Supreme Court of Delaware

Denial of defendant's request to withdraw his guilty plea to felony offenses is affirmed where the superior court judge did not abuse his discretion by denying defendant's motion to withdraw his guilty plea as: 1) defendant, defense counsel, and the prosecutor were all present for the plea colloquy and no one told the judge that there was an agreement between defendant and the state outside of the written plea agreement; and 2) thus, the judge reasonably relied on the written plea agreement and the parties' representations in open court. However, because on appeal both the state and defendant conceded the existence of an "oral agreement" outside the written plea agreement, the matter is remanded for findings as to whether defendant fulfilled its terms for purposes of barring the State from requesting that he be declared an habitual offender.

Appellate Information

• Decided 04/26/2007
• Published 04/27/2007

Judges

• STEELE, Chief Justice., Before STEELE, Chief Justice, HOLLAND and JACOBS, Justices.

Court

• Supreme Court of Delaware

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Bernard J. O'Donnell, Office of the Public Defender, Wilmington, Delaware, for appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• John R. Williams, Department of Justice, Dover, Delaware, for appellee.