Court Opinion

ID: 9382160
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-03-24 21:01:32.187296+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:17:37.297113
License: Public Domain

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                                             UNPUBLISHED

                               UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                                   FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

                                               No. 22-4022

        UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

                             Plaintiff - Appellee,

                      v.

        JEREMY HAMLIN,

                             Defendant - Appellant.

        Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia, at
        Clarksburg. Irene M. Keeley, Senior District Judge. (1:20-cr-00048-IMK-MJA-8)

        Submitted: January 31, 2023                                       Decided: March 23, 2023

        Before GREGORY, Chief Judge, RUSHING, Circuit Judge, and KEENAN, Senior Circuit
        Judge.

        Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

        ON BRIEF: Charles T. Berry, Kingmont, West Virginia, for Appellant. Zelda Elizabeth
        Wesley, Assistant United States Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES
        ATTORNEY, Clarksburg, West Virginia, for Appellee.

        Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.
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        PER CURIAM:

               Jeremy Hamlin pled guilty, pursuant to a written plea agreement, to maintaining a

        drug-involved premises, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 856(a)(2). The district court calculated

        Hamlin’s advisory prison range under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual (2018) at 6

        to 12 months’ imprisonment and sentenced Hamlin to 12 months and 1 day in prison.

               On appeal, Hamlin’s counsel has filed a brief pursuant to Anders v. California,

        386 U.S. 738 (1967), stating that there are no meritorious grounds for appeal, but

        questioning whether the district court reversibly erred in accepting Hamlin’s guilty plea,

        whether trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance, and whether the district court erred

        in imposing Hamlin’s prison sentence. Hamlin was informed of his right to file a pro se

        supplemental brief but has not done so. The Government declined to file a brief and does

        not seek to enforce the appeal waiver in Hamlin’s plea agreement. 1 We affirm.

               In federal cases, Fed. R. Crim. P. 11 “governs the duty of the trial judge before

        accepting a guilty plea.” Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 243 n.5 (1969). “Before

        accepting a guilty plea, [the district] court, through colloquy with the defendant, must

        ensure that the defendant understands the nature of the charges to which the plea is offered,

        any mandatory minimum penalty, the maximum possible penalty, and the various rights

        the defendant is relinquishing by pleading guilty.” United States v. Williams, 811 F.3d

        621, 622 (4th Cir. 2016) (citing Fed. R. Crim. P. 11(b)). “The court also must determine

               1
                Because the Government fails to assert the waiver as a bar to this appeal, we may
        consider the issues raised by counsel and conduct an independent review of the record
        pursuant to Anders. See United States v. Poindexter, 492 F.3d 263, 271 (4th Cir. 2007).

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        that the plea is voluntary and that there is a factual basis for the plea.” Id. Because Hamlin

        did not move in the district court to withdraw his guilty plea, we review the district court’s

        acceptance of it for plain error. United States v. Lockhart, 947 F.3d 187, 191 (4th Cir.

        2020) (en banc). “To succeed under plain error review, a defendant must show that: (1) an

        error occurred; (2) the error was plain; and (3) the error affected his substantial rights.” Id.

        In the guilty plea context, a defendant meets his burden to establish that a plain error

        affected his substantial rights by showing a reasonable probability that he would not have

        pled guilty but for the district court’s error. United States v. Sanya, 774 F.3d 812, 816

        (4th Cir. 2014). We retain the discretion to correct a plain error affecting a defendant’s

        substantial rights “only if the error seriously affects the fairness, integrity or public

        reputation of judicial proceedings.” Lockhart, 947 F.3d at 191 (internal quotation marks

        omitted).

               A magistrate judge conducted the Rule 11 colloquy in Hamlin’s case, and the district

        court adopted the magistrate judge’s recommendation to accept his guilty plea. 2 Our

        review of the record leads us to conclude that the magistrate judge’s omissions under Rule

        11 did not affect Hamlin’s substantial rights. The record also reveals that the plea was

        supported by an independent basis in fact and that Hamlin entered the plea voluntarily and

        with an understanding of the consequences. We therefore discern no plain error warranting

        correction in the acceptance of Hamlin’s guilty plea.

               2
                The record establishes that the magistrate judge was authorized to conduct
        Hamlin’s plea colloquy.

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               Next, Anders counsel questions whether trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance

        in not aggressively seeking a more favorable plea agreement for Hamlin and in not insisting

        on a plea agreement that bound the district court. This court typically will not review a

        claim of ineffective assistance of counsel made on direct appeal, United States v. Maynes,

        880 F.3d 110, 113 n.1 (4th Cir. 2018), “[u]nless an attorney’s ineffectiveness conclusively

        appears on the face of the record,” United States v. Faulls, 821 F.3d 502, 507 (4th Cir.

        2016). To demonstrate ineffective assistance of trial counsel, Hamlin must satisfy the

        two-part test set out in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984). He “must show

        that counsel’s performance was [constitutionally] deficient” and “that the deficient

        performance prejudiced the defense.”      Id. at 687.   After review, we conclude that

        ineffective assistance by trial counsel does not conclusively appear on the face of the

        record. Such claims “should be raised, if at all, in a 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion.” Faulls,

        821 F.3d at 508. We therefore decline to address these claims at this juncture.

               Anders counsel also questions whether the district court erred in sentencing Hamlin

        to 12 months and 1 day in prison. “This [c]ourt reviews all sentences—whether inside, just

        outside, or significantly outside the Guidelines range—under a deferential abuse-of-

        discretion standard,” United States v. Torres-Reyes, 952 F.3d 147, 151 (4th Cir. 2020)

        (cleaned up), for procedural and substantive reasonableness, United States v. Fowler,

        948 F.3d 663, 668 (4th Cir. 2020). In evaluating procedural reasonableness, this court

        considers whether the district court properly calculated the defendant’s Guidelines range,

        gave the parties an opportunity to argue for an appropriate sentence, considered the

        18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) factors, and sufficiently explained the selected sentence. Id. When

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        rendering a sentence, the district court must make an individualized assessment based on

        the facts presented, state in open court the reasons supporting its chosen sentence, address

        the parties’ nonfrivolous arguments in favor of a particular sentence and, if it rejects them,

        explain why in a manner allowing for meaningful appellate review. United States v.

        Provance, 944 F.3d 213, 218 (4th Cir. 2019). If there are no procedural errors, this court

        then considers the substantive reasonableness of the sentence, evaluating “the totality of

        the circumstances to determine