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Pope v. The State

Court affirms denial of defendant's pro se motion to withdraw his guilty plea to malice murder because the motion was untimely filed

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Bethel, Justice. In September 2018, Jomekia Dechelle Pope pleaded guilty to malice murder and felony murder in connection with the immolation death of Latosha Taylor.[1] Nearly two years later, in June 2020, Pope filed a pro se motion to withdraw the guilty plea on various grounds, which he later amended. In a December 2023 order, the trial court rejected Pope’s motion as untimely, and Pope now appeals.[2] Because Pope’s motion to withdraw his guilty plea was indeed untimely, we affirm. “A motion to withdraw a guilty plea must be filed within the same term of court as the sentence entered on the guilty plea.” Brooks v. State, 301 Ga. 748, 751 (2) (804 SE2d 1) (2017) (citation and punctuation omitted). Once that term of court has expired, “a trial court lacks jurisdiction to permit the withdrawal of a guilty plea,” Bankston v. State, 307 Ga. 656, 657 (2) (837 SE2d 788) (2020) (citation and punctuation omitted), and the defendant “must pursue such relief through habeas corpus proceedings,” Shoicket v. State, 312 Ga. 825, 827 (1) (865 SE2d 170) (2021). Pope’s motion to withdraw his guilty plea was indisputably untimely: it was filed in the Bibb County Superior Court in June 2020, nearly two years after his September 2018 sentencing by that court and well beyond the expiration of the term of court in which he was sentenced. See OCGA § 15-6-3 (23) (A) (terms of court for the Bibb County Superior Court commence the “[f]irst Monday in February, April, June, August, October, and December”). The trial court thus lacked jurisdiction to consider Pope’s motion to withdraw his plea and properly rejected it. Accordingly, we affirm.[3] Judgment affirmed. All the Justices concur, except Colvin, J., disqualified.

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