Legal row over plea

To plea or not to plea? That was a central question in a Magistrates Court case yesterday. A lawyer argued, as a basis for an appeal, that Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner did not formally change a plea in his client’s case.

Devaun Cox, 29, was jailed in May for harassing a young girl on a bus in March 2012. Cox initially pleaded not guilty and a trial was due to begin.

But on March 13, the defendant indicated he wanted to change his plea to guilty. After asking Cox numerous times if he was sure he wanted to change his plea, Mr Warner adjourned the matter for a week and told Cox he wouldn’t accept the plea until he had retained legal counsel.

A week later, Kamal Worrell appeared in court as Cox’s lawyer and the matter was adjourned until May 2 for sentencing. Mr Warner ordered pre-sentencing reports and recorded a guilty plea.

Yesterday, the court recordings of the proceedings were played during the hearing.

Mr Worrell claimed a guilty plea was never recorded for his client and appealed his client’s conviction on that basis.

He argued the court proceeded on the basis that his client had changed his plea to guilty, when in fact he hadn’t.

Crown counsel Takiyah Burgess said it was her submission that the plea was changed and argued it was recorded in Mr Warner’s notes.

Interjecting, Puisne Judge Stephen Hellman said: “The Senior Magistrate says I’m not going to accept the plea today. I will set it down. No change of plea was taken that day. The defendant did say he wanted to plead guilty, but what Mr Worrell is saying is that the magistrate didn’t take the plea.”

Mr Hellman continued: “In a sense, it doesn’t matter what the Magistrate writes. If the information is not put to the defendant, how do you plead guilty or not guilty?”

Ms Burgess argued that Mr Warner writing the plea down was equivalent to the plea being changed. She also said the Senior Magistrate didn’t have to read out the charges to Cox at that time.

Mr Hellman adjourned the matter for a date to be fixed where he will deliver his judgement. Cox was remanded into custody.

Pending the outcome of the judgement, an appeal on sentence and the wording of the indictment could happen.