State v. Edwin Urbina (A-49-13; 073209)

State v. Edwin Urbina (A-49-13; 073209) 

The trial court’s failure to make further inquiry into defendant’s apparent assertion of self-defense, including ensuring that defendant truly understood the law of self-defense and that the State bears the burden of disproving self-defense once asserted, renders it unclear whether defendant’s plea was truly knowing, intelligent, and voluntary and requires vacation of his plea of guilty to aggravated manslaughter.