Guilty plea barred direct appeal of habitual felon challenge

The North Carolina Supreme Court held that a defendant who pleaded guilty to attaining habitual felon status had no statutory right to directly appeal the validity of that plea, and therefore the North Carolina Court of Appeals lacked jurisdiction to consider the challenge.
The case arose after the defendant was convicted by a jury of multiple counts of embezzlement and obtaining property by false pretenses stemming from a scheme that defrauded elderly travel clients of more than $100,000. The defendant also pleaded guilty to attaining habitual felon status based on three prior felony convictions from Colorado. The trial court accepted the plea after finding it was entered knowingly and voluntarily and that an adequate factual basis supported the habitual felon allegation.
On appeal, the defendant argued that one of the Colorado convictions could not serve as a predicate felony because Colorado had subsequently reclassified the offense from a felony to a misdemeanor. The Court of Appeals concluded it possessed jurisdiction under a statutory provision permitting certain appeals following guilty pleas involving unauthorized terms of imprisonment and ultimately rejected the defendant’s argument on the merits.
The Supreme Court reversed without addressing the underlying habitual felon issue. The court explained that North Carolina law strictly limits a defendant’s right to appeal after entering a guilty plea. According to the court, the defendant’s challenge did not concern the length of the sentence imposed or whether the sentence exceeded statutory limits. Instead, it attacked the validity of the trial court’s acceptance of the guilty plea to habitual felon status.
Because such challenges are not among the narrow categories for which a direct appeal is authorized, the court held that review could be sought only through a petition for writ of certiorari. The Court of Appeals therefore lacked jurisdiction to decide the appeal after concluding the defendant had an appeal of right and dismissing the certiorari petition as moot. The Supreme Court remanded the case, leaving unresolved whether the Colorado conviction remained a valid predicate offense for habitual felon status.
The 13 page opinion is State of North Carolina v. Mincey, Lawyers Weekly No. 010-016-26.