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Allen v. State

In his appeal from child molestation convictions, the defendant failed to demonstrate a reasonable probability that he would not have pled guilty if his trial counsel had not disclosed to the State that he tested positive for chlamydia under the mistaken belief that applicable discovery rules required disclosure.

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Ricky Marcus Allen appeals from the denial of his motion to withdraw a negotiated guilty plea, contending that his plea was involuntary because he received ineffective assistance of counsel during plea negotiations. Specifically, he argues that trial counsel performed deficiently by 1 failing to file a special demurrer that would have allowed him to develop an alibi defense, and 2 disclosing to the State his request for a sexually transmitted disease test1 and sharing the positive result with the State. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

After a sentence is pronounced, the decision whether to allow the withdrawal of a guilty plea lies within the sound discretion of the trial court, and this Court will not reverse the trial court’s decision absent a manifest abuse of that discretion. When the validity of a guilty plea is challenged, the State bears the burden of showing that the plea was voluntarily, knowingly, and intelligently made. The State may do this by showing through the record of the guilty plea hearing that 1 the defendant has freely and voluntarily entered the plea with 2 an understanding of the nature of the charges against him and 3 an understanding of the consequences of his plea. The trial court is the final arbiter of all factual issues raised by the evidence. While the State ultimately bears the burden of showing that a guilty plea was voluntarily, knowingly, and intelligently made, however, a defendant who pleads guilty and seeks to overturn his conviction because of counsel’s errors must show both that counsel’s performance was deficient and that there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel’s errors, he would not have pleaded guilty and would have insisted on going to trial.2

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