Appellant Anthony Lamar Freeman was convicted of felony murder and other related crimes based upon a guilty plea entered in 1995. He now appeals the trial court’s denial of his motion for leave to file an out-of-time appeal. For the reasons set forth below we affirm.
The criminal charges against appellant included a charge of malice murder and other crimes related to the rape and shooting death of Alicia Lynn Yarbrough. At the time of the crimes, appellant was fifteen years of age. In 1995, at the age of sixteen, appellant entered a plea of guilty to felony murder, armed robbery, and burglary, and he was sentenced to two life sentences to be served concurrently, plus twenty years. The factual basis presented by the prosecuting attorney at the plea hearing showed that appellant joined his co-indictees, two men who were older than appellant, in traveling to Spalding County for the purpose of killing Charles Puckett, who was then living with Ms. Yarbrough. One of the co-indictees had dated Ms. Yarbrough in the past. The three men donned masks and broke into the residence where the couple was living. Puckett was not there, but the men took various items, and also transported Ms. Yarbrough to a hotel room where they took turns sexually assaulting her. They then drove the victim to a secluded spot where the two co-indictees got out of the car and shot her three times, killing her. The State informed the trial court at the plea hearing that appellant cooperated with authorities in finding the murder weapon and other evidence which may otherwise have never been found, and that appellant agreed to testify truthfully at the trials of the co-indictees, against whom the State was seeking the death penalty. Appellant’s counsel represented to the trial court that appellant did not know about the planned enterprise at the time he traveled with the others to Spalding County, and that, although appellant was present during the robbery, he tried to get away a couple of times. The prosecutor stated at the hearing that because of appellant’s age at the time the crimes were committed, the State could not seek the death penalty. See Thompson v. Oklahoma, 487 U.S. 815 108 SCt 2687, 101 LE2d 702 1988.
