Plea validity requirements; MCR 6.302; People v Cole; Post-sentence withdrawal; MCR 6.310(C)(1); People v Brinkey; Cobbs evaluation compliance; MCR 6.310(B)(2)(b); People v Cobbs

The court held that defendant’s guilty plea was knowing and voluntary and that he had no absolute right to withdraw it because the sentence imposed fell within the trial court’s Cobbs evaluation of the “bottom one-third” of the guidelines. Defendant pled guilty to CSC III after the trial court gave a Cobbs evaluation that it would sentence within “the bottom one-third of the guidelines whatever they may be at the time of sentencing.” The guidelines minimum range later calculated was 87 to 181 months, and the court imposed 118 to 270 months after correcting an initial 120-month minimum. The trial court denied defendant’s motion to withdraw his plea, rejecting his alternative computations of the “bottom one-third.” On appeal, the court held that the plea was understanding and voluntary, explaining that a defendant “must be fully aware of the direct consequences of the plea,” and that the record showed the trial court promised only to sentence within the bottom third once the range was known. No “express range was articulated in the trial court’s preliminary evaluation.” The court noted that defendant “could not have fairly interpreted the Cobbs evaluation that his sentence would fall within ‘the bottom one-third of the guidelines,’ to require a sentence entirely and significantly below his guidelines range.” It also found that withdrawal was not required post-sentence because the Cobbs evaluation was honored, reiterating that a defendant has an absolute right to withdraw only “if the judge later determines that the sentence must exceed the preliminary evaluation.” Affirmed.