Opinion ID: 2995177
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Luis Carrera

Text: Luis first claims that the district court erred by arbitrarily refusing to postpone his trial in order to allow him the opportunity to retain his counsel of choice. Before proceeding to Luis’s arguments, we must address the proper standard of review in this case. Luis claims that the district court erroneously denied him a brief continuance to secure his attorney of choice. We find this assertion to be disingenuous because neither Luis nor his counsel ever moved for a continuance or asked the district judge to postpone the trial./3 Therefore, because no motion for a continuance was made, our review is for plain error only. See United States v. Olano, 507 U.S. 725, 732, 113 S. Ct. 1770, 123 L. Ed. 2d 508 (1993). Even under a more stringent standard of review, however, it is clear that the district court did not violate Luis’s right to counsel of choice by deciding to proceed with his trial. The right to counsel of one’s choice encompassed with in the Sixth Amendment is not absolute. See United States v. Rasmussen, 881 F.2d 395, 401 (7th Cir. 1989). Although a person has the right to be represented by the counsel of his choice, [t]his right is not absolute, but qualified, and must be balanced against the requirements of the fair and proper administration of justice. United States v. Micke, 859 F.2d 473, 480 (7th Cir. 1988). Therefore, while the denial of a continuance may infringe upon the defendant’s right to counsel of choice, see United States v. Santos, 201 F.3d 953, 958 (7th Cir. 2000), only an unreasoning and arbitrary insistence upon expeditiousness in the face of a justifiable request for delay violates the right to the assistance of counsel. Morris v. Slappy, 461 U.S. 1, 11-12, 103 S. Ct. 1610, 75 L. Ed. 2d 610 (1983) (internal quotation omitted). To determine whether the district court erred in denying a continuance, we must consider both the circumstances of the ruling and the reasons given by the judge for it. Santos, 201 F.3d at 958. Luis relies on our decision in Santos for his argument that the district court erred in proceeding to trial. In Santos, defendant’s counsel was unavailable for the trial date set by the district court, and the district court refused to grant a continuance. 201 F.3d at 958. In finding that the district court erred, we said: The salient circumstances here are that the case is not old, the indictment having come down only two and a half months before the scheduled trial date . . . the government did not oppose the continuance; and the judge had no scheduling conflict that would have led to a further delay had he granted the continuance. Nothing in these circumstances indicated that the grant would pose a hardship to anyone. Id. Luis argues that the factors we found persuasive in Santos are present and even more compelling in this case. He claims that it is clear that the district court did not properly weigh his right to counsel against concerns of judicial administration because his case was not old, the government did not oppose the continuance, and the judge had no scheduling conflict. While we agree that Luis’s case was not old, Luis ignores the fact that, because his attorney never moved for a continuance, we do not know if the government would have opposed the motion, if the judge had a scheduling conflict, or if a continuance would have caused hardship to any of the parties. Furthermore, Santos is also distinguishable because there was no suggestion that the defendant in that case was invoking her right to counsel of choice in order to delay the trial. See id. at 959. Here, Luis did not timely inform his attorneys that he wanted to replace them, he waited until the trial was a week away. At that point, O’Connor and Meyer had been representing Luis for over a month. The untimely nature of Luis’s motion coupled with its close proximity to trial as well as the fact that Luis was unable to name his new counsel made it reasonable for the district court to question whether Luis’s motion was an attempt to delay the trial. The right to counsel of one’s choice does not give an accused the power to manipulate his choice of counsel to delay the orderly progress of his case. United States ex rel. Kleba v. McGinnis, 796 F.2d 947, 952 (7th Cir. 1986) (internal quotation omitted). Based on the surrounding circumstances, we do not think that the district court arbitrarily decided to proceed to trial. The fact that the district court questioned Luis’s attorney as well as Luis himself in an attempt to discover whether a new attorney had in fact been retained demonstrates the district court’s recognition of Luis’s right to counsel of his choice. The district judge also acknowledged this right when she specifically stated, [i]f you had counsel here ready to go to trial, or would be ready to go to trial by next week, and somebody who’s admitted to the bar, qualified to do so, of course I would grant the motion. In addition, when Luis’s new attorney did show up on the second day of trial, the district court permitted him to enter his appearance for the purpose of changing Luis’s plea. Therefore, there was no plain error in the district court’s decision to proceed with Luis’s trial as scheduled.
