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Monday, September 15, 2014

STATE OF NEW JERSEY V. WILLIAM SMULLEN A-0722-12T4

STATE OF NEW JERSEY V. WILLIAM SMULLEN 
A-0722-12T4 

Defendant pled guilty in 2003 to two counts of second degree sexual assault, N.J.S.A. 2C:14-2c(4), based on having consensual sexual intercourse on two separate occasions with a fifteen-year-old girl. In this appeal from the denial of a PCR petition, we hold defendant established a prima facie case of ineffective assistance of counsel based on his attorney's failure to inform him, before he pled guilty, of the nature and scope of the community supervision for life restrictions he would face in his home state of New York, pursuant to N.J.S.A. 2C:43-6.4. We remand the PCR judge to conduct an evidentiary hearing, pursuant to Rule 3:22-10(b), to determine whether there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's errors, defendant would not have pled guilty and would have insisted on going to trial. State v. Nunez-Valdez, 200 N.J. 129, 138 (2009).