Crawford Lewis, Patricia Reid, and Anthony Pope were indicted and charged with violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations RICO Act OCGA § 16-14-4 and felony theft by taking OCGA § 16-8-2. As part of a negotiated plea agreement, the State agreed to dismiss the RICO and related theft charges against Lewis in exchange for his guilty plea to one misdemeanor count of hindering and obstructing a law enforcement officer OCGA § 16-10-24 a, conditioned upon Lewis testifying truthfully at the trial against his co-defendants. Lewis entered his negotiated plea with the understanding that the State would be recommending a sentence of 12 months probation, a $500 fine, and 240 hours of community service if he satisfied his obligation to testify truthfully against his co-defendants. The trial court accepted his plea and deferred sentencing until the end of trial. Lewis subsequently testified at trial, and his co-defendants were ultimately convicted. The sole issue presented in this appeal is whether the trial court erred when it imposed a sentence upon Lewis which differed from the understood terms of the negotiated plea. For the reasons that follow, we vacate the sentence and remand the case with direction.
Instead of sentencing Lewis to 12 months probation pursuant to the State’s recommendation, the trial court sentenced Lewis to 12 months in confinement. In so doing, the trial court took the position that Lewis’ plea was not a negotiated plea. However, the record shows that the parties had a plea discussion with the trial judge in chambers prior to Lewis’ plea and that the trial judge “went along” with the State’s recommendation at the time of the plea. Although this discussion was not transcribed, it appears from the colloquy at the time of the plea that the State had made a sentence recommendation and that the trial court had agreed to sentence Lewis in conformity therewith, provided that Lewis later testified truthfully at the trial of his co-defendants. Accordingly, we find that Lewis’ plea was negotiated and that the trial court had accepted the plea under the terms understood by the parties.