Luis next argues that the district court erroneously concluded that he played a leadership role in the offense and therefore qualified for a two-level upward enhancement under U.S.S.G. section 3B1.1(c). We review the district court’s decision to make an upward adjustment based on the defendant’s role in the offense for clear error. See United States v. Lemmons, 230 F.3d 263, 265 (7th Cir. 2000), cert. denied, 121 S. Ct. 824, 148 L. Ed. 2d 707 (2001). A finding that a defendant played a leadership role is clearly erroneous ’only if, after reviewing the entire evidence, we are left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed.’ United States v. Matthews, 222 F.3d 305, 307 (7th Cir. 2000), cert. denied, 121 S. Ct. 500, 148 L. Ed. 2d 470 (2000) (quoting United States v. Granado, 72 F.3d 1287, 1290 (7th Cir. 1995)). If the fact finder decides between two permissible interpretations of the evidence, we will not find the decision to be clearly erroneous. See id. The Application Notes to section 3B1.1 instruct the sentencing judge to consider seven factors in order to determine if an aggravating role enhancement is warranted. See U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual sec. 3B1.1, cmt n.4 (1998). These factors include: the exercise of decision making authority, the nature of participation in the commission of the offense, the recruitment of accomplices, the claimed right to a larger share of the fruits of the crime, the degree of participation in planning or organizing the offense, the nature and scope of the illegal activity, and the degree of control and authority exercised over others. Id. In adopting the Pre-Sentence Investigation Report’s (PSR) recommendation of a two-level increase to Luis’s base offense level for playing a leadership role, it is clear that the district court focused on several of the factors listed above. Specifically, the district court found that Luis involved his brother in the offense, had decision making authority, expected a larger share of the profits, and obtained the cocaine himself by traveling to Mexico. Luis takes issue with the district court’s findings. First and foremost, he argues, there is no evidence that he had the sort of real and direct influence [over David] . . . that the enhancement was designed to punish. United States v. Mankiewicz, 122 F.3d 399, 406 (7th Cir. 1997) (internal quotation omitted). Second, he claims that he was simply an average participant in a scheme orchestrated by Soto and did not have any realistic expectation of obtaining a larger share of profit from the deal. To support this theory, Luis points to a recorded conversation between Soto and Salazar in which Soto states that they wouldn’t have to give Luis that much in order to get him to make the delivery. Luis also submits that there is no evidence that he had any decision making authority beyond the ability to determine the time of the transaction. In spite of Luis’s argument that he was nothing more than Soto’s glorified mule, we cannot find that the district court clearly erred in finding that Luis played a leadership role in the offense. Although Luis argues that there is no evidence that he did or could have exercised control over his brother, an upward adjustment under section 3B1.1(c) does not require an explicit finding that the defendant exercised control, so long as the criminal activity involves more than one participant and the defendant played a coordinating or organizing role. United States v. Bush, 79 F.3d 64, 67 (7th Cir. 1996) (internal quotation omitted); see also United States v. Billingsley, 115 F.3d 458, 465 (7th Cir. 1997). As we have stated, the overall focus under sec. 3B1.1 is relative responsibility within a criminal organization. Bush, 79 F.3d at 67. It is evident from the record that Luis possessed sufficient responsibility to support a leadership role enhancement from the fact that he obtained the drugs, set up the time and place for the delivery, recruited his brother as an accomplice, and claimed rights to $17,000 out of $19,500 per kilogram of cocaine. Therefore, we uphold the district court’s determination that Luis qualified for an upward enhancement under section 3B1.1(c).
