PEOPLE OF MI V ANGELIQUE JEAN BERDINKA
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STATE OF MICHIGAN
COURT OF APPEALS
PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN,
UNPUBLISHED
March 17, 2009
Plaintiff-Appellee,
v
No. 279511
Oceana Circuit Court
LC No. 06-006068-FC
ANGELIQUE JEAN BERDINKA,
Defendant-Appellant.
Before: Sawyer, P.J., and Zahra and Shapiro, JJ.
MEMORANDUM.
Defendant appeals by delayed leave granted, seeking reversal of the trial court’s denial of
her motion to withdraw her guilty plea. Defendant pleaded guilty to armed robbery, MCL
750.529, and to possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony (felony-firearm),
MCL 750.227b. Defendant was sentenced to four years, three months to 25 years’ imprisonment
for armed robbery, and to a consecutive two-year term on the felony-firearm count. We affirm.
Defendant’s sole issue on appeal is that the trial court abused its discretion in denying her
motion to withdraw her plea of guilty to felony-firearm. People v Adkins, 272 Mich App 37, 38;
724 NW2d 710 (2006). Defendant argues that it was not until after the robbery had been
completed by her two male accomplices that she came to know that the two men were armed.
To establish a factual basis for the felony-firearm charge at issue here, the trial court was
required to find that defendant’s accomplices carried or possessed firearms in the commission of
the robbery, that defendant performed acts to assist them in carrying or possessing the firearms
during the robbery, and that defendant intended the carrying or possessing of firearms during the
robbery or had knowledge that her accomplices intended to carry or possess firearms during the
robbery. People v Moore, 470 Mich 56, 70-71; 679 NW2d 41 (2004). The plea transcript
demonstrates that the trial court could properly find a factual basis for each of these elements.
See People v Jones, 190 Mich App 509; 476 NW2d 646 (1991).
At the motion hearing, the trial court indicated that its primary ground for denying
defendant’s motion was that the court disbelieved defendant’s testimony at the motion hearing
denying knowledge of the firearms. We give due regard to the trial court’s credibility
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assessments. People v Nielsen, 34 Mich App 261, 265; 191 NW2d 121 (1971).1 Accordingly,
we see no abuse of discretion amounting to a miscarriage of justice in the court’s denial of the
motion to withdraw the plea of guilty to felony-firearm.
Affirmed.
/s/ David H. Sawyer
/s/ Brian K. Zahra
/s/ Douglas B. Shapiro
1
The vitality of this tenet of the law is made all the more apparent in this case, where the court
indicated that it had come into the hearing inclined to grant defendant’s motion, but that this
changed once the court heard defendant’s testimony.
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