United States v. Beagle

Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit·Decided February 24, 2021·No. 20-1099·Unpublished

Opinion

FILED

United States Court of Appeals UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS Tenth Circuit

FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT February 24, 2021

Christopher M. Wolpert

Clerk of Court

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff - Appellee,

v. No. 20-1099 (D.C. No. 1:17-CR-00099-RBJ-1)

TIMOTHY PAUL BEAGLE, (D. Colo.)

Defendant - Appellant.

ORDER AND JUDGMENT*

Before MATHESON, BALDOCK, and CARSON, Circuit Judges.

Timothy Paul Beagle appeals a term of supervised release the district court imposed as part of a sentence for violating conditions of supervised release. Exercising jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and 18 U.S.C. § 3742, we vacate the fifth special condition of supervised release, which requires Beagle to take prescribed medications and submit to random blood tests to confirm medication compliance, and

*

After examining the briefs and appellate record, this panel has determined unanimously to honor the parties’ request for a decision on the briefs without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(f); 10th Cir. R. 34.1(G). The case is therefore submitted without oral argument. This order and judgment is not binding precedent, except under the doctrines of law of the case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel. It may be cited, however, for its persuasive value consistent with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 and 10th Cir. R. 32.1.

we remand for consideration of whether compelling circumstances justify imposing that special condition. We affirm in all other respects.

I. Background

Beagle was charged with eighteen violations of the conditions of a term of supervised release he was serving on his conviction of being a felon in possession of firearms: eleven instances of possession and use of a controlled substance; multiple failures to report for and participate in psychiatric evaluation and individual counseling; multiple failures to participate in substance-abuse testing as directed by his probation officer; leaving the district without permission of the court or his probation officer; failure to notify the probation officer within 72 hours after being questioned or arrested by a law enforcement officer; and possession of a loaded firearm. Notably, some of those violations occurred after the instant revocation proceeding had commenced, while Beagle was free on bond so he could attend a residential drug-treatment program.

Beagle admitted the violations and agreed to a 24-month period of incarceration in exchange for the government agreeing to not prosecute him for being a felon in possession of a firearm. In addition to imprisonment, the district court sentenced Beagle to twelve months of supervised release and ordered standard, mandatory, and special conditions. At the sentencing hearing, Beagle made no objections to the sentence of supervised release.

The district court entered judgment on March 5, 2020 (Judgment). On March 17, Beagle filed a notice of appeal stating “he intends to appeal the Judgment

entered on March 5, 2020.” Supp. R., Vol. I at 59. He also filed a motion to correct his sentence pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 35(a), raising various objections. On May 20, the district court denied the Rule 35(a) motion, stating only that “[o]n the same day you filed this motion [you] filed a notice of appeal of the sentence, which is still pending.” Id. at 62. Beagle did not file a notice of appeal from the order denying his Rule 35(a) motion or amend the notice he filed.

II. Scope of appeal and standard of review Before considering the merits of this appeal, we must determine its scope and the applicable standard of review. We conclude that we have jurisdiction to review the district court’s Judgment but not the order denying Beagle’s Rule 35(a) motion, and because Beagle failed to make a contemporaneous objection to the district court’s findings at sentencing, our review is for plain error.

A. Scope of appeal Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 3(c)(1)(B) requires a notice of appeal to “designate the judgment, order, or part thereof appealed.” This “designation requirement is jurisdictional.” Williams v. Akers, 837 F.3d 1075, 1078 (10th Cir. 2016). Beagle’s notice of appeal designated only the district court’s Judgment. As noted, on the same day he filed the notice of appeal, Beagle filed his Rule 35(a) motion. But nothing in his notice of appeal signaled in an anticipatory manner that he intended to contest the ruling on his Rule 35(a) motion once the district court had disposed of it. And after the district court denied Beagle’s Rule 35(a) motion, he did not file another notice of appeal naming the Rule 35(a) order. Consequently, we lack

jurisdiction to review the denial of the Rule 35(a) motion. See United States v. Ortiz, 741 F.3d 288, 292 (1st Cir. 2014) (concluding, in similar circumstances, that under Rule 3(c)(1)(B), the court lacked jurisdiction to review the denial of Rule 35(a) relief); United States v. Cartwright, 413 F.3d 1295, 1299-1300 (11th Cir. 2005) (same, where defendant’s notice of appeal, filed contemporaneously with his Rule 35(a) motion, stated only that “he appealed from ‘the Final Judgment of Sentence’”); see also United States v. Sadiq, 579 F. App’x 485, 490-91 (6th Cir. 2014) (following Ortiz); United States v. Rudzavice, 583 F. App’x 389, 389 (5th Cir. 2014) (per curiam) (concluding court lacked jurisdiction over dismissal of Rule 35(a) motion because defendant did not file a separate notice of appeal from the dismissal order).

Beagle argues that his appeal of the Judgment was sufficient to encompass the later-issued Rule 35(a) order. His argument proceeds from several observations. First, our jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 is limited to final decisions, the intent of which is to prevent multiple appeals. Second, Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(b)(1)(A)(i) requires a criminal defendant to file a notice of appeal “within 14 days after . . . the entry of either the judgment or the order being appealed.” And third, filing a notice of appeal “does not divest a district court of jurisdiction to correct a sentence under [Rule 35(a)],” “affect the validity of a notice of appeal filed before entry of the order disposing of the motion,” or “suspend the time for filing a notice of appeal from a judgment of conviction.” Fed. R. App. P. 4(b)(5). Beagle’s argument also depends on his contention that an order on a

Rule 35(a) motion is not a final appealable order within the meaning of the collateral-order doctrine because it is not “separate from the merits,” as required under that doctrine, see, e.g., Flanagan v. United States, 465 U.S. 259, 265 (1984) (internal quotation marks omitted), but “dependent on the merits,” Aplt. Reply Br. at 8-9.

Based on all this, Beagle concludes he was limited to filing only one notice of appeal from the Judgment, and because he had to file that notice within 14 days of the Judgment, his notice was sufficient to encompass the order denying his Rule 35(a) motion.

We reject this novel argument, for two reasons. First, an order denying a Rule 35(a) motion is a final and appealable order under § 1291—without resort to the collateral-order doctrine—because it terminates the litigation on the merits and allows for execution of the judgment. See Digit. Equip. Corp. v. Desktop Direct, Inc., 511 U.S 863, 867 (1994) (explaining that § 1291 authorizes an appeal from a “decision that ends the litigation on the merits and leaves nothing more for the court to do but execute the judgment” (internal quotation marks omitted)). Indeed, the collateral-order doctrine is wholly inapplicable because it applies only to orders “that do not terminate the litigation.” Id. (emphasis added).

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