Once Trial Court Accepted Guilty Plea & Adjudicated Defendant Guilty, State Had No Authority to Appeal Denial of It’s Motion To Vacate Plea.

State v. Martinez-Mendoza, Minn.S.Ct., 8/31/2011.  The state charged Mr. Martinez-Mendoza with first and second criminal sexual conduct for the sexual abuse of his girlfriend’s daughter.  The parties cut a deal whereby Mr. Martinez-Mendoza under which he would plead guilty to second degree criminal sexual conduct, receive the presumptive sentence, which the plea petition stated was 90 months, and dismiss the other count.  The trial court took the plea, adjudicated Mr. Martinez-Mendoza guilty and set a sentencing date.

At sentencing, it turned out that the presumptive sentence was only 36 months, and stayed at that.  The state moved to vacate the plea; or to reinstate the top CSC I count.  The prosecutor said that he’d relied on a colleague's opinion that the presumptive sentence was ninety months; the defense attorney said he wasn’t sure whether the  the presumptive sentence was 90 or 36 but wrote 90 on the petition to placate the prosecutor. Both counsel agreed that the plea agreement contemplated a 90 month sentence.   The trial court had not looked up the presumptive sentence. 

The trial court said that the lawyers  had been a mistake about the presumptive sentence, but that they had nonetheless made a valid plea agreement that called for dismissal of one count and a guidelines sentence for the plea to the other count.  The trial court imposed the presumptive sentence.  The court of appeals heard the state’s appeal and said that there had been a mutual mistake and reversed.  The supreme court reverses the court of appeals.

There is a preliminary, jurisdictional issue:  what’s the state’s authority to appeal the trial court’s denial of its motion to vacate, etc.?  Rule 28.04, subd. 1 allows the state to appeal from any pretrial order so long as jeopardy has not attached, so is that sufficient?  Does it matter that the trial court had both accepted the plea and adjudicated Mr. Martinez-Mendoza guilty?  Yes, it does.  Jeopardy attached when the trial court accepted the plea and adjudicated him guilty.  That means that the state had no authority to pursue an appeal.

In a footnote, responding to the vigorous dissents, the court says that the mistake about the length of the presumptive sentence was irrelevant to determining the terms of the agreement, which called for the presumptive guidelines sentence.  Finally, the court left open the question whether the state can recharge Mr. Martinez-Mendoza with the top CSC I count.