Echeverria v. Commissioner of Correction

Citations

• 193 Conn. App. 1

Syllabus

The petitioner, a citizen of Bolivia, sought a writ of habeas corpus, claiming that his trial counsel had provided ineffective assistance by failing to advise him adequately as to the immigration consequences of his plea of guilty to certain offenses that subjected him to deportation. The petitioner initially was charged with offenses that exposed him to twelve years of imprisonment. After the petitioner received a plea offer from the state, the trial court indicated that it would allow the petitioner to enter an open guilty plea with no agreed upon sentence to two charges and offered to vacate the plea and grant the petitioner's application for accelerated rehabilitation if the petitioner paid a $10,000 fine. The petitioner then entered a guilty plea. It was subsequently determined that the petitioner was ineligible for accelerated rehabilitation, and the state and the petitioner agreed on a sentence of five years of imprison- ment, execution suspended, with three years of probation. The petitioner did not ask to withdraw his guilty plea. After the petitioner was sen- tenced, deportation proceedings against him were initiated. At the habeas trial, the petitioner testified that, at the time he entered his plea, he understood that if it was determined that he was ineligible for accelerated rehabilitation, he could be deported. He also testified that he did not think he would be deported after he accepted a plea agreement that did not require him to serve any time in prison. The habeas court rendered judgment denying the habeas petition and granted the petition for certification to appeal, and the petitioner appealed to this court. Held that the habeas court properly rejected the petitioner's ineffective assistance of counsel claim and denied the habeas petition, that court having properly determined that the petitioner failed to demonstrate that he was prejudiced by his trial counsel's allegedly deficient perfor- mance: the habeas court credited the testimony of the