United States v. Roderick Brown

346 F. App'x 481
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedSeptember 25, 2009
Docket08-15488
StatusUnpublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 346 F. App'x 481 (United States v. Roderick Brown) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh 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. Roderick Brown, 346 F. App'x 481 (11th Cir. 2009).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

In this direct appeal, Roderick Brown appeals (1) his 120-month concurrent sentences for conspiracy to distribute cocaine and possession with intent to distribute cocaine and (2) his conviction and 60-month consecutive sentence for possession of a firearm during a drug trafficking crime. After review, we affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

After filing a 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion, Brown was granted this out-of-time direct appeal. On appeal, Brown argues that: (1) the district court erred at his resentencing; (2) the government’s § 851 enhancement notice was ineffective; and (3) his conviction on Count 8 is invalid. We first review Brown’s original district court proceedings, his § 2255 motion, and his resentencing.

A. Guilty Plea

Brown was charged with nine counts, but pled guilty only to these three counts: (1) conspiracy to distribute cocaine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 841(b)(l)(B)(ii), and 846 (Count 1); (2) possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 841(b)(l)(B)(ii), and 851 and 18 U.S.C. § 2 (Count 7); and (3) possession of a firearm during a drug trafficking crime, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) (Count 8).

The government filed a sentencing-enhancement notice, under 21 U.S.C. § 851, listing Brown’s two state felony dirng trafficking convictions. The § 851 notice stated that it would rely on those convictions “for the purpose of invoking the enhanced punishment provisions of Title 21, United States Code, Sections 841(b)(1)(C) and 851, as to any sentence imposed upon the Defendant, upon his conviction of the charges contained in the present case.” The government served defense counsel with the § 851 notice “by facsimile.”

Brown pled guilty to Counts 1, 7, and 8 in exchange for dismissal of the remaining six counts. The plea agreement expressly noted that Brown would be subject to these penalties: (1) on Counts 1 and 7, a mandatory minimum of 10 years’ and up to life imprisonment and (2) on Count 8, a mandatory consecutive term of five years’ imprisonment. Although the § 851 notice *483 referred to § 841(b)(1)(C), the plea agreement’s reference to a 10-year mandatory minimum is the correct sentence required by § 841(b)(1)(B). 1

The plea agreement also contained a waiver of Brown’s right to appeal or collaterally attack his sentence “[t]o the maximum extent permitted by federal law,” unless the sentence resulted from “an upward departure from the otherwise applicable sentencing guideline range” or the government appealed. The government agreed to recommend a sentence at the low end of the guidelines range.

At the plea hearing, the government made the following factual proffer of Brown’s offense conduct:

[I]n the summer of 2002 an agent or officers from the Dekalb County drug task force began an investigation into the codefendant Gwendolyn Brown, and as part of this investigation a Dekalb County police officer went undercover and began purchasing cocaine from Gwendolyn Brown. It became apparent to them right away that she was being supplied from somewhere, and during the course of the investigation, specifically late in the summer, the undercover officer was present when the defendant, Mr. Roderick Brown, delivered a quantity of cocaine to Ms. Gwendolyn Brown, no relation by the way, your honor, so that Ms. Gwendolyn Brown could then sell the cocaine to the undercover officers. Once the officers were able to identify the defendant Roderick Brown, they set up a deal with Gwendolyn Brown and at the same time set up surveillance on Mr. Roderick Brown’s apartment in Smyrna, Georgia.
When the deal was set up, Ms. Gwendolyn Brown said she had to call her supplier. She placed a phone call, which phone records indicated was placed to Roderick Brown. The agents surveilling Mr. Brown’s apartment actually saw him leave the apartment then right after the phone call was made, return to the apartment, get a paper bag, bring it out to his car and leave on interstate county 20 to come to Dekalb County.
Police officers stopped Mr. Brown in his vehicle on interstate 20 just before he got to the exit where Ms. Gwendolyn Brown was waiting. Inside his vehicle, in the paper bag he had been seen carrying, was a quantity of cocaine, about 725 grams of powder cocaine. Additionally, in the vehicle with him was a Taurus 357 caliber revolver.

Brown agreed with the government’s factual proffer of his offense conduct.

*484 At the plea hearing, the district court read Counts 1, 7, and 8, including the references to 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(B) in Counts 1 and 7. The government then reviewed the statutory sentencing ranges on each count, explaining that Counts 1 and 7 had a mandatory minimum of 10 years’ imprisonment. The district court reviewed the sentence appeal waiver with Brown, and Brown said that he understood it. The district court accepted Brown’s guilty plea.

B. Sentencing

The Presentence Investigation Report (“PSI”) calculated Brown’s offense level as 25 and criminal history category as I, which yielded an advisory guidelines range of 57 to 71 months’ imprisonment. However, the PSI noted that the drug Counts 1 and 7 carried mandatory minimum sentences of 120 months’ imprisonment and that the firearm Count 8 carried a mandatory consecutive term of 60 months’ imprisonment.

At the sentencing hearing in April 2004, the district court again reviewed the mandatory minimum sentences. Brown’s counsel conceded that “there is nothing the court can do at this point, nothing I can do, so that would leave a sentence of 180 months.” The district court sentenced Brown to concurrent terms of 120 months’ imprisonment on Counts 1 and 7, followed by a consecutive term of 60 months’ imprisonment on Count 8.

On April 26, 2004, the district court entered judgment on Brown’s convictions and sentences. Brown’s counsel did not file a notice of appeal. Instead, Brown filed a pro se notice of appeal six months later, which this Court sua sponte dismissed for a lack of jurisdiction.

C.

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Related

Brown v. United States
176 L. Ed. 2d 429 (Supreme Court, 2010)
United States v. Howle
166 F.3d 1166 (Eleventh Circuit, 1999)

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Bluebook (online)
346 F. App'x 481, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-roderick-brown-ca11-2009.