State v. Nagele
Annotate this CaseDefendant pled guilty to attempted aggravated sexual battery and was sentenced to six years of enhanced probation. During the proceedings, the trial court did not warn Defendant that, upon the expiration of his sentence, he would be subjected to lifetime community supervision, which is mandated by statute for Defendant's conviction. Before Defendant's sentence expired, the State filed a petition to amend the judgment to include lifetime community supervision. The trial court corrected the judgment, and Defendant filed a motion to withdraw his guilty plea. The trial court denied the motion. The court of criminal appeals affirmed, holding that Defendant had been adequately informed of the lifetime community supervision requirement by his trial counsel. The Supreme Court reversed, holding that because the trial court failed to warn Defendant of the mandatory nature of lifetime community supervision, as was required by the Court's recent ruling in Ward v. State, and because the State was unable to establish that the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, Defendant was permitted to withdraw his guilty plea. Remanded.
Court Description: The defendant pled guilty to attempted aggravated sexual battery and was sentenced to six years of enhanced probation. At the time, the trial court did not warn the defendant that, upon the expiration of his sentence, he would be subjected to lifetime community supervision,which is mandated by statute upon a conviction for attempted aggravated sexual battery and other sex offenses. Just before the sentence expired, the State filed a petition to amend the judgment to include lifetime community supervision. On the same day that the trial court corrected the judgment, the defendant filed a motion to withdraw his guilty plea, which the trial court denied. On appeal, the Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed, holding that the defendant had been adequately informed of the lifetime community supervision requirement by his trial counsel. We granted the defendant s application for permission to appeal to determine the effect of our decision in Ward v. State, 315 S.W.3d 461 (Tenn. 2010), which was filed after the release of the opinion of the Court of Criminal Appeals. Because the trial court failed to warn the defendant of the mandatory nature of lifetime community supervision, as is required by our ruling in Ward, and the State was unable to establish that the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals is reversed and the cause is remanded to the trial court to permit the defendant to withdraw his plea of guilt.
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