Collie Caeser Williams appeals the denial of his motion to withdraw a plea of guilty on two counts of aggravated assault. He contends he entered his plea under a misapprehension of facts and that withdrawal of his plea is necessary to correct a manifest injustice. Williams was indicted on one count of rape and the two counts of aggravated assault. The court held a plea hearing on March 9, 2011. At the hearing, the State explained that it agreed to a nolle prosequi on the count of rape and that Williams would plead guilty to the other two counts. In addition, the State made a “cap recommendation,” that is it recommended that Williams be sentenced on the first assault count to 20 years to be served entirely in custody and that he be sentenced on the second assault count to an additional 20-year sentence consecutive to first to be served on probation, so that combined, Williams’s sentence would be capped at 40 years to serve 20.
The State stated that the factual basis for the case was that as of November 1, 2008, Williams and the victim, who had two children together, were separated, and that Williams had moved out of their apartment. Although the victim was dating someone else, she also still saw Williams. And on this day, they met after work, went to a restaurant, and returned to the victim’s apartment where they got into an argument about her dating others. The argument escalated and the victim asked Williams to leave, but he grabbed her and pushed her into a bathroom, breaking a towel rack. He also shoved her face against the mirror and grabbed her around the throat. He shoved her causing her head to hit the toilet rendering her disoriented. She sustained scratch marks on her neck and an injury to an eye. She attempted to escape and to telephone her mother, but was unsuccessful. The assault continued in the bedroom, where Williams raped the victim; the State had DNA evidence for trial. Some time later, Williams’s own mother arrived, and after Williams refused to allow the victim to come to the door, Williams’s mother called the police. The police arrived and the victim answered the door disheveled, frightened, and explaining what had happened. The officers found Williams hiding in a closet. The State asserted that the first aggravated assault occurred when Williams choked the victim in the bathroom and that the second was the assault associated with the sexual encounter.
