GARRETT v. STATE

QUILLIAN, Chief Judge.

The appellant was convicted of the offense of burglary and brings this appeal. Appellate counsel has filed a motion to withdraw on the ground that the appeal was wholly frivolous. Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738 ( 87 SC 1396, 18 L.Ed.2d 493); Bethay v. State, 237 Ga. 625 ( 229 S.E.2d 406). All requirements of Anders and Bethay having been met, after examination of the record and transcript we granted permission of counsel to withdraw.

The defendant has filed a pro se brief with an enumeration of errors complaining of failure of the trial court to provide him with a copy of his trial transcript, and after he "released his court-appointed attorney" he states he was not appointed "counsel to help with his appeal. . ." "[An] indigent criminal defendant does not have an absolute right to discharge one court-appointed counsel and have another substituted in his place. A request of this sort addresses itself to the sound discretion of the trial court." Burney v. State, 244 Ga. 33, 35 ( 257 S.E.2d 543). From our review of the record and transcript we conclude the trial court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to appoint the defendant a second attorney for purposes of this appeal.

"While there is a basic right to a free transcript to perfect a timely direct appeal, there is no absolute right to a free transcript just so the prisoner may have it, and some justification for use in a habeas corpus or related proceeding must be shown in order to be entitled to such records in a collateral attack on the sentence." Mydell v. Clerk, 241 Ga. 24 ( 243 S.E.2d 72); see also Wise v. Skinner, 244 Ga. 225 ( 259 S.E.2d 475). In Corn v. State, 240 Ga. 488 ( 241 S.E.2d 245) the defendant's pro se petition to the trial court for a transcript was denied. The Supreme Court affirmed because the case was then on appeal — with counsel and with the transcript. Also, in Heard v. Allen, 234 Ga. 409 ( 216 S.E.2d 306) the Supreme Court denied a writ of mandamus for a copy of the defendant's trial transcript "because the convictions were being appealed by appellant's court-appointed attorney who had in his possession all of the requested records." We find no error in the trial court's denial of defendant's request for a second trial transcript and a different court-appointed attorney.

Judgment affirmed. McMurray, P. J., and Pope, J., concur.