Pleading Guilty to Aggravated Battery With a Firearm In Illinois

The defendant in People v. Mendez, 387 Ill. App. 3d 311, 316, 900 N.E.2d 299, 326 Ill. Dec. 663 (2008) pleaded guilty to aggravated battery with a firearm. His agreement with the State provided that he would be sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment and that other charges would be dismissed. Before accepting the defendant's plea, the trial court advised him: "'the way this was charged, it is a Class X felony, which means that its possible penalties could have been between six and thirty years in the Department of Corrections with three years of mandatory supervised release or what was known as parole.'" Mendez, 387 Ill. App. 3d at 313. The trial court further stated: "'Under certain circumstances you could receive an extended term sentence. That could mean between thirty and sixty years, with three years of mandatory supervised release.'" Mendez, 387 Ill. App. 3d at 313. Without mentioning MSR, the trial court then reiterated that the mandatory minimum sentence was six years' imprisonment.