Postconviction Motion-Plea

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WI Court of Appeals – District III

Case Name: State of Wisconsin v. Dante Robert Voss

Case No.: 2021AP001350-CR

Officials: Stark, P.J., Hruz and Gill, JJ.

Focus: Postconviction Motion-Plea

Voss, appealed pro se appealing judgments of conviction and an order denying his postconviction motion without a hearing. Voss’s convictions were based on guilty and no-contest pleas to various offenses in Marathon County cases. The court affirmed the lower court’s denial of Voss’s postconviction motion on all grounds except two. First, the court agreed with Voss that his plea may not have been entered knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily because the circuit court misstated the maximum potential punishment he faced. The court understated the potential imprisonment by over eight years, a discrepancy that Voss claimed he was unaware of at the time of his plea. As a result, the appeals court reversed and remanded for a Bangert hearing to determine if Voss was aware of the correct maximum penalties. Second, the court agreed that Voss was entitled to an additional day of sentence credit for his time in custody on September 18, 2015, related to a dismissed and read-in charge, following the State v. Fermanich decision which mandates such credits. Other claims by Voss, including ineffective assistance of counsel, involuntary waiver of postconviction counsel, and additional sentence modification based on newly discovered evidence, were rejected. The court found that Voss failed to demonstrate that his counsel’s performance was deficient or that any alleged deficiency prejudiced his defense. The court also ruled that Voss’s waiver of postconviction counsel was made knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily, and his claims for additional sentence credit were either already addressed or insufficiently substantiated.

The court’s decision was a mixed ruling, affirming parts of the lower court’s decision, reversing others, and remanding with specific directions for further proceedings.

Affirmed in part, reversed in part and remanded.

Decided 05/29/24

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