United States v. Herrera , 289 F. App'x 302 ( 2008 )

FILED
United States Court of Appeals
Tenth Circuit
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS August 13, 2008
Elisabeth A. Shumaker
TENTH CIRCUIT Clerk of Court
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff–Appellee,
No. 07-2247
v.
(D.C. No. CIV-05-934-JAP-DJS)
(D.N.M.)
JOSE HERRERA,
Defendant–Appellant.
ORDER DENYING CERTIFICATE
OF APPEALABILITY
Before LUCERO, TYMKOVICH, and HOLMES, Circuit Judges.
Jose Herrera, a federal prisoner proceeding pro se, seeks a certificate of
appealability (“COA”) to appeal the district court’s denial of his 28 U.S.C.
§ 2255 motion to vacate, set aside, or correct his sentence. For substantially the
same reasons set forth by the district court, we deny a COA and dismiss the
appeal.
On April 8, 2003, following his plea of guilty pursuant to a plea agreement
with the government, Herrera was convicted of possession with intent to
distribute cocaine. After classifying Herrera as a career offender under United
States Sentencing Guidelines (“Guidelines”) § 4B1.1, the district court sentenced
him to 262 months’ imprisonment. Herrera filed a direct appeal to this court,
challenging the district court’s failure to grant him a downward sentencing
departure under U.S.S.G. § 4A1.3. We dismissed the appeal because Herrera had
validly waived his right to appeal a within-Guidelines sentence through the plea
agreement he signed with the government. See United States v. Herrera, 105 Fed.
App’x 963, 968 (10th Cir. 2004) (unpublished).
Herrera subsequently moved the district court to vacate, set aside, or
correct his sentence under 28 U.S.C. § 2255, asserting three grounds for relief:
(1) his sentence violated United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220 (2005), because
his sentence was enhanced using facts not found by a jury; (2) his trial and
appellate counsel were ineffective in failing to challenge the district court’s
sentencing conclusions based on Booker; and (3) his trial counsel was ineffective
for misadvising him about his potential sentencing exposure under the plea
agreement. The district court summarily dismissed his Booker-related arguments,
but referred the ineffective assistance of counsel claim regarding the plea
agreement to a magistrate judge. It later adopted the magistrate’s
recommendation that the ineffective assistance claim be dismissed and entered
final judgment on September 11, 2007.
On September 27, 2007, Herrera filed a motion for reconsideration, and
three days later he filed a notice of appeal. On October 12, 2007, he filed an
application for a COA. The district court denied both the motion for
reconsideration and a COA, and Herrera thereafter filed an amended notice of
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appeal. We construe Herrera’s amended notice of appeal as a renewed application
for a COA. Fed. R. App. P. 22(b)(2). 1
Because the district court denied Herrera’s request for a COA, Herrera may
not appeal its decision on his § 2255 motion absent a grant of COA by this court.
28 U.S.C. § 2253(c)(1). A COA may issue “only if the applicant has made a
substantial showing of the denial of a constitutional right.” § 2253(c)(2). This
requires Herrera to show “that reasonable jurists could debate whether (or, for
that matter, agree that) the petition should have been resolved in a different
manner or that the issues presented were adequate to deserve encouragement to
proceed further.” Slack v. McDaniel, 529 U.S. 473, 484 (2000) (quotations
omitted). Herrera has failed to show a denial of a constitutional right with respect
to any of the arguments he advanced in the district court or on appeal.
First, although Herrera raised two Booker-related issues in his original
§ 2255 motion, he has abandoned them by failing to discuss them in his pro se
appellate brief. See United States v. Martin, 528 F.3d 746, 751 n.2 (10th Cir.
2008). Second, Herrera argues on appeal that the government violated his plea
1
After this appeal was initially docketed, we asked the parties to address
whether Herrera’s motion for reconsideration was filed in the district court within
the 10-day filing period prescribed by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 59(e). Our
subsequent review of the full procedural history of the case, however, reveals that
the timeliness of the motion does not matter. Because Hererra filed timely
notices of appeal as to both the district court’s entry of final judgement and its
denial of the motion to reconsider, we have jurisdiction regardless of whether the
motion was timely filed. See Fed. R. App. P. 4(a)(1)(A).
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agreement, citing Santobello v. New York, 404 U.S. 257 (1971). But he failed to
raise any such claim below, and we therefore will not consider whether he is
entitled to a COA on the issue. See Rhine v. Boone, 182 F.3d 1153, 1154 (10th
Cir. 1999).
In the only issue properly presented to this court, Herrera renews his claim
that counsel was ineffective for misadvising him regarding his potential
sentencing exposure under the plea agreement. According to his § 2255 motion,
counsel told Herrera that he faced only 60 to 70 months’ imprisonment under the
plea agreement. It was not until after his Presentence Investigation Report
(“PSR”) was issued, Herrera argues, that he was informed that U.S.S.G. § 4B1.1’s
career-offender enhancement would likely apply.
Under Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687 (1984), Herrera must
show that his counsel’s actions fell below an objective standard of
reasonableness, and that this conduct prejudiced the proceedings such that, absent
counsel’s errors, the outcome would have been different. We employ a strong
presumption that counsel acted within the wide range of reasonable professional
assistance. Id. at 689.
Herrera has not overcome this basic presumption. From the record before
us, it appears that counsel arrived at a mistaken sentencing range because neither
counsel, nor the government, knew of Herrera’s prior convictions before the
probation office prepared Herrera’s PSR. According to the district court, such
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convictions were not immediately discoverable because Herrera used various
aliases when he was convicted of these earlier drug-related offenses. But Herrera,
of course, knew of his prior convictions, and he does not claim that he disclosed
them to either his counsel or the government at any point prior to issuance of the
PSR used by the district court. Moreover, we have previously recognized that
“[a] miscalculation or erroneous sentence estimation by defense counsel is not a
constitutionally deficient performance rising to the level of ineffective assistance
of counsel.” United States v. Gordon, 4 F.3d 1567, 1570-71 (10th Cir. 1993).
This is particularly true here, where Herrera failed to advise counsel of facts
necessary to arrive at an accurate Guidelines calculation. In addition, Herrera
assented to a plea agreement that recognized that he faced a potential life
sentence, and the plea agreement stated that the final sentence would be
determined solely based on the district court’s discretion.
The petition for a COA is DENIED. We GRANT Herrera’s motion to
proceed in forma pauperis.
ENTERED FOR THE COURT
Carlos F. Lucero
Circuit Judge
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