Reduction Luis Carrera next contests the district court’s refusal to award a two-level reduction under U.S.S.G. section 3E1.1. Section 3E1.1 provides that a defendant is entitled to a two-level reduction in base offense level if he clearly demonstrates acceptance of responsibility for his actions. See U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual sec. 3E1.1 (1998). Of course, a defendant is not entitled to an acceptance of responsibility reduction as a matter of right simply because he pleaded guilty. See United States v. Morris, 76 F.3d 171, 175-76 (7th Cir. 1996). In order to establish entitlement to this reduction, a defendant must show by a preponderance of the evidence that he: (1) clearly recognized and accepted responsibility for his conduct; (2) timely notified authorities of his intention to enter a plea of guilty; and (3) truthfully admitted the conduct comprising the offense of conviction and admitted . . . the relevant conduct as it relates to the offense of conviction. United States v. Sierra, 188 F.3d 798, 804 (7th Cir. 1999). We will affirm the district court’s findings so long as they are not clearly erroneous. See United States v. Galbraith, 200 F.3d 1006, 1015 (7th Cir. 2000). Luis claims that the district court based its denial of the reduction on the fact that he did not plead guilty until the second day of trial, and he submits that the delayed plea was a result of the district court’s erroneous refusal to postpone the trial to allow his new attorney to enter his appearance. According to Luis, if a continuance had been granted at the pre-trial hearing, or even if Ciardelli had been allowed to enter his appearance on the morning of the first day of trial, he would have pleaded guilty before the jury was empaneled and thus been entitled to the reduction. As we explained in Part II.A.1 above, it was not improper for the district court to proceed to trial. Moreover, even if the district court had allowed Ciardelli to enter his appearance the morning that the trial began, a denial of the reduction would still have been justified. See Sierra, 188 F.3d at 805 (upholding a determination that the defendant did not accept responsibility because he pleaded guilty on the last business day before the trial). Second, although lack of timeliness was certainly one of the district court’s reasons for denying the reduction, it is clear that the district court also found that Luis’s admissions were not trustworthy. During sentencing, the district judge explained her rationale for denying the acceptance of responsibility reduction as follows: [E]ven if I had permitted Mr. Ciardelli to disrupt the trial, send the jury back down to the jury room . . . I would not have viewed that as timely acceptance of responsibility, even under that scenario. So, in terms of timeliness, I think the record itself refutes entitlement to consideration for reduction for acceptance of responsibility. In terms of the contradictory statements Mr. Luis Carrera has made about his own conduct, I find that there is a lack of trustworthiness in his admissions, his limited admissions, and his changing admissions. So I find that the presentence report’s omission of a reduction for accepting responsibility is a valid one, and I cannot find by a preponderance of the evidence that Mr. Luis Carrera accepted responsibility. Tr. of Luis Carrera’s Sentencing Hr’g. at 8. Although Luis acknowledges that the district court did find his admissions to be untrustworthy, he claims that we should remand for resentencing because it is not clear whether the district court would have denied the acceptance of responsibility reduction based solely on its finding that Luis was not completely truthful. We disagree. Even if the district court incorrectly determined that Luis’s acceptance of responsibility was untimely, its finding that Luis was not completely honest in his admissions is an appropriate independent justification for denying the reduction. See United States v. Kamoga, 177 F.3d 617, 622 (7th Cir. 1999), cert. denied, 528 U.S. 942, 120 S. Ct. 355, 145 L. Ed. 2d 277 (1999) (holding that a defendant is not entitled to an acceptance of responsibility reduction if he fails to provide a truthful and complete admission); see also United States v. Purchess, 107 F.3d 1261, 1269 (7th Cir. 1997) (affirming sentence where district court’s denial of the acceptance of responsibility reduction [was] well grounded in a permissible factor). Therefore, we uphold the district court’s finding that Luis was not entitled to a two-level reduction for acceptance of responsibility.