Gregory William Cuppett v. State

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia

ATLANTA,____________________ October 28, 2014

The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order: A15A0235. CUPPETT v. THE STATE.

Appellant in the above-referenced appeal was convicted on June 16, 2014 after entering a guilty plea, and proceeding pro se, he filed a timely notice of appeal on June 30, 2014 indicating that he wished to raise, inter alia, a claim of ineffective assistance of trial counsel. After the notice of appeal was filed, the trial court appointed counsel to represent appellant. Consequently, appellant has now filed a motion with this Court, seeking a remand of this case to the trial court so that his counsel can investigate his ineffective-assistance claim and raise it before the trial court. Given the fact that “this appeal was [a]ppellant’s first opportunity to raise the issue of ineffective assistance of trial counsel, we will remand the case for an evidentiary hearing on that claim.” Hung v. State, 282 Ga. 684, 685 (2) (653 SE2d 48) (2007) (punctuation omitted). Accordingly, it is hereby ordered that this case be remanded to the trial court so that the court can conduct an evidentiary hearing on appellant’s claim that trial counsel was ineffective. It is further ordered that if the trial court finds that appellant was denied ineffective assistance of trial counsel, appellant shall be entitled to a new trial; however, if the trial court finds that appellant was not denied ineffective assistance of trial counsel, then appellant will be entitled to file a notice of appeal within 30 days of the entry of any such adverse order.

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia 10/28/2014 Clerk’s Office, Atlanta,____________________ I certify that the above is a true extract from the minutes of the Court of Appeals of Georgia. Witness my signature and the seal of said court hereto affixed the day and year last above written.

, Clerk.