Well that’s what happens when you take a plea deal. He pled guilty in return for the prosecution recommending a lighter sentence. The judge, however, doesn’t have to follow the sentencing recommendation, and he didn’t. I suppose it’s possible that he just went in and pled guilty without any deal, but that would have been phenomenally stupid, and I’m sure that didn’t happen. If you insist to your lawyer you want to plead guilty, your lawyer is going to say, “Ok, let me talk to the ADA and see what they can do for you.” They’re not going to just let you go into court and make that plea without talking to the prosecutor first. Not all plea deals are dramatic and take days of negotiations. Sometimes they happen in court literally minutes before you go in front of the judge.
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