Summary
The Illinois Appellate Court, Second District, affirmed the revocation of Adam Gomez’s probation and his four-year prison sentence for aggravated domestic battery. The court held that the trial court did not substantially comply with Illinois Supreme Court Rule 402A when accepting Gomez’s stipulation to a probation violation, but concluded that reversal was unwarranted because Gomez did not establish prejudice or show that real justice was denied. A special concurrence agreed with the result and emphasized the trial court’s failure to provide complete Rule 402A admonishments.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the trial court substantially complied with Illinois Supreme Court Rule 402A before accepting Gomez's admission or stipulation to violating probation.
- Whether reversal and remand were required despite deficient Rule 402A admonishments when Gomez did not allege that he was prejudiced or that real justice was denied.
Holdings
- The trial court did not substantially comply with Rule 402A because the record did not establish that Gomez understood his rights to confront and cross-examine adverse witnesses and to present witnesses and evidence on his behalf. The admonishments given more than three years earlier in the underlying guilty-plea proceeding were insufficient to establish substantial compliance with those probation-revocation admonishments.
- Reversal was not required because Gomez did not allege or demonstrate prejudice or denial of real justice. In particular, he did not assert that he would not have stipulated to the violation had he been properly admonished, and he had no plausible defense to the revocation petition because he had pleaded guilty to the DUI that formed the basis of the violation.
Key quotations
““[S]ubstantial compliance, [is] a specific and affirmative showing in the record that the defendant understood each of the required admonitions.”” (¶ 17)
““The failure to properly admonish a defendant, alone, does not automatically establish grounds for reversing [a] judgment or vacating [a] plea.”” (¶ 18)
““As such, we fail to see how even perfect, literal compliance with Rule 402A would have changed the result here.”” (¶ 29)
Factual background
Gomez pleaded guilty to aggravated domestic battery and domestic battery and received 60 days in jail and 30 months of probation. One probation condition required him to obey all federal and state laws and local ordinances. During probation, he was arrested in Boone County for DUI, later pleaded guilty to DUI, and stipulated that the conviction violated his probation. The trial court accepted the stipulation and later revoked probation and sentenced him to four years in prison.
Procedural history
Gomez pleaded guilty in the Kane County circuit court to aggravated domestic battery and domestic battery in exchange for 60 days in jail and 30 months of probation. During probation, the State alleged multiple violations, including that Gomez committed DUI. Gomez pleaded guilty to DUI and then entered a cold stipulation to violating probation. The circuit court revoked probation and sentenced him to four years' imprisonment; after the court denied his motion to reconsider the sentence, he timely appealed.