Jefferson (William) v. State

 ("When a defendant pleads guilty pursuant to a plea agreement containing
a sentencing recommendation, and the district court accepts the proffered
guilty plea, the district court retains wide discretion in imposing
sentence." (footnote omitted)); see also Sandy v. Fifth Judicial Dist. Court,
113 Nev. 435, 440 & n.1, 935 P.2d 1148, 1151 & n.1 (1997) (noting that
"plea agreements may not invade the traditionally judicial function of
what penalty to impose" and, therefore, trial judge may reject sentence
bargains that purport to guarantee defendants certain sentence (citation
omitted)).
Second, Jefferson argues that the district court abused its
discretion in rejecting the plea agreement by not following the sentence
recommendation in the agreement. He further contends that the district
court should have set forth its reasoning for rejecting the plea agreement.
Lastly, he asserts that the district court should have given him an
opportunity to withdraw the guilty plea when it rejected the recommended
sentence. We disagree. Jefferson conflates a rejection of the plea
agreement—the district court's refusal to accept a defendant's guilty plea
entered pursuant to an agreement, see, e.g., Sparks v. State, 104 Nev. 316,
322-24, 759 P.2d 180, 184-85 (1988)—with a rejection of the sentencing
recommendation made in the plea agreement. Although the district court
did not follow the parties' sentencing recommendation, it did not reject the
plea agreement; the district court accepted Jefferson's guilty plea made
pursuant to the plea agreement. The language of the guilty plea
agreement did not bind the court to impose the recommended sentence nor
did it condition Jefferson's plea on the district court's imposition of the
recommended sentence. It specifically stated that the court was not
obligated to accept the parties' sentencing recommendation. Jefferson's
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reliance on Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 11 for the proposition that
a defendant must be afforded an opportunity to withdraw his plea if the
district court does not follow the sentencing recommendation is misplaced
because the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure do not apply in Nevada's
state courts. See FRCP 1(a)(1). Moreover, Nevada's legislature
specifically rejected this proposition by repealing the statute that allowed
this procedure, see 1993 Nev. Stat., ch. 279, § 1, at 828-29, and we decline
Jefferson's invitation to hold that a defendant must be allowed to
withdraw his plea if the district court declines to follow the parties'
sentencing recommendation.
Having considered Jefferson's contentions and concluded that
they lack merit, we
ORDER the judgment of conviction AFFIRMED.
f``--14AA ..eg.0641 , J.
Hardesty
J.
Parraguirre V
ck.
Cherry
cc: Hon. Kathleen E. Delaney, District Judge
Hon. Adriana Escobar, District Judge
Nguyen & Lay
Attorney General/Carson City
Clark County District Attorney
Eighth District Court Clerk
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