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Kennedy v. State

The defendant's guilty plea waived his right to challenge the stop and search, which led to the charges against him.

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Juan Kennedy entered a negotiated guilty plea to various offenses,1 and then timely filed a pro se direct appeal from the judgment of conviction and sentence entered on the plea. We now affirm.

Before our consideration of Kennedy’s claims, it is necessary to first examine the State’s motion to dismiss this appeal, in which it argues that there is nothing for this Court to consider in this case because Kennedy did not file and obtain a ruling on a motion to withdraw his plea, a petition for habeas corpus or a plea in arrest of judgment. It is true 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.” Smith v. State, 253 Ga. 169 316 SE2d 757 1984. E.g., Smith v. State, 266 Ga. 687 470 SE2d 436 1996 emphasizing that the right to directly appeal from a guilty plea is not an unqualified right. “Thus, the merits of Kennedy’s 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.” Caine v. State, 266 Ga. 421 467 SE2d 570 1996. And “in reviewing a direct appeal from a guilty plea, this Court must evaluate the enumerated errors based solely on ‘the trial court record, including the record of the guilty plea and sentencing as well as any subsequent evidence that was properly presented to the reviewing court, assuming all of that is also properly included in the record on appeal.” Tyner v. State, 289 Ga. 592, 593-594 2 714 SE2d 577 2011.

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