Gilles v. State

This is an appeal from an order of the district court denying a petition for postconviction relief. The case arises out of the fatal shootings by defendant of his former wife and mother-in-law in 1965. Initially charged with first-degree murder as a result of those shootings, defendant was permitted, over the state’s opposition, to plead guilty to charges of second-degree murder, for which he received concurrent sentences of 40 years. Thereafter, on direct appeal to this court, defendant challenged the convictions claiming that when he pleaded guilty he was so emotionally upset and nervous…