Opinion ID: 200784
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Four Year Supervised Release Term

Text: 12 Meléndez claims — and the government agrees — that the district court erroneously departed from the United States Sentencing Guidelines when it sentenced him to a four-year supervised release term in Appeal No. 01-2397, the case involving the information and the earlier criminal conduct. We concur. 2 13 Before a court may impose a sentence exceeding the Guidelines, it must give prior notice to the defendant of its intention to impose a term of such an extended duration and must state on the record the aggravating circumstances that justify the upward departure. United States v. Matos 328 F.3d 34, 44 (1st Cir. 2003); see also Burns v. United States, 501 U.S. 129, 138-39, 111 S.Ct. 2182, 115 L.Ed.2d 123 (1991). The government charged Meléndez in an information with possession with intent to distribute one kilogram of cocaine and 500 grams of heroin in Appeal No. 01-2397. Meléndez waived indictment, trial, and the preparation of a Pre-sentence Report and agreed to plead guilty. Under the terms of that plea agreement, however, the parties stipulated that he would plead guilty to possession with the intent to distribute at least four hundred but less than five hundred grams of cocaine. 14 The original offense for which Meléndez was charged in the information carried a mandatory four-year term of supervised release, see 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(B), but the offense to which he actually pled guilty only carried a statutory mandatory term of three years of supervised release. 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(C). The sentencing court erroneously imposed the supervised release term that accompanied the original charge. 3 Since the resulting sentence exceeded the Guidelines for the offense for which he actually was found guilty, see U.S.S.G. § 5D1.2(a), and since the court failed to provide advance notice of this departure, we vacate the four-year supervised release provision in Appeal No. 01-2397. We also vacate the portion of the judgment that states that Meléndez pled guilty to possession with intent to distribute one kilogram of cocaine and five hundred grams of heroin. As noted, Meléndez actually pled guilty to possession with intent to distribute four hundred but less than five hundred grams of cocaine, and the judgment should be corrected to reflect this fact. 4