United States v. Araujo

622 F.3d 854, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 19752, 2010 WL 3720811
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedSeptember 23, 2010
Docket09-1479
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 622 F.3d 854 (United States v. Araujo) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Araujo, 622 F.3d 854, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 19752, 2010 WL 3720811 (7th Cir. 2010).

Opinion

ROVNER, Circuit Judge.

Norberto Araujo entered into a plea agreement with the government in which he both acknowledged thal his heroin trafficking involved a quantity of 30 or more kilograms of heroin and yet reserved the right to assert that he should be held to account for a lesser amount. He subsequently objected to the probation officer’s proposed finding that he was responsible for at least 30 kilograms of heroin, arguing that the evidence warranted a finding that his trafficking involved more than 10 but less than 30 kilograms. In response to the objection, the government cited, among other evidence, Araujo’s earlier proffer statement, in which Araujo had acknowledged the distribution of more than 30 kilograms of heroin. Based on Araujo’s factual admission in the plea agreement, his proffer, and alternatively based on independent evidence concerning the extent of his trafficking, the district court concluded that Araujo was responsible for distributing at least 30 kilograms of heroin. That finding triggered an advisory sentencing range of 235 to 293 months in prison. The court sentenced Araujo to the minimum recommended term of 235 months. Araujo appeals, contending that the plea agreement is unavoidably ambiguous on the subject of the drug quantity, that it was improper for the government and, in turn, the court to rely on his proffer to establish the drug quantity, and that the evidence otherwise did not support a finding that he trafficked in at least 30 kilograms of heroin. We affirm.

I.

Araujo and his son Steven were arrested on June 6, 2007, shortly after they supplied 177 grams of heroin to a person (“Individual B”) who was cooperating with the authorities. Araujo had supplied the same individual 89 grams and 143 grams of heroin in the preceding two weeks. Following their arrest, both father and son made statements to law enforcement agents in which they acknowledged their involvement in heroin trafficking. Norberto Araujo confessed not only to the June 6 sale to the cooperating individual but to a nine-year history of drug trafficking. He disclosed that he had more than one source of heroin: he had obtained 1.3 kilograms of heroin from one organization approximately two months before his arrest and had placed an order for an additional two kilograms from the same source; and from a second individual he had obtained 300 to 400 grams of heroin monthly for about one year. Araujo in turn had distributed heroin to multiple customers: he had sold the narcotic to an individual named “Spinks” (Individual B) for nine years, in amounts ranging from 28 to 200 grams; and he had sold 25- to 175-gram quantities “straight from the brick” (i.e., undiluted, directly from a kilogram) to “Ray” every ten days. Araujo indicated that he had other customers as well, although he usually diluted the heroin with a cutting agent before distributing to those individuals. Like his father, Steven Araujo admitted the June 6 sale. He told the authorities that his father had stopped working (legitimately) in 1997 or 1998.

A grand jury indicted Araujo on charges that he conspired with his son and others to possess heroin with the intent to distribute, see 21 U.S.C. § 846, knowingly and intentionally distributed heroin, see 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), and possessed heroin with the intent to distribute, see id. Arau *857 jo would ultimately plead guilty to the conspiracy charge.

In the course of negotiating his guilty plea, Araujo agreed to make a proffer of the facts underlying his criminal activity. The terms of the proffer were set forth in a letter that the government’s counsel sent to Araujo’s lawyer. R. 83-1. Araujo’s counsel was admonished that “if your client should subsequently testify contrary to the substance of the proffer, or otherwise present a position inconsistent with the proffer, nothing shall prevent the government from using the substance of the proffer at sentencing for any purpose.... ” R. 83-1 at 1. Both Araujo and his counsel acknowledged and consented to this and the other terms of the proffer by signing the letter. When Araujo subsequently made the proffer, he indicated among other things that he had distributed in excess of 30 kilograms of heroin over the course of his drug-dealing.

Within days of the proffer, Araujo entered into a written plea agreement with the government pursuant to which he would plead guilty to the conspiracy charge. R. 38. The agreement included a three-page “factual basis” in which Araujo admitted “that from at least as early as in or about 1998, and continuing until on or about June 6, 2007, defendant was involved in the distribution of wholesale quantities of heroin to others, including Individuals B and C, at locations in Berwyn, Melrose Park, Harwood Heights, Chicago, Illinois and elsewhere.” R. 38 at 3. The final sentence of the factual summary stated, “The amount of heroin that was distributed during the course of the conspiracy and that was reasonably foreseeable to defendant was at least 30 kilograms.” R. 38 at 4. Although that unequivocal statement on its face appeared to resolve the drug quantity for which Araujo was responsible, the agreement elsewhere treated the relevant drug quantity as if it remained an open question. Specifically:

The government believes the amount of heroin involved in the offense of conviction and relevant conduct for which the defendant is accountable is over 30 kilograms. Therefore, pursuant to Guideline § 201.1(a)(3) and § 2Dl.1(c)(1), the government believes the base offense level is level thirty-eight. The defendant reserves the right to assert that the amount of heroin involved in the offense of conviction and relevant conduct for which the defendant is accountable is between 10 and 30 kilograms of heroin and that the base offense level is therefore thirty-six pursuant to Guideline § 2D1.1(a)(3) and § 2D1.1(c)(2).

R. 38 at 6 ¶ 9(b)(i). We are told that this provision was added to the agreement at the eleventh hour at the request of Araujo and his counsel. Apparently, little thought was given to how Araujo’s reservation of rights with respect to the drug quantity squared with the agreement’s unqualified factual statement that the conspiracy to which he was pleading guilty entailed the distribution of at least 30 kilograms of heroin and that this amount was reasonably foreseeable to him.

Araujo pleaded guilty before the district judge on the day after he signed the plea agreement. During the plea colloquy, when the government was asked to recite the key facts supporting the plea, the prosecutor stated generally that Araujo had, in concert with others, distributed wholesale quantities of heroin from about 1998 until the date of his arrest in June 2007 and more specifically that he had sold 89 grams, 143 grams, and then 177 grams heroin to the cooperating individual on three occasions in the run-up to his arrest. R. 106 at 15-17. The court asked Araujo if these representations were true and Araujo said that they were. R. 106 at 17- *858 18. But the total quantity of heroin for which Araujo was responsible was not addressed. The court accepted Araujo’s change of plea, and the case was continued for a presentence investigation and sentencing.

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Bluebook (online)
622 F.3d 854, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 19752, 2010 WL 3720811, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-araujo-ca7-2010.