United States v. Wesley

55 F. App'x 47
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedDecember 10, 2002
DocketNo. 01-4349
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 55 F. App'x 47 (United States v. Wesley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third 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. Wesley, 55 F. App'x 47 (3d Cir. 2002).

Opinion

OPINION

BARRY, Circuit Judge.

Tanya M. Wesley appeals the denial of her motion to withdraw her guilty plea. She argues that that motion should have been granted because (1) she is actually innocent; (2) for a variety of reasons, the plea colloquy was defective; and (3) her counsel was ineffective. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C § 1291 and will affirm.

Ms. Wesley was indicted for conspiring with her son, Robert L. Wesley, and with Sedric A. Morris to distribute in excess of 50 grams of crack cocaine. She entered into a plea agreement and pled guilty to an information charging her with acting as an accessory after the fact in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 3. On August 28, 2000, she was sentenced to 18 months of imprisonment and two years of supervised release.

Shortly thereafter, Ms. Wesley wrote a letter to the District Court asking for permission to withdraw her guilty plea. The Court treated her letter as a motion under 28 U.S.C. § 2255, and appointed counsel to represent her. Counsel filed an amended motion, which the District Court denied in an order dated November 19, 2001. We review the denial of a § 2255 motion de novo. United States v. Cleary, 46 F.3d 307, 309-310 (3d Cir.1995).

To be entitled to post-sentence relief under § 2255, a defendant must show “a fundamental defect which inherently resulted] in a complete miscarriage of justice or an omission inconsistent with the rudimentary demands of fair procedure.” Cleary, 46 F.3d at 311. This is a high standard, indeed, in large part because of the great interest in the finality of judgments. Id. at 310. This interest in finality has special force when a conviction is based on a guilty plea because of the reduced risk that unfair procedures resulted in the conviction of an innocent person. Id.

Ms. Wesley argues, first, that she was entitled to withdraw her guilty plea because she had made a credible claim of actual innocence. She contends that a review of the criminal complaint and of the government’s recitation of the factual basis for her plea at the plea hearing belie her guilt because, even when viewed in the light most favorable to the government, all that the government’s allegations establish is that she was present at the time that a drug transaction occurred. The District Court rejected this contention, finding that the government’s allegations, if proven, would establish more than that. As the Court observed, the government alleged that (1) a crime was committed (conspiracy to distribute drugs); (2) Ms. Wesley knew [49]*49that the crime was committed (she was present during the drug transaction and received the proceeds of the transaction); and (3) she assisted the individuals who committed the crime by delaying their apprehension (she told the police that the $1900.00 found in her pocket was hers).

Ms. Wesley also argues that her claim of actual innocence is credible because she never admitted that she was a knowing and wilful accessory to the drug offense committed by her son and Morris. However, as the government points out, by the time she filed her motion to withdraw her plea, she had told at least three inconsistent stories about where the money came from. She did not attempt to reconcile the various accounts in that motion and has not attempted to do so in the brief she submitted to us. All she has done is to make a bald assertion of innocence, which is simply not enough. United States v. Brown, 250 F.3d 811, 818 (3d Cir.2001).

Ms. Wesley argues, next, that her guilty plea should be vacated because the Rule 11 colloquy was defective. She complains, for starters, that the District Court did not make it clear — or at least clear to her — that knowledge and intent are elements of the crime of accessory after the fact. Rule 11 requires that a judge taking a guilty plea “inform the defendant of, and determine that the defendant understands ... the nature of the charge to which the plea is offered.” Fed.R.Crim.P. 11(c)(1).

The District Court informed Ms. Wesley of the elements of the crime of acting as an accessory after the fact:

First. That someone else committed a crime, someone other than you. Secondly, that you had actual knowledge of the crime and of the participation of the other person or persons in the crime. And, thirdly, that with that knowledge of this crime, you, in some way, assisted the other persons with the specific purpose or a plan to hinder or to prevent that person’s apprehension at trial for punishment.

App. at 71a-72a.

Ms. Wesley was thus told clearly and concisely that knowledge and intent of the underlying crime were elements of the crime to which she was pleading guilty. After the prosecutor presented his summary of the facts, however, the following exchange took place:

THE COURT: Mr. Gleason, before I continued [sic] with the questions, will you consult with Miss Wesley, please, and just verify those facts as to what she did? I am not concerned about other details here.
MR. VALCOVCI: Your Honor, I simply brought those out to show that there was another crime being committed in her presence.
MR. GLEASON: She accepted the money from her son, Robert at that place. The statements she made af-terwards when she was arrested, were the statements that she made at that time. However, the evidence shows it was, you know, different, and the main crux of her criminal participation, which was minimal, and which we will advance in our presentence report, is that she did receive this money, and the money came from a, quote, unquote, corrupt sense [sic], and that she took part in a criminal enterprise by secreting, securing and taking the money.
THE COURT: All right.
MR. GLEASON: Which is what any accessory does after the completion of the drug transaction, because she did not deliver the drug.
THE COURT: I didn’t understand there to be an allegation that she delivered.
[50]*50MR. GLEASON: She didn’t — I just want to emphasize that to the Court.
THE COURT: Her participation was not that. I understood it.
THE COURT: Miss Wesley, do you agree with your attorney’s summari-zation as to what you did? I am not asking you about the Government’s longer recitation, but just his summary as to what you did?
MS. WESLEY: I received the money part? Yes, sir. That is all.
THE COURT: And does it remain your wish to plead guilty to this one count in the information, Miss Wesley?
MS. WESLEY: Yes, sir.

App. at 84a-86a. Given that the crime of acting as an accessory after the fact has as elements knowledge and intent, the District Court’s request that Ms.

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Bluebook (online)
55 F. App'x 47, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-wesley-ca3-2002.