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Key v. State3/1/2002
r the influence of crack cocaine, and that trial counsel were unaware of this fact because they did not properly investigate the plea. He also appears to argue that trial counsel should have objected to the introduction of the evidence about that conviction, because, he says, there was no factual basis for the stalking charge.
Conflicting evidence was presented at the hearing on the motion for a new trial regarding Key's alleged cocaine intoxication at the time he entered his guilty plea to the aggravated stalking charge. Key testified at the hearing that he had ingested cocaine during a break in the guilty-plea proceedings, and he presented the testimony of two of his friends, who stated that they saw him smoke crack cocaine the day before the murder. The attorney who represented Key at the plea proceeding testified that Key was lucid and did not appear to be under the influence of any substance on the morning the plea was taken. Moreover, during the plea colloquy, Key stated to Judge Monk that he was not under the influence of any intoxicating substance.
At the hearing on the motion for a new trial, Judge Monk questioned Key about the plea proceeding. Key acknowledged to the court that he had answered all of the court's questions at the proceeding and indicated that he could point to nothing in the transcript of the proceeding that supported his claim that he was under the influence of crack cocaine when he entered the plea. Key further admitted that, until the day of the hearing on the motion for a new trial, he had not told anyone that he ingested crack cocaine at the courthouse. As the State notes in its brief to this Court, Key's failure to inform trial counsel of his alleged ingestion of cocaine on the day he entered the guilty plea substantially undermined Key's claim that counsel's failure to challenge the plea on that basis constituted deficient performance.
The trial court, having considered the testimony offered by the witnesses at the hearing on the motion for new trial, and having presided over the trial and the prior plea proceeding, was in a far better position than is this Court to judge the credibility of the witnesses. At the conclusion of the hearing, Judge Monk stated that Key demonstrated an obvious inability to testify truthfully or credibly. This Court will not substitute its judgment for that of the trial court in such circumstances. Key has demonstrated no basis upon which this Court should set aside the trial court's decision on this claim for relief.
3. Key's assertion that defense counsel rendered deficient performance because they did not challenge the prior stalking conviction as having been unsupported by any evidence is equally unavailing. Trial counsel testified at the hearing on the motion for a new trial that he obtained the file from the attorney who had represented Key on the 1998 charge, and he had reviewed the contents of the file. Although counsel stated that he believed the State had "kind of an iffy case," he further testified that he did not consider filing a motion to set aside the plea. (R. 1524.) Harmon Bayne Smith, who represented Key on the aggravated-stalking charge, testified at the posttrial hearing that there was no question in his mind, based on the evidence in his file, that Key would have been convicted of aggravated stalking if the case had gone to trial. Smith further testified that he did not believe there were any defects in the plea proceeding that would have resulted in the conviction's being vacated.
As with Key's claim that his plea to the aggravated stalking was invalid because he was under the influence of crack cocaine when he entered the plea, his claim regarding the lack of evidence to sup
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