STATE OF NEW JERSEY v. AFOLABI OSHINAIKE (05-04-0538, UNION COUNTY AND STATEWIDE)


NOT FOR PUBLICATION WITHOUT THE APPROVAL OF THE APPELLATE DIVISION This opinion shall not "constitute precedent or be binding upon any court." Although it is posted on the internet, this opinion is binding only on the parties in the case and its use in other cases is limited. R. 1:36-3. SUPERIOR COURT OF NEW JERSEY APPELLATE DIVISION DOCKET NO. A-0927-20 STATE OF NEW JERSEY, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. AFOLABI OSHINAIKE, a/k/a AFOLABI C. OSHINAIKE, Defendant-Appellant. ____________________________ Submitted May 9, 2022 – Decided August 24, 2022 Before Judges Accurso and Enright. On appeal from the Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division, Union County, Indictment No. 05-04- 0538. Joseph E. Krakora, Public Defender, attorney for appellant (Monique Moyse, Designated Counsel, on the brief). William A. Daniel, Union County Prosecutor, attorney for respondent (Joseph M. Nielsen, Assistant Prosecutor, of counsel and on the brief). PER CURIAM Petitioner Afolabi C. Oshinaike appeals from an order dismissing his petition for post-conviction relief (PCR) as time-barred and without merit and denying his Slater1 motion premised on alleged ineffective assistance in connection with his 2005 guilty plea to third-degree possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, an aggravated felony that subjected petitioner to mandatory deportation, 8 U.S.C. §§ 1101(a)(43)(B), 1227(a)(2)(A)(iii), for which defendant was sentenced to probation conditioned on 180 days in the county jail. The PCR judge dismissed the petition without an evidentiary hearing, rejecting petitioner's claim his plea counsel gave him incorrect advice about the immigration consequences of his plea, which he had no reason to question before he was placed in U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention in 2019. Although petitioner's arrest report, criminal history and pre-trial intervention (PTI) papers all correctly reflect he was born in Nigeria or a non- citizen, or both, he answered "Yes sir" when the judge taking his plea asked if he was a United States citizen, and the pre-sentence report, which plea counsel claimed was accurate, states petitioner was born in New York. Petitioner, who was twenty years old when he entered his plea and a lawful permanent resident 1 State v. Slater, 198 N.J. 145, 157-58 (2009). A-0927-20 2 since he entered the country at age thirteen with his parents, claimed he answered the judge the way he did because he "thought as a permanent resident that I was just like a United States citizen. I just could not vote." He certified his counsel, who told him he "would not be deported . . . because [he] was not going to State prison" was aware he was a green card holder, but did not correct his misstatement to the judge. Petitioner averred that had he known he was facing mandatory deportation, he "would never have agreed to enter a guilty plea and . . . would have gone to trial." He made no representation as to the error in the pre-sentence report. The judge rejected petitioner's explanation, finding petitioner "[u]nder oath, unambiguously and without any apparent confusion, . . . falsely testified that …

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