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State v. Tovar1/23/2003
oked. The defendant should be admonished that by waiving his right to an attorney he will lose the opportunity to obtain an independent opinion on whether, under the facts and applicable law, it is wise to plead guilty. In addition, the court must ensure the defendant understands the nature of the charges against him and the range of allowable punishments. Only with this information can the defendant make an informed and intelligent decision whether to forgo the assistance of counsel given the risks and possible outcomes.
Here, the State's only proof of the knowing and intelligent nature of Tovar's waiver of counsel in his first OWI prosecution is the court's plea colloquy with the defendant. Because the district court did not engage Tovar in any meaningful discussion concerning his waiver of counsel at the plea proceeding, we cannot conclude that Tovar understood the usefulness of counsel at that stage or knew the dangers and disadvantages of proceeding pro se. As a result, the record does not support a finding that Tovar's waiver of counsel was made knowingly and intelligently. Therefore, it was error for the district court to allow the State to use Tovar's prior conviction of first-offense OWI to enhance the current charge to a third-offense OWI.
We vacate the court of appeals decision affirming the defendant's conviction. We also reverse the district court's judgment of conviction and remand for entry of judgment without consideration of the defendant's prior OWI conviction based on his uncounseled guilty plea.
DECISION OF COURT OF APPEALS VACATED; JUDGMENT OF DISTRICT COURT REVERSED AND CASE REMANDED.
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