Jose Sanchez was indicted for multiple sexual offenses and pleaded guilty during trial. Two days after judgment, he filed a pro se motion to withdraw the plea, asserting that trial and plea counsel had coerced him. Although the written motion was filed while counsel technically remained of record, the trial court held a hearing during the same term, treated Sanchez as responsible for his own representation, and permitted his former counsel to testify for the State against the motion. The Court of Appeals of Georgia held that these unusual circumstances clearly severed the attorney-client relationship by the hearing, so Sanchez could pursue the timely plea-withdrawal challenge he presented there. The court distinguished the written motion filed while counsel remained on the case from the claim actually litigated at the hearing. It vacated the later order dismissing Sanchez’s motion and remanded for the trial court to consider the merits. A concurrence in the judgment and a separate concurrence recognized the procedural posture without changing the result.