Jackson Thomas Howard pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter. Howard requested and the trial court granted him an out-of-time appeal in which he argues that he received ineffective assistance of counsel at the time of the plea agreement. After reviewing the record, we conclude there was no reversible error and affirm. The underlying facts are that Howard and the victim Brandon Bridges were in a room with several other people when Bridges reached into his pocket for a cigarette lighter. In doing so, he brushed against the girl beside him, who was a close friend of his. She told Bridges “don’t grab my butt.” Howard said, “Yeah, that’s a good way to get shot.” Bridges said, “so shoot me.” Howard pulled out a gun and pulled the hammer back. Bridges said, “No, if you are going to do that, just put it to my head.” Howard walked over to Bridges and put the gun to his head. Bridges counted to three and Howard shot him.
Howard was charged with malice murder, two counts of aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. In a negotiated plea deal, Howard pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter and the State dropped the other three counts. He now claims there was no evidence to support a plea of voluntary manslaughter because the shooting was an accident and he did not intend to fire the gun at Bridges. Howard argues that he did not understand that the crime of voluntary manslaughter had the element of intent. Also, he contends that if his attorney had told him that accident was a defense to the crime charged, he would never have pled guilty. He also claims that the plea should have been involuntary manslaughter, not voluntary manslaughter.1 A ruling on a motion to withdraw a guilty plea lies within the sound discretion of the trial court and will not be disturbed absent a manifest abuse of such discretion. When the validity of a guilty plea is challenged, the state bears the burden of showing affirmatively from the record that the defendant offered his plea knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily. However, if the motion to withdraw is based on an ineffective assistance of counsel claim, the defendant bears the burden of showing that, had it not been for his attorney’s deficient representation, a reasonable probability exists that he would have insisted on a trial. Payne v. State , 271 Ga. App. 619, 619-620 610 SE2d 572 2005.
