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Jones v. State

The evidence showed that the defendant's guilty plea to two counts of selling cocaine was knowingly and voluntarily entered.

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On the eve of trial, Jeffery Bernard Jones pled guilty in the Superior Court of Grady County to two counts of sale of cocaine OCGA § 16-13-30 b.1 Thereafter, Jones filed a notice of appeal to this Court. Jones alleges that he was “never provided an opportunity for the trial court to make a determination on whether he was informed about the ramifications of a guilty plea” and that his guilty plea was not knowingly and voluntarily entered because he was under the influence of marijuana at his guilty plea hearing.2 Finding no error, we affirm.

As a threshold matter, we note that Jones’ prior counsel timely filed a notice of appeal following the entry of Jones’ sentence. Present counsel then entered an appearance some five months later. Irrespective of this change in counsel, Georgia law is clear that “a criminal defendant does not have an unqualified right to file a direct appeal from a judgment of conviction and sentence entered on a guilty plea; however, where the question on appeal is one which may be resolved by facts appearing in the record, a direct appeal will lie.” Internal punctuation omitted. Kennedy v. State, 319 Ga. App. 498 735 SE2d 819 2012. See also Smith v. State, 266 Ga. 687 470 SE2d 436 1996; Smith v. State, 253 Ga. 169 316 SE2d 757 1984. As a result, “the merits of Jones’ appeal can be addressed if, and only if, the questions that he seeks to raise on appeal may be resolved by facts appearing in the record, including the transcript of his guilty plea hearing.” Kennedy, 319 Ga. App. at 498-499 citing Caine v. State, 266 Ga. 421 467 SE2d 570 1996. And

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