Appellants no contest plea was not invalid where it was entered outside of the sixty-day limit imposed by a federal district court order requiring retrial. The court of appeal first held that the relevant date for determining the sixty days was the date that the order was entered, not the date that it was signed by the district court judge. The court further held that the defendant was still lawfully subject to the normal custody status attendant to the fact that he was charged by information with a felony, and that the district courts imposition of sixty-day time period in which the prosecution was required to discharge appellant from the consequences of his previous conviction did not prevent retrial after the expiration of that sixty-day period. Further, there was no allegation that the no contest plea was involuntary; thus, the court refused to find that the plea was invalid.
Case Summaries