United States v. Bastian

770 F.3d 212, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 20752, 2014 WL 5462420
Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit·Decided October 29, 2014·No. Docket No. 13-1156-cr·Published·Cited by 66 cases

Opinion

GERARD E. LYNCH, Circuit Judge:

Defendant-Appellant Jasaan Bastían pled guilty in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Kenneth M. Karas, Judge) to conspiracy to distribute crack in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 846, 841(a)(1), and 841(b)(1)(A), and to using and possessing a firearm in connection with a drug trafficking offense in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1). He now appeals from his con[216]*216viction for the firearms offense, contending that the district court’s acceptance of his plea based on the possession of a different weapon from the one identified by the grand jury constructively amended his indictment and that the district court’s failure to inform him of his rights under the Grand Jury Clause prevented him from entering a knowing and voluntary guilty plea. Reviewing Bastian’s unpreserved claims for plain error under Fed.R.Crim.P. 52(b), we conclude that Bastían has not established that his conviction on the basis of a different weapon plainly constituted a constructive amendment of his indictment. We therefore AFFIRM the judgment of the district court.

BACKGROUND

Between 2009 and 2011, Jasaan Bastían participated in a conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine in New York’s Sullivan County. Over the course of the drug operation, Bastían distributed between 2.8 and 8 kilograms of crack cocaine. During one sale of 2.3 grams of crack on or around November 23, 2010, Bastían also sold one of his customers a .32 caliber revolver with three rounds of ammunition.

On May 16, 2012, a grand jury indicted Bastían on three counts relating to the trafficking ring. Count One charged Bastían with conspiring, between 2009 and December 2011, to distribute crack cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 846, 841(a)(1), and 841(b)(1)(A). Count Two charged him with being a felon in possession of a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g) and 924(a)(2). Count Three charged him with using and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1). Specifically, that count charged that “[bjetween in or about January 2011 and in or about April 2011,” Bastían did “in relation to ... the narcotics conspiracy alleged in Count One of this Indictment ... possess a firearm, to wit, an Excel .20 gauge shotgun.”1

On October 12, 2012, Bastían pled guilty to Counts One and Three of the indictment before the Honorable George A. Yanthis, United States Magistrate Judge. With regard to Count Three, the prosecutor advised the court, without objection from the defense, that Bastían and the government had “conferred and agreed” that Bastían would plead guilty on the basis of his use and possession of a different weapon from the one specified in the indictment: specifically, a .32 caliber revolver. Bastían subsequently allocuted to the fact that he had possessed and sold the .32 caliber revolver to one of his customers in furtherance of his drug trafficking operation. Based on the proceeding, Judge Yanthis recommended that the district court accept Bastian’s plea agreement and, in January 2013, Judge Karas adjudged Bastían guilty on both counts.

At no point before Judge Yanthis or Judge Karas did Bastían challenge the substitution of the .32 caliber revolver as the basis of his conviction under § 924(c)(1), nor did he otherwise challenge the sufficiency of his plea.

DISCUSSION

The Grand Jury Clause of the Fifth Amendment provides that “[n]o person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury.” U.S. Const, amend. V, cl. 1. Accordingly, no defendant in the federal courts may “be charged with a capital crime, or [217]*217indeed with any felony,” unless the charge is first brought by a grand jury. Matthews v. United States, 622 F.3d 99, 101 (2d Cir.2010). An indictment satisfying the Fifth Amendment must fulfill two requirements: first, it must “eontain[] the elements of the offense charged and fairly inform[ ] a defendant of the charge against which he must defend,” and second, it must “enable[] him to plead an acquittal or conviction in bar of future prosecutions for the same offense.” United States v. Rigas, 490 F.3d 208, 228 (2d Cir.2007), quoting United States v. Resendiz-Ponce, 549 U.S. 102, 108, 127 S.Ct. 782, 166 L.Ed.2d 591 (2007). The right to indictment thus simultaneously protects a defendant’s ability to prepare his defense and safeguards him from facing double jeopardy for a single crime. See United States v. Dupre, 462 F.3d 131, 140 (2d Cir.2006).

Bastían claims that, by convicting him of Count Three on the basis of a different weapon from that specified in his indictment, the district court constructively amended the grand jury’s charges, violating the Grand Jury Clause and requiring a per se vacatur of his conviction. Alternatively, he argues that because he was neither informed of nor waived his right to a new indictment for the amended charge, his ensuing guilty plea was not knowing and voluntary under the law. The government responds first, that Bastian’s guilty plea waived his challenges and, second, that Ba.stian’s decision to plead guilty on the basis of a different weapon rendered any ensuing Fifth Amendment violation an “invited error” evading appellate review.

I. Waiver by Guilty Plea

A “defendant who knowingly and voluntarily enters a guilty plea waives all non-jurisdietional defects in the prior proceedings.” United States v. Garcia, 339 F.3d 116, 117 (2d Cir.2003); accord United States v. Coffin, 76 F.3d 494, 496 (2d Cir. 1996). A defect qualifies as jurisdictional only if it alleges that “the face of the [defendant’s] indictment discloses that the count ... to which he pleaded guilty failed to charge a federal offense,” such that the district court “lacked the power to entertain the prosecution.” United States v. Kumar, 617 F.3d 612, 620 (2d Cir.2010) (internal quotation marks omitted).

As the language of the rule makes clear, a waiver by guilty plea extinguishes the defendant’s rights to challenge only defects in a “prior stage of the proceedings against him.”

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United States v. Bastian, 770 F.3d 212, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 20752, 2014 WL 5462420 (2d Cir. 2014).

770 F.3d 212 (United States v. Bastian) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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