Priest v. State

Julius Cerron Priest pleaded guilty to felony murder in Clayton County after telling a co-defendant, LaTonya Moore, to shoot Mark Frasier during a fight, which she did; Frasier died nearly a year later from the wounds. The trial court sentenced Priest to life in prison based on the plea. On appeal, Priest argued the trial court broke a court rule by accepting his plea without enough factual proof of his guilt, and that the judge improperly pressured him into giving up his statutory right to change his mind and withdraw the plea before sentencing. The Supreme Court of Georgia disagreed on both points. It found the prosecutor's account of the shooting, including witness statements that Priest told Moore to shoot Frasier, gave the trial court enough facts to accept the plea. It also found that the judge carefully explained Priest's right to withdraw his plea and that Priest knowingly and voluntarily gave it up, both in writing and out loud, so nothing was forced. The conviction and sentence stand.

A trial court satisfies Uniform Superior Court Rule 33.9's factual-basis requirement when it hears and accepts a prosecutor's proffer of facts sufficient to support the charge, and a defendant validly waives his statutory right to withdraw a guilty plea before sentencing when the record shows he was clearly advised of that right and knowingly agreed to give it up.

The decision confirms that Georgia trial judges satisfy the factual-basis rule for guilty pleas simply by hearing a prosecutor's summary of the evidence, and that defendants can validly waive their right to withdraw a plea before sentencing if the judge clearly explains that right first.

Affirmed

1. Georgia's rule on guilty pleas, Uniform Superior Court Rule 33.9, only requires that the trial judge make itself aware of some factual basis for the plea, not that the evidence meet a higher standard, so the court reviewed whether the prosecutor's account of the shooting met that low bar.
2. The prosecutor told the court that multiple witnesses heard Priest tell his co-defendant to 'pop' (shoot) Frasier, and that she then shot him; under Georgia law, deliberately firing a gun at someone is aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and someone who encourages another person to commit a felony that causes a death is guilty of felony murder as a party to the crime.
3. Because Frasier died from the resulting gunshot wounds, the prosecutor's account was legally sufficient to support Priest's guilty plea to felony murder, so the trial court's certification that a factual basis existed was proper and did not violate the court rule.
4. On the waiver issue, the court explained that while Georgia law (O.C.G.A. § 17-7-93) gives defendants a right to withdraw a guilty plea before sentencing, there is no similar right under the state or federal constitution, and the statutory right can be given up if done knowingly, voluntarily, and intelligently.
5. Reviewing the plea hearing transcript, the court found the trial judge had clearly explained Priest's right to withdraw his plea, told him sentencing was about to happen, and asked him directly whether he gave up that right; Priest said yes both aloud and in writing, showing the waiver was valid rather than coerced.

• felony murder
• guilty plea
• plea withdrawal rights
• Clayton County shooting
• party to a crime