Alton Hooks was charged with two counts of malice murder, two alternative counts of felony murder involving the same victims, two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and one count of possession of a knife during the commission of a felony. The State did not file a notice of intent to seek the death penalty. A jury found Hooks guilty on all counts. The trial court merged the aggravated assault counts into the murder counts and entered judgment of conviction for each of the remaining counts. Based on OCGA § 17-10-7 c, the trial court sentenced Hooks as a recidivist to four consecutive terms of life imprisonment without parole for the murder counts. The trial court also sentenced Hooks to a five-year term on the weapons charge. After Hooks filed a motion for new trial, the State offered to allow Hooks to be re-sentenced on the murder counts to only two consecutive sentences of life imprisonment with the possibility of parole. At a hearing, defense counsel expressed Hooks’ desire to accept the State’s offer and stated that “he would waive all further motions and appeals and any other appellate remedies that may be available to him . . . in exchange for this re-sentencing.” Upon questioning by the trial court, Hooks acknowledged his own understanding of the re-sentencing and his agreement not to pursue those matters raised in the motion for new trial. The trial court re-sentenced Hooks as agreed. Thereafter, Hooks withdrew the motion for new trial, stating that “it was agreed by all parties that the motion would be withdrawn by him in light of the consent modification to his earlier sentence of life without parole . . . .”
About four years later, Hooks filed a pro se motion to vacate void sentences and a motion for out-of-time appeal, contending that the trial court erred in imposing multiple sentences in a single prosecution for offenses which were the same as a matter of fact and law, and in finding a valid waiver of Hooks’ rights to a motion for new trial and an appeal in exchange for the removal of void sentences. Hooks also asserted that defense counsel rendered ineffective assistance by advising him to waive those rights when the trial court had an inherent duty to remedy the imposition of a punishment which the law does not allow. The trial court denied the motion, stating that Hooks “waived all further motions and appeals and any other appellate remedies that may be available to him, in exchange for re-sentencing from life without parole to life.” Hooks directly appeals pro se from that order. See Chester v. State , 284 Ga. 162 SE2d 2008; Simmons v. State , 276 Ga. 525, fn. 2 579 SE2d 753 2003.
