Facts: Pursuant to the terms of a plea agreement, petitioner John Codiga pled guilty to three counts of child molestation in the Superior Court for Grant County. After an investigation revealed additional prior convictions that had not been considered in calculating Codiga’s offender score and which increased Codiga’s standard sentencing range, Codiga was sentenced. Codiga subsequently moved to withdraw his guilty plea on grounds that he had not been accurately informed of the consequences of his plea insofar as the sentence that was imposed was outside of the standard sentencing range that he had agreed to. The Washington Court of Appeals affirmed Codiga’s conviction and sentence, holding that Codiga’s guilty plea had been knowing, intelligent, and voluntary given that a clause in the plea agreement specifically stipulated that the discovery of additional criminal history could increase the standard sentencing range. Codiga appealed this decision to the Supreme Court of Washington.

Question(s): Did the increase in Codiga’s offender score as a result of newly discovered prior convictions render his guilty plea involuntary?

Conclusion: Justice Bridge’s opinion for the Court affirmed the Washington Court of Appeals, concluding that as the change to Codiga’s offender score was the result of newly discovered facts that Codiga had failed to disclose rather than the result of an error in calculation, Codiga was bound by the clause in the plea agreement in which he accepted the risk of newly discovered prior convictions increasing his standard sentencing range regardless of whether he orally confirmed the clause to the trial court.

Docket No. 79127-9 (from Court of Appeals Division III Case No. 24027-4)

Appellant: John Codiga

(Counsel: David N. Gasch)

Appellee: State of Washington

(Counsel: John Dietrich Knodell III and Teresa Jeanne Chen)

Briefs:

Argument: Tuesday, September 25, 2007 1:30pm

[Source: TVW, http://tvw.org]

Decided: Thursday, January 31st, 2008

Prevailing Party: State of Washington (Appellee)

Vote: 9-0

Citation: Pending

Court: Alexander4 Court (2008-2009)

Alexander

Johnson

Madsen

Sanders

Bridge
(Majority)

Chambers
(Concurs)

Owens

Fairhurst

Johnson