Martinez-Medina v. United States

277 F. App'x 1
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedMay 8, 2008
DocketNo. 06-1594
StatusPublished

This text of 277 F. App'x 1 (Martinez-Medina v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the First Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Martinez-Medina v. United States, 277 F. App'x 1 (1st Cir. 2008).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

Pro se appellant Marcos Martlnez-Medi-na appeals from the district court’s denial of his motion to vacate his sentence under 28 U.S.C. § 2255. For reasons given below, we affirm. On appeal, Martinez also raises new claims, which are outside the scope of the certificate of appealability (COA) granted by the district court. As to such claims, we deny a COA. We begin with background.

I. Background

In 1998, Martínez and various co-defendants were convicted of conspiring to possess with intent to distribute and distribution of multi-kilograms of cocaine, heroin, and marijuana in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) and § 846. At his sentencing hearing in 1999, the district court found that Martinez had committed certain murders in furtherance of the drug conspiracy, a finding that significantly increased the applicable sentencing guideline range. Eventually, the court imposed the high end of the guideline range — -a prison term of 405 months, or nearly 34 years. Martinez appealed, and his appeal was consolidated with appeals by two of his co-defendants.

On appeal, Martinez’s appointed appellate attorney, who had also been his trial attorney, challenged his conviction and sentence. During the pendency of the appeal, Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000), was decided. In a supplemental brief, counsel raised an Apprendi claim, alleging that Martinez’s sentence had been based on murders that were neither charged in the indictment nor determined by the jury beyond a reasonable doubt. In her brief, however, counsel conceded that Martinez was responsible for more than 500 grams of cocaine and that the 40-year statutory maximum in § 841(b)(1)(B) applied.

We affirmed Martinez’s conviction and sentence. We rejected his Apprendi and other sentencing claims, relying in part on counsel’s appellate concession that the statutory maximum was 40 years. But before we turned to Martinez’s Apprendi claim, we discussed a possible sentencing guideline error that we had noticed sua sponte — that the district court had not determined the specific drug quantity attributable to Martinez. We stated that, in the absence of a quantity determination, the 20-year statutory maximum would apply, and noted that Martinez had received a nearly 34-year sentence.1 But we sug[3]*3gested that any error had been forfeited or waived — counsel had not objected to the lack of findings at the sentencing proceeding, and, on appeal, she had conceded to a higher maximum. At the same time, however, we observed that based on the trial evidence, the district court “would have had no difficulty” finding Martinez responsible for more than 500 grams of cocaine. See United States v. Martínez-Medina, 279 F.3d 105, 125 & n. 10 (1st Cir.), cert, denied, 537 U.S. 921, 123 S.Ct. 311, 154 L.Ed.2d 210 (2002). In so doing, we essentially confirmed that the district court’s apparent error and counsel’s failure to press for a specific drug amount finding were not prejudicial since it was clear that the district court, if it had addressed the issue, would have attributed at least 500 grams of cocaine to Martinez, thereby exposing him to a 40-year maximum, which exceeded the sentence he actually received.

Subsequently, Martinez’s attorney urged him to file a § 2255 motion alleging that she had rendered ineffective assistance of counsel. Based apparently in part on what was a misunderstanding of our appellate decision, she stated that she had misconstrued Apprendi, that Apprendi required application of the 20-year default maximum, and that she had erroneously conceded to a 40-year statutory maximum.

In November 2002, Martinez filed the instant § 2255 motion and certain amendments. He asserted Apprendi claims, alleging that his indictment had not charged him with murders or adequately stated a specific drag quantity and that the jury had not made pertinent determinations either. He also asserted an ineffective assistance of counsel claim, relying on counsel’s suggestion that she had misconstrued Apprendi. He contended that if counsel had not conceded to the 40-year statutory maximum, this court would have vacated his sentence on appeal on the ground that Apprendi required application of the 20-year maximum. Among other things, Martinez noted that certain co-defendants of his, who had played a more significant role in the conspiracy, but who had been sentenced after Apprendi, had received sentences of 20 years on the drug conspiracy count.

On February 7, 2006, the district court issued an Opinion and Order denying the § 2255 claims. The court upheld a magistrate judge’s report recommending that the claims be denied and also offered additional analysis. Subsequently, it granted Martinez’s application for a COA and his motion to proceed in forma pauperis on appeal.

II. Discussion

After careful consideration of Martinez’s contentions, we affirm the district court’s denial of the § 2255 motion, and we deny a COA relative to Martinez’s new appellate claims. See 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c)(2) (permitting a COA “if the applicant has made a substantial showing of the denial of a constitutional right”).

[4]*4A. The Apprendi Issues

1. Drug Quantity

Martinez argues that his indictment was defective under Apprendi because it did not adequately charge drug quantity. He also objects to the fact that the jury did not determine drug quantity and type as was subsequently required by Apprendi His claims are unpersuasive for the following reasons.

First, Martinez fails to cite any case law to support his claim that his indictment violated Apprendi2 In pertinent part, the indictment charged a conspiracy involving “multi-kilograms” of cocaine, which implied that it involved a minimum of 1 kilogram of cocaine. In addition, the indictment specified a relevant overt act — that, in early 1996, approximately 2 kilograms of cocaine were delivered to the drug point with which Martinez had allied himself. Hence, taken together, the indictment allegations put Martinez on notice that he could be subject to a 40-year statutory maximum.3 See United States v. Soto-Beníquez, 356 F.3d 1, 49 n. 10 (1st Cir.2003) (stating that an indictment need not “specify the exact amount of drugs involved in the conspiracy, as long as it allege[s] the appropriate threshold amounts necessary to support the defendants’ sentences”); 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(B) (providing for a 40-year maximum if the offense involves at least 500 grams of cocaine).

Next, it is true that there was Apprendi error because the jury did not determine drug quantity.

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277 F. App'x 1, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/martinez-medina-v-united-states-ca1-2008.