United States v. Roscoe A. Austin

54 F. App'x 246

• Court: Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
• Decided: December 27, 2002
• Docket: 02-1975
• Status: Unpublished

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

Roscoe A. Austin pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). Austin entered into a plea agreement in which he agreed to be sentenced under 18 U.S.C. § 924(e) as an armed career criminal and, with limited exceptions, waived his right to appeal his conviction and sentence. The District Court 1 sentenced Austin to the mandatory minimum of fifteen years (180 months) imprisonment and five years supervised release. On appeal, Austin’s counsel has moved to withdraw and filed a brief under Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738, 87 S.Ct. 1396, 18 L.Ed.2d 493 (1967), questioning whether Austin’s prior convietions qualified as violent felonies for enhanced sentencing under section 924(e)(2)(B).

Because Austin in his plea agreement knowingly and intelligently waived his right to appeal his sentence, and the exceptions are inapplicable, we enforce that waiver. See United States v. Estradar-Bahena, 201 F.3d 1070,1071 (8th Cir.2000) (per curiam); United States v. Morrison, 171 F.3d 567, 568 (8th Cir.1999). Having found no nonfrivolous issues related to Austin’s conviction, see Benson v. Ohio, 488 U.S. 75, 80, 109 S.Ct. 346, 102 L.Ed.2d 300 (1988), we grant counsel’s motion to withdraw. We further deny Austin’s motion for appointment of different counsel, and note that any claims of ineffective assistance of counsel should be brought, if at all, in a 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion, see United States v. Cain, 134 F.3d 1345, 1352 (8th Cir.1998).

Appeal dismissed.

1 . The Honorable Ortrie D. Smith, United States District Judge for the Western District of Missouri.