Opinion ID: 201238
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Explaining the PSR or Plea Agreements

Text: 52 Colón also alleges that Peña did not adequately explain the PSR or the plea agreements. Colón signed both the plea agreement and the amended plea agreement on the day that they were each presented in court. In the peculiar circumstances of this case, these last-minute signings suggest that Colón might have lacked sufficient time to consider the pleas, their ramifications, and any relevant advice Peña offered. Additionally, the appellate record suggests that when Peña received the PSR, he did not discuss the PSR with Colón prior to renegotiating a plea on his behalf with the government. In fact, the material before us suggests that Colón may have seen the PSR and the amended plea agreement for the first time the morning of his sentencing hearing. Moreover, if Peña ever discussed with Colón the possibility of withdrawing the plea in light of the career offender disclosure of the PSR, there is no hint of such discussion in the record. 53 These suggestions of haste and limited communication with Colón add significance to Peña's failures to correct errors in the PSR (misstating the BOL, statutory maximum sentence, and Guidelines sentencing calculation) and in the amended plea agreement (misstating the criminal history category and substituting a  base offense level for a  total offense level). Unnoticed or unaddressed by Peña, these errors reflect the kind of inattentiveness to detail by Peña described by Colón in his pro se motion for change of counsel. The last-minute signings of the plea agreements, coupled with the uncorrected errors in the documents, may be further indicia of ineffective assistance of counsel. 54