United States v. Varela-Rivera

551 F. App'x 583
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedJanuary 15, 2014
Docket12-2039
StatusUnpublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 551 F. App'x 583 (United States v. Varela-Rivera) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the First 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. Varela-Rivera, 551 F. App'x 583 (1st Cir. 2014).

Opinion

*585 BALDOCK, Circuit Judge.

On March 9, 2012, Defendant Gilberto Varela-Rivera pled guilty to possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1)(A). The Government agreed to recommend a sentence of 15 years’ imprisonment in return for his plea. Nearly two months later, Defendant requested new counsel and moved to withdraw his plea, arguing his public defender had coerced him into pleading guilty. The district court denied Defendant’s motion to withdraw his guilty plea and sentenced him to 20 years’ imprisonment, which “include[d] a component for lying before the Court.” Defendant now appeals, arguing (1) the district court abused its discretion when it refused to grant Defendant’s motion to withdraw his plea, and (2) his sentence is procedurally and substantively unreasonable. Exercising jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and 18 U.S.C. § 3742, we affirm.

I.

On December 19, 2011, Puerto Rico police officers entered a motel room where Defendant was sleeping after the motel manager called to report that Defendant had overstayed in the room. Defendant never responded to manager or police efforts to communicate with him from outside the room. When officers entered the room, they found Defendant sleeping with a loaded Glock handgun, modified to fire in automatic mode, lying next to him on the bed. They also saw what was later proven to be about 125 grams of marijuana and 17 grams of cocaine in various see-through containers. Defendant was initially indicted in Puerto Rico Commonwealth court; however, these charges were dismissed after the Commonwealth court concluded the motel manager and the police had violated Defendant’s privacy rights when they entered the motel room. Federal authorities then arrested Defendant and indicted him on four counts, including possession of an automatic firearm in connection with a drug offense in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1). If Defendant had been convicted of this offense alone, he would have faced a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 years’ imprisonment under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(l)(B)(ii).

Defendant moved to suppress under the Fourth and Fifth Amendments the gun, the drugs, and various incriminating statements he made during his arrest and booking. The district court scheduled a hearing on Defendant’s motion for March 6, 2012, and Defendant’s trial for March 7. On March 6, before the suppression hearing began, Defendant’s public defender informed the court that he had just received in discovery from the Government evidence that Defendant may have told one of the booking officers that the police were lucky he was asleep when they entered the motel room because, if he had been awake, he would have shot them. In light of this new evidence, the public defender asked for a five-working-day continuance to “talk it over” with Defendant and “see if he still wishe[d] to proceed given this statement.” The parties then discussed Defendant’s options, and the court held an off-record bench conference with the public defender. After this bench conference, the court explained to Defendant that if it held a suppression hearing, the hearing would amount to the police giving testimony, which Defendant’s public defender could try to impeach or which Defendant himself could take the stand to try to contradict. The court then explained that if Defendant took the stand to argue his suppression motion, the police would impeach him with his criminal record and getting the court to believe his story rather than the Government’s would be “pretty uphill” for him, *586 given this record. 1 The court then postponed Defendant’s trial until March 9 so Defendant and his public defender could “explore a disposition of this case that may dispense [with the] statutory minimum of 30 years, because of the firearm.”

On March 9, 2012, Defendant executed a plea agreement under Fed.R.Crim.P. 11(c)(1)(B) whereby he pled guilty only to a charge of possession of a non-automatic firearm and the Government agreed to recommend a 15-year sentence. The court held a change-of-plea hearing that same day. The court advised Defendant of the purpose of the hearing, and the consequences of pleading guilty. Defendant twice confirmed at this hearing that his plea was voluntary and that he was satisfied with the work of his public defender. Defendant also confirmed that he understood the rights he was waiving by pleading guilty. When the court asked Defendant “has somebody threatened you or anybody else related to, you in order to induce you to plead in this case?,” he responded: “No.” When asked whether there was “anything that may still bother you in your mind,” Defendant responded: “No. It’s fine.”

Thirteen days later, on March 22, Defendant filed a pro se transcript request for the March 6 and March 9 hearings. The court provided these transcripts on April 4. Then, on May 4, Defendant moved to withdraw his guilty plea and obtain substitute counsel. He argued his public defender had told him the district court would deny his suppression motion and sentence him to life if he did not plead guilty, but when he read the transcripts, he realized the court had said no such thing. He therefore argued his public defender had misled and coerced him into pleading guilty. The public defender withdrew as defense counsel, citing the obvious conflict of interest, but offered to respond to the allegations related to the voluntariness of Defendant’s plea if needed. Substitute counsel was then appointed, and filed a formal motion to withdraw Defendant’s plea, stating Defendant only gave up on the suppression hearing and chose to plead guilty based on misstatements by his public defender.

At Defendant’s August 1 sentencing hearing the court considered his motion to withdraw his plea. Defendant was sworn, and proceeded to renege on nearly all of the answers he gave at his change-of-plea hearing. He blamed his public defender for “intimidating” him into signing the plea agreement. He said he had lied to the court because of this intimidation. This was the only evidence Defendant advanced in furtherance of his motion to withdraw his plea. The court did not believe Defendant. It noted the public defender “was an extremely competent lawyer with a lot of experience gained in dealing with these kinds of cases,” who “never, ever in his many appearances before the Court did anything other than defend zealously his clients.” On the other hand, the court found Defendant had “no credibility whatsoever.” The court thus denied Defendant’s motion to withdraw his plea.' Defendant’s new counsel clarified that Defendant was initially satisfied with his public defender, but that after he went back and looked at the transcript from the suppression hearing he believed what his public defender had told him was inconsistent with what he read in *587 the transcript.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
551 F. App'x 583, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-varela-rivera-ca1-2014.