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Published by the Indiana Office of Court Services

McWhorter v. State, No. 33A05-1010-PC-685, __ N.E.2d __ (Ind. Ct. App., Mar. 23, 2011)

March 25, 2011 Filed Under: Criminal Tagged With: Appeals, B. Barteau

BARTEAU, S.J.
McWhorter argues that the trial court should not have accepted his guilty plea to residential entry because he proclaimed his innocence as to that charge during the guilty plea hearing. Specifically, McWhorter claims that he believed that he had received consent to enter the Smalls’ garage and that he had raised the question of consent at the hearing. A defendant’s reasonable belief that he had permission of the dwelling’s owner to enter is a defense to the charge of residential entry. Webster v. State, 708 N.E.2d 610, 614 (Ind. Ct. App. 1999), trans. denied. A valid guilty plea is a confession of guilt made directly to a judicial officer and necessarily admits the incriminating facts alleged. Carter v. State, 739 N.E.2d 126, 128 (Ind. 2000). Therefore, an Indiana trial court may not accept a guilty plea that is accompanied by a denial of guilt. Id. at 129. This rule was designed to both increase the reliability of guilty pleas and to prevent the diminishment of respect for the court system as jailing people who committed no crime. Norris v. State, 896 N.E.2d 1149, 1152 (Ind. 2008).
In this case, at McWhorter’s guilty plea hearing, he agreed with the trial court’s statement that he knowingly broke into and entered the dwelling of Betty and Teddy Small. In addition, McWhorter stated that he saw no inaccuracies in the police reports. In the police reports, Betty stated that she did not know McWhorter. When he was asked if he knew he was not in his town of residence when he entered the Smalls’ garage, McWhorter stated, “going from what I said that night, I thought I was in Honey Creek.”  [Footnote omitted.]  . . . McWhorter conceded at the guilty plea hearing that his memory of the night in question was not very clear. Given McWhorter’s agreement that he broke into the Smalls’ home and his agreement that the Smalls did not know him, McWhorter’s statement that he may have been confused as to his location was not sufficient to raise a defense of consent. Under these circumstances, McWhorter did not proclaim his innocence while pleading guilty to residential entry, and the trial court did not err by accepting McWhorter’s guilty plea.
DARDEN, J., and RILEY, J., concur.

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