Fifteen months after his guilty plea to two separate charges of armed robbery,1 Bill Williams, acting pro se, filed a motion to vacate a null and void conviction and sentence. He appeals the trial court’s denial of that motion, arguing that his guilty plea was not voluntarily entered because his counsel rendered ineffective assistance and that the trial court abused its discretion by failing to consider sentencing him under the First Offender Act.2 For the reasons set forth below, we affirm. The record shows that in August 2006, Williams was indicted on charges of armed robbery and aggravated assault in connection with the robbery of a taxi-cab driver and was separately indicted on those same two charges in connection with the robbery of a pizza delivery person. On October 8, 2007, Williams pled guilty to the two armed robbery charges. At the plea hearing, the trial court determined on the record that Williams, with the assistance of counsel, understood the nature of the charges, that he understood the rights he was waiving by pleading guilty, and that he was entering his plea freely and voluntarily. In addition, the trial court determined that Williams had not been coerced or threatened into entering his plea, that it was supported by a factual basis, and that he understood the range of the sentence that could be imposed. As a result, the trial court accepted Williams’s plea and imposed two life sentences to run concurrently.
On October 23, 2007 two weeks after he was sentenced, Williams, who was now acting pro se, filed a motion to withdraw his guilty plea, claiming that his plea counsel rendered ineffective assistance, that his plea was neither voluntary nor supported by a factual basis, and that the trial court abused its discretion by not considering him for first offender treatment. In his motion, Williams also requested that the court set a date for a hearing on the issue. On October 30, 2007, the trial court denied Williams’s motion to withdraw his guilty plea without holding a hearing. Williams did not appeal this decision.3 On January 5, 2009, Williams filed a “motion to vacate/set aside/correct null and void conviction and sentence,” in which he again argued that his plea was not voluntary because his counsel had rendered ineffective assistance and that the trial court had abused its discretion by not considering him for first offender treatment in sentencing. In an order issued on April 14, 2009, the trial court denied Williams’s motion. This appeal followed.
