McMillian v. State

Corrie McMillian was charged with aggravated child molestation. Pursuant to a negotiated plea agreement, the state reduced the charge to child molestation and recommended a 10-year sentence to be served concurrently with another sentence that McMillian was already serving. McMillian pled guilty to the reduced charge. At the plea hearing on August 28, 2001, the Telfair County Superior Court determined on the record that McMillian understood the nature of the charge, that he understood the rights he was waiving by pleading guilty, that he understood the terms of the negotiated plea agreement, that he was entering his plea knowingly and voluntarily, and that there was a factual basis for the plea. The trial court accepted McMillian’s guilty plea and the state’s recommendation of a 10-year sentence to run concurrently with the sentence he was already serving.

More than five months later, on February 3, 2002, McMillian filed a motion for an out-of-time appeal, claiming that the trial court erred in failing to inform him that he had the right to withdraw his guilty plea prior to the imposition of a sentence. The trial court denied the motion. McMillian appeals from that denial.