United States v. Adrian Ibarra , 562 F. App'x 583 ( 2014 )

NOT FOR PUBLICATION
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FILED
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT MAR 13 2014
MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, No. 13-50141
Plaintiff - Appellee, D.C. No. 8:11-cr-00165-DOC-3
v.
MEMORANDUM*
ADRIAN IBARRA,
Defendant - Appellant.
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Central District of California
David O. Carter, District Judge, Presiding
Argued and Submitted March 5, 2014
Pasadena, California
Before: PREGERSON, PAEZ, and HURWITZ, Circuit Judges.
Adrian Ibarra appeals his jury conviction and sentence for possession of
methamphetamine with intent to distribute, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1).
As the facts and procedural history are familiar to the parties, we do not recite them
*
This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by 9th Cir. R. 36-3.
here except as necessary to explain our disposition. We have jurisdiction pursuant
to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and 18 U.S.C. § 3742, and we affirm.
A. Ibarra’s motion to suppress his confession
A denial of a motion to suppress is reviewed de novo. United States v.
Barnes, 713 F.3d 1200, 1202 (9th Cir. 2013). Under Federal Rule of Criminal
Procedure 12(b)(3)(C), motions to suppress evidence must be raised prior to trial.
Under Rule 12(e), failure to bring a timely suppression motion constitutes waiver
of the issue. During the suppression hearing, Ibarra argued that his confession
should be excluded because the officers engaged in an improper “two-step
interrogation” prohibited by Missouri v. Seibert, 542 U.S. 600 (2004). Ibarra also
questioned the officer’s failure to record the exact questions asked during the
advisement of Ibarra’s Miranda rights. Ibarra did not, however, argue that the
confession should be suppressed as an involuntary statement induced by threats of
long-term imprisonment.
Ibarra has therefore waived on appeal any contention that the confession
should be suppressed as involuntary. “It does not matter that [Ibarra] made a pre-
trial motion to suppress on other grounds, for just as a failure to file a timely
motion to suppress evidence constitutes a waiver, so too does a failure to raise a
particular ground in support of a motion to suppress.” United States v. Wright,
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215 F.3d 1020, 1026 (9th Cir. 2000) (internal quotation marks omitted) (emphasis
added).
B. Ibarra’s ineffective assistance of trial counsel claim
“As a general rule, we do not review challenges to the effectiveness of
defense counsel on direct appeal. Rather, we prefer to review ineffective
assistance of counsel claims in habeas corpus proceedings under 28 U.S.C.
§ 2255.” United States v. Moreland, 622 F.3d 1147, 1157 (9th Cir. 2010) (internal
quotation marks and citations omitted). But there are two instances when this court
reviews ineffective assistance of counsel claims on direct appeal: “(1) when the
record on appeal is sufficiently developed to permit review and determination of
the issue, or (2) when the legal representation is so inadequate that it obviously
denies a defendant his Sixth Amendment right to counsel.” United States v. Ross,
206 F.3d 896, 900 (9th Cir. 2000) (internal quotation marks omitted). Neither of
these exceptions apply to the present case. Thus, we decline to review Ibarra’s
ineffective assistance of counsel claim.
C. The district court’s finding of ninety-five percent purity of
methamphetamine
The district court’s application of the Sentencing Guidelines to the facts is
reviewed for an abuse of discretion. United States v. Carty, 520 F.3d 984, 993 (9th
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Cir. 2008) (en banc). The sentence imposed is reviewed for “reasonableness,” and
only a procedurally erroneous or substantively unreasonable sentence will be set
aside. See Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 51 (2007).
“[D]istrict courts are free to make factual determinations not made by the
jury and may base their ultimate decisions regarding the length of a convicted
criminal’s sentence on those determinations.” United States v. Staten, 466 F.3d
708, 719 (9th Cir. 2006). Apprendi v. New Jersey only requires a jury finding of
proof beyond a reasonable doubt for any fact, other than the fact of a prior
conviction, that increases the statutory maximum sentence. 530 U.S. 466, 476
(2000); United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220, 244 (2005). Apprendi does not
require a jury finding on facts that may increase the sentence within the statutory
range authorized by the jury’s verdict. See Booker, 543 U.S. at 233 (“[W]hen a
trial judge exercises his discretion to select a specific sentence within a defined
range, the defendant has no right to a jury determination of the facts that the judge
deems relevant.”); United States v. Buckland, 289 F.3d 558, 570 (9th Cir. 2002)
(en banc) (“Apprendi does not alter the authority of the judge to sentence within the
statutory range provided by Congress.”).
Here, the district court determined by clear and convincing evidence that
because the offense involved 3.5 kilograms of actual methamphetamine—which
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exceeds the 1.5 kilograms required under U.S.S.G. 2D1.1(c)(1)—the base offense
level was 38, with a criminal history category of II. And although Alleyne v.
United States, 133 S. Ct. 2151 (2013), requires that facts triggering a mandatory
minimum sentence or a heightened statutory maximum sentence must be found by
a jury, the jury found that the offense involved more than 500 grams of
methamphetamine. This finding alone was sufficient to trigger the statutory 20-
year-mandatory minimum sentence under 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(A)(viii). The
district court could then make other factual findings related to sentencing within
the statutory range set forth by the jury’s verdict.
Moreover, the district court explicitly noted that it consulted the Guidelines
in its determination. Although the mandatory minimum sentence was 240 months
imprisonment, after considering the 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) factors, the court imposed
a sentence of 262 months imprisonment, which was still within the statutory range
set forth in 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(A)(viii).
AFFIRMED.
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