motion. The defendant, any defendant‘s attorney, and the prosecuting attorney must consent in writing to a conditional plea filed with the court. If the court accepts the conditional plea, it must enter an order. The resulting judgment must specify it is conditional. A defendant who prevails on appeal must be allowed to withdraw the plea.
(Emphasis added). “[A]lthough
[¶6] In Trevino, despite the absence of any reference to the plea being conditional in the criminal judgment, we held a defendant entered a conditional guilty plea when (1) the transcript reflected “both the State and the court consented to entry of the defendant‘s conditional guilty plea,” and (2) the State on appeal did not argue the “guilty plea was not conditional” or that it “did not consent to the conditional plea.” 2011 ND 232, ¶ 14. However, in Abuhamda, we declined to extend our holding in Trevino when there was “nothing in the record aside from mere hints” reflecting a conditional plea. 2019 ND 44, ¶ 11. Although the State in Abuhamda did not argue the plea was not conditional, we explained that it is difficult to discern whether a conditional plea was entered when the deferred imposition of sentence did not state the plea was conditional; there was no separate writing complying with
[¶7] Here, the judgment does not show Ali‘s pleas were conditional. See
III
[¶8] Because Ali has not shown he entered conditional guilty pleas as to the eight counts of possession of certain materials prohibited, the underlying issue was not preserved for our review and we affirm the criminal judgment.
[¶9] Jon J. Jensen, C.J.
Daniel J. Crothers
Lisa Fair McEvers
Jerod E. Tufte
Douglas A. Bahr