This opinion is subject to revision before final publication in the Pacific Reporter 2020 UT 3 IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF UTAH STATE OF UTAH, Respondent, v. STEPAN BADIKYAN, Petitioner. No. 20180883 Heard October 8, 2019 Filed January 30, 2020 On Certiorari to the Utah Court of Appeals Second District, Farmington The Honorable David M. Connors No. 141700828 Attorneys: Sean D. Reyes, Att’y Gen., Christopher D. Ballard, Asst. Solic. Gen., Salt Lake City, for respondent Scott L. Wiggins, Salt Lake City, for petitioner CHIEF JUSTICE DURRANT authored the opinion of the Court, in which ASSOCIATE CHIEF JUSTICE LEE, JUSTICE HIMONAS, JUSTICE PEARCE, and JUSTICE PETERSEN joined. CHIEF JUSTICE DURRANT, opinion of the Court: Introduction ¶1 Stepan Badikyan pled guilty to attempted murder. Before sentencing, he filed a motion to withdraw his plea, which the district court denied. When Mr. Badikyan appealed this denial to the court of appeals, he raised a new challenge under the plain-error exception to the preservation rule. Relying on our recent interpretations of STATE v. BADIKYAN Opinion of the Court Utah’s Plea Withdrawal Statute1 in State v. Rettig2 and State v. Allgier,3 the court of appeals held that it lacked jurisdiction to hear Mr. Badikyan’s unpreserved claim. He then petitioned for a writ of certiorari, which we granted. We affirm the court of appeals. In so doing, we hold that the Plea Withdrawal Statute bars review of unpreserved claims raised as part of an appeal from the denial of a timely plea-withdrawal motion.4 Background ¶2 On May 29, 2014, Mr. Badikyan stabbed his wife in the arm with a box cutter. He agreed to drive her to the hospital, but on the way he changed course and told her they were “both going to die that day.” When Mr. Badikyan stopped at an intersection, his wife fled the car. He then chased her down, tackled her to the ground, and stabbed her again with the box cutter, this time in the side and neck. Several bystanders stopped Mr. Badikyan and held him down until the police arrived. ¶3 The State charged Mr. Badikyan with three crimes: attempted murder, evidence tampering, and aggravated assault. He initially pled not guilty to all three charges. But he later struck a deal with the State and pled guilty to attempted murder. In exchange, the State dismissed the other two charges and agreed it would not oppose Mr. Badikyan when he requested credit for time served. ¶4 At Mr. Badikyan’s change-of-plea hearing, his trial counsel prepared a plea agreement that listed information about the plea and the agreed-upon facts. Mr. Badikyan is a native Armenian who “speaks very little English, and does not read English.” So before he pled guilty, an interpreter translated the terms of his plea agreement and assisted him at the change-of-plea hearing. Mr. Badikyan’s trial counsel stated at the hearing that the interpreter translated the plea agreement “verbatim word-for-word,” and trial counsel was confident Mr. Badikyan understood the agreement. _____________________________________________________________ 1 UTAH CODE § ...
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