Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca10-19-03238/USCOURTS-ca10-19-03238-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
Gegham Avetisyan
Appellant
United States of America
Appellee

Document Text:

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS 

FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT 

_________________________________ 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 

 Plaintiff - Appellee, 

v. 

GEGHAM AVETISYAN, 

 Defendant - Appellant. 

No. 19-3238 

(D.C. No. 2:18-CR-20093-JAR-1) 

(D. Kan.) 

_________________________________ 

ORDER AND JUDGMENT*

_________________________________ 

Before BACHARACH, EID, and CARSON, Circuit Judges. 

_________________________________ 

This matter is before the court on the government’s motion to enforce the 

appeal waiver in Gegham Avetisyan’s plea agreement. Exercising jurisdiction under 

28 U.S.C. § 1291, we grant the motion and dismiss the appeal. 

As an initial matter, we deny Avetisyan’s motion to strike the motion to 

enforce as premature. Although the government filed its motion before the district 

court clerk notified us either that the record was complete or that the clerk was 

transmitting the record, see 10th Cir. R. 27.3(A)(3)(b) (providing that a motion to 

 * This order and judgment is not binding precedent, except under the doctrines 

of law of the case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel. It may be cited, however, for 

its persuasive value consistent with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 and 10th Cir. R. 32.1. 

FILED 

United States Court of Appeals 

Tenth Circuit 

March 6, 2020

Christopher M. Wolpert 

Clerk of Court

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enforce “must be filed within 20 days after” such notification), the clerk has since 

provided the required notification and the record has been filed. 

Avetisyan pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 

§ 1343. In the written plea agreement, he confirmed his understanding that the 

district court would “find . . . the facts used to determine the offense level” and 

determine the applicable guidelines range. Mot. to Enforce, Attach. C at 2. He also 

acknowledged that he understood the court would determine the sentence to be 

imposed and that the government had “not made any promise or representation as to 

what sentence he [would] receive.” Id. at 4. The agreement included a broad waiver 

of appellate rights, including the “right to appeal . . . any matter in connection 

with . . . the sentence [] imposed,” unless the government appealed the sentence or 

the district court “depart[ed] upwards from the sentencing Guideline range [it] 

determine[d] to be applicable.” Id. at 6-7. At the change of plea hearing, Avetisyan 

assured the court that he understood both that the court had sole discretion to 

determine the applicable guidelines range and sentence and that he was waiving his 

right to appeal the sentence imposed. 

The district court accepted Avetisyan’s guilty plea as knowing and voluntary, 

determined that the applicable guidelines range was 21 to 27 months, and sentenced 

him substantially below that range to 15 months’ imprisonment. Despite his appeal 

waiver, Avetisyan filed this appeal. 

In ruling on a motion to enforce, we consider: “(1) whether the disputed appeal 

falls within the scope of the waiver of appellate rights; (2) whether the defendant 

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knowingly and voluntarily waived his appellate rights; and (3) whether enforcing the 

waiver would result in a miscarriage of justice.” United States v. Hahn, 359 F.3d 

1315, 1325 (10th Cir. 2004) (en banc) (per curiam). 

Avetisyan filed a pro se response1

 to the motion to enforce, arguing that he 

should be permitted to appeal the reasonableness of his sentence because (1) it is 

enough that he is willing to pay restitution; (2) a prison sentence is a hardship for his 

family; and (3) the district court improperly added two levels to the base offense 

level pursuant to U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual § 2B1.1(b)(11)(C)(i) 

(U.S. Sentencing Comm’n 2018), because the fake driver’s license he used in 

committing the offense included identifiers from multiple people so was not an 

identification of one specific individual, see id. § 2B1.1 cmt. n.1 (incorporating 

“means of identification” definition used in 18 U.S.C. § 1028(d)(7), which requires 

that the “means of identification” identify “a specific individual”), and the 

government cannot prove that he knew the identifiers belonged to real people. 

Construing his response liberally, see Haines v. Kerner, 404 U.S. 519, 520 

(1972) (per curiam), we interpret his arguments as claiming that his sentence falls 

outside the scope of the waiver and that enforcing the waiver would be a miscarriage 

of justice.2

 We reject both arguments. 

 1

 At Avetisyan’s request, his counsel moved to withdraw so that he could 

represent himself on appeal, and we granted that motion. 

2

 Nothing in his opposition suggests that Avetisyan is claiming he did not 

knowingly and voluntarily waive his appellate rights. We thus do not address the 

second Hahn factor. See United States v. Porter, 405 F.3d 1136, 1143 (10th Cir. 

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Avetisyan’s sentence does not fall within either of the exceptions that would 

permit an appeal: it does not exceed the applicable guidelines range and the 

government did not appeal it. Although he challenges the basis for the district 

court’s determination of the guidelines range, that issue falls within the scope of the 

waiver, which bars an appeal of “any matter” related to the determination of the 

sentence. Mot. to Enforce, Attach. C at 6. Accordingly, his appeal falls squarely 

within the scope of his appellate waiver. 

We also reject Avetisyan’s argument that enforcing the waiver will result in a 

miscarriage of justice. A miscarriage of justice occurs where (1) “the district court 

relied on an impermissible factor such as race”; (2) “ineffective assistance of counsel 

in connection with the negotiation of the waiver renders the waiver invalid”; (3) “the 

sentence exceeds the statutory maximum”; or (4) “the waiver is otherwise unlawful.” 

Hahn, 359 F.3d at 1327 (internal quotation marks and citations omitted). To show 

that an appeal waiver is “otherwise unlawful,” the defendant must prove that the 

alleged error “seriously affect[ed] the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of 

judicial proceedings.” Id. at 1329 (internal quotation marks omitted). “The burden 

rests with the defendant to demonstrate that the appeal waiver results in a miscarriage 

of justice.” United States v. Anderson, 374 F.3d 955, 959 (10th Cir. 2004). 

Avetisyan’s arguments challenge the propriety of his sentence, not the legality 

of his appeal waiver. Because the “otherwise unlawful” exception is focused on the 

 

2005) (holding that this court need not address a Hahn factor that the defendant does 

not contest). 

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fairness of the proceedings, not the result of the proceedings, a defendant may not 

rely on it to avoid enforcement of an appeal waiver based on alleged errors in the 

calculation of his sentence. United States v. Smith, 500 F.3d 1206, 1212-13 

(10th Cir. 2007). 

CONCLUSION 

For the reasons discussed above, we deny Avetisyan’s motion to strike the 

government’s motion to enforce his appeal waiver, grant the motion to enforce, and 

dismiss the appeal. 

Entered for the Court 

Per Curiam 

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