Case ID: f-appx_236/html/0161-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "PER CURIAM: \n    ", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee v. Mario Cesar ARENAS, Defendant-Appellant.
    No. 06-50612
    Conference Calendar.
    United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.
    Aug. 21, 2007.
    Joseph H. Gay, Jr., Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of Texas, San Antonio, TX, for Plaintiff-Appellee.
    Luis E. Islas, El Paso, TX, for Defendant-Appellant.
    Before HIGGINBOTHAM, SMITH, and CLEMENT, Circuit Judges.
   PER CURIAM:

Mario Cesar Arenas appeals his guilty-plea conviction for conspiracy to possess and distribute one kilogram or more of heroin in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846. Arenas argues that one of his attorneys, Joseph Sib Abraham, Jr., rendered ineffective assistance of counsel because counsel was absent during Arenas’s sentencing. Another of Arenas’s attorneys, Luis E. Eslas, was present during Arenas’s sentencing.

This court generally will not consider claims of ineffective assistance of counsel on direct appeal except in those “rare cases where the record allowed [this court] to evaluate fairly the merits of the claim.” United States v. Higdon, 832 F.2d 312, 313-14 (5th Cir.1987). This is not one of those cases. Without prejudice to Arenas’s right to file a motion pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255, the judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED. 
      
       Pursuant to 5th Cir. R. 47.5, the court has determined that this opinion should not be published and is not precedent except under the limited circumstances set forth in 5th Cir R. 47.5.4.