United States v. Corey Brooks

617 F. App'x 596

• Court: Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
• Decided: June 19, 2015
• Docket: 14-3669
• Status: Unpublished

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

Corey Brooks directly appeals after he pled guilty to a drug-conspiracy offense and a firearm-related offense, and the district court 1 sentenced him to 40 years in prison. His counsel has moved to withdraw, and has filed a brief under Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738, 87 S.Ct. 1396, 18 L.Ed.2d 493 (1967), arguing that Brooks was not competent at the time he entered his guilty plea, and thus the district court 2 erred by accepting his plea.

Upon careful review, we conclude that— in light of Brooks’s own statements at the change-of-plea hearing, as well as his counsel’s statements — the district court did not clearly err in finding that Brooks was competent at the time he entered his guilty plea. See United States v. Martinez, 446 F.3d 878, 881 (8th Cir.2006); United States v. Denton, 434 F.3d 1104, 1112-13 (8th Cir.2006). We therefore further conclude that the district court did not err in accepting Brooks’s plea.

In addition, having reviewed the record independently under Penson v. Ohio, 488 U.S. 75, 109 S.Ct. 346, 102 L.Ed.2d 300 (1988), we find no nonfrivolous issues. Accordingly, we grant counsel’s motion to withdraw, and we affirm.

1 . The Honorable John A. Jarvey, Chief Judge, United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa.

2 . The Honorable Stephanie M. Rose, United States District Judge for the Southern District of Iowa.