Withdraw Guilty plea, no mens re

DA 07-0673
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF MONTANA
2009 MT 32
STATE OF MONTANA,
v.
SHAUN WAYNE WISE, a/k/a SHANADOA JOHNSON,
Appellant Shaun Wise pled guilty to criminal mischief in the Twenty-First Judicial
District Court, Ravalli County. He later moved to withdraw his guilty plea, and the
District Court denied his motion. We reverse and remand.
The sole issue presented for our review is whether the District Court erred in
denying Appellant’s motion to withdraw his guilty plea.
Here, the colloquy was clearly inadequate and Wise made a timely request for
withdrawal. We have said that “[a] significant part of the voluntariness inquiry is an evaluation of the court’s plea colloquy with the defendant . . . .” State v. Chase, 2006 MT 19, 331 Mont. 1, 127 P.3d 1038 (overruled on other grounds, Deserly, Wise simply did not “own up” to a criminal intention required by the charge. Although the State cites to the affidavit filed in support of the Information, the information provided therein was either directed toward the dismissed exploitation charge, or simply discussed the damage Wise caused, again without indicating that there was a criminal design to cause the damage.
The District Court incorrectly concluded that there was a factual basis for Wise’s
plea, a violation of § 46-12-212(1), MCA, which casts doubt on the voluntariness of
Wise’s plea, and which he timely moved to withdraw. Because we resolve doubt about
the voluntariness of a plea in a defendant’s favor, we hold that the case-specific
considerations warrant withdrawal of the plea. We reverse the District Court’s denial and
remand the case to the District Court so that it may grant Wise’s motion.
Reversed and remanded for further proceedings consistent herewith.