Douglas Edgar Johnson, currently incarcerated at Hays State Prison in Chattooga County, appeals pro se from orders entered by the Rockdale County Superior Court dismissing his pro se “Motion to Correct Void Judgment and to Correct Illegally Merged Sentence” in Case No. A07A2178; dismissing his pro se “Motion to Withdraw Guilty Pleas to Correct Manifest Injustice” in Case No. A07A2179; denying his pro se “Motion for Appointment of Counsel” in Case No. A07A2180, and denying his pro se “Motion for Out-of-Time Appeal” in Case No. A07A2181. Johnson’s motions were filed in April 2007, and concerned the December 1984 judgment of conviction and sentence imposed on him after he pled guilty to various offenses in Rockdale County Superior Court. In December 1984, Johnson, who was represented by counsel, pled guilty to all the charges brought against him in an eight count indictment arising from allegations that Johnson, a convicted felon, entered the home of the two victims a husband and wife, assaulted and robbed each victim using a pistol and a knife, and sexually assaulted and raped the wife. The indictment charged Johnson with burglary count one; aggravated assault on the husband count two; aggravated assault on the wife count three; armed robbery on the husband count four; armed robbery on the wife count five; aggravated sodomy and rape on the wife counts six and seven, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon count eight. After pleading guilty, Johnson was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences on counts four and five, plus concurrent sentences of life on count six; twenty years each on counts one, two, three, and seven, and five years on count eight.
1. In his motion in Case No. A07A2178, Johnson contends that the judgment of conviction was void and therefore any sentence imposed pursuant to the judgment was illegal. He does not contend that the sentences imposed were illegal or void because they were outside the allowable range of statutory punishment. Crumbley v. State , 261 Ga. 610, 611 409 SE2d 517 1991; Jones v. State , 278 Ga. 669, 670 604 SE2d 483 2004. In support of his contention that the judgment was void, Johnson alleged that various counts in the indictment should have merged; that there were no facts to establish essential elements of the burglary charge and both armed robbery charges, and that the indictment was fatally defective for lack of notice on the burglary charge. Based on these allegations, Johnson moved for the superior court to void the judgment pursuant to OCGA § 17-9-4, which provides that “the judgment of a court having no jurisdiction of the person or subject matter, or void for any other cause, is a mere nullity and may be so held in any court when it becomes material to the interest of the parties to consider it.”1
