Login | January 21, 2025
Appellate panel upholds lower court’s rape conviction
KEITH ARNOLD
Special to the Legal News
Published: January 21, 2025
A three-judge panel of the Fifth District Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentencing of a Delaware man indicted on multiple counts of rape and gross sexual imposition in addition to charges of domestic violence and menacing by stalking in August 2018.
The appellate panel overruled 48-year-old David Morris’ arguments, which included claims that the trial court abused its discretion and breached the terms of a plea agreement and ineffective assistance of counsel.
Morris “indicates the trial court abused its discretion by failing to hold a hearing on Morris’ motion to withdraw his plea and by denying the motion the same day it was filed,” Fifth District Judge Andrew King wrote for the 3-0 panel. “The argument that follows appears to raise a newly-discovered evidence argument which Morris then states is ‘an argument for another appeal.’”
The judge noted that a defendant is not automatically entitled to an evidentiary hearing on a post-sentence motion to withdraw a guilty plea.
“A hearing is not required if the ‘record indicates that the movant is not entitled to relief and the movant has failed to submit evidentiary documents sufficient to demonstrate a manifest injustice,’” King wrote, citing State v. Russ. “Our review of the record indicates Morris’ motion was simply a repeat of his previous grounds to withdraw his pleas which he made in four prior motions and on same grounds that this court addressed.”
Morris pleaded guilty to three counts of rape and two counts of gross sexual imposition Feb. 7, 2019, according to background of the case.
The prosecutor dismissed the other charges included in the indictment in exchange for Morris’ guilty pleas.
As a part of the plea agreement, the parties agreed to a sentencing recommendation of a mandatory term of 25 years to life incarceration, summary provided.
The trial court issued its sentencing entry on Feb. 19, 2019, sentencing Morris to a total indefinite and mandatory prison term with a minimum of 25 years and a maximum term of life imprisonment.
According to case background, Morris did not file a direct appeal. Rather, he filed a motion to withdraw his guilty pleas on Nov. 25, 2019, and argued his pleas were not knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily entered because the sentence was contrary to law.
The trial court denied the motion the same day.
Morris, who is incarcerated at Pickaway Correctional Institution in Orient, has filed additional motions to withdraw his pleas, all of which have been denied by the lower court.
The current appeal pertains to the trial court’s July 9, 2024, denial of the motion.
“Morris argues the state was without authority to sentence him and failed to adhere to law when it offered him an illegal agreed upon plea agreement causing a sentence that was contrary to law,” King wrote. “In his fourth assignment of error, Morris argues the trial court breached the plea agreement by allowing the state to orally alter the plea agreement. In his fifth assignment of error, Morris argues his trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance by permitting him to illegally sign away his rights. Each of these arguments could have been raised in a direct appeal or were addressed in State v. Morris, and are therefore barred from consideration in the instant matter.”
Fifth District Presiding Judge William Hoffman and Judge Craig Baldwin concurred with King’s opinion.
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