2012-M-220           Frank Duane Lussier, petitioner, Appellant, vs. State of Minnesota, Respondent.

On March 17, 2003, appellant Frank Duane Lussier fatally stabbed his wife, Sharlene.  On April 8, 2003, he was charged by grand jury indictment with first-degree murder while committing domestic abuse, in violation of Minn. Stat. § 609.185(a)(6) (2010).  Lussier later pled guilty to the charged offense and was sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole.  He did not appeal.  He filed this post-conviction petition, alleging that his guilty plea was invalid because it lacked a proper factual foundation.  The State did not respond to Lussier’s petition nor has it responded to Lussier’s appeal to our court.  The post-conviction court denied relief on the ground that the petition was untimely and lacked substantive merit.  We need not address

the issues of whether Lussier’s post-conviction petition was untimely under Minn. Stat. § 590.01, subd. 4(a) (2010), or whether it fell within the interests-of-justice exception of Minn. Stat. § 590.01, subd. 4(b)(5) (2010), because the petition lacks substantive merit.  Having concluded that the petition lacks substantive merit, we affirm the post-conviction court’s denial of relief and decline to reach Lussier’s other arguments.

HELD:  First, a motion to withdraw a guilty plea made after sentencing must be raised in a petition for post-conviction relief and the timeliness of the motion is treated the same as “the manner in which delays in filing petitions for post-conviction relief are treated,” including the time limitations in Minn. Stat. § 590.01, subd. 4 (2010).

Second, a grand jury transcript, which is part of the record and was admitted during a guilty plea hearing without objection, may establish a proper factual basis for a guilty plea.

Third, the post-conviction court did not err when it denied appellant’s post-conviction petition on the basis that the petition lacked substantive merit.   Affirmed.

Page (Gildea, Paul Anderson, Barry Anderson, Dietzen, and Stras)

Took no part:  Wright

[MURDER] [DOMESTIC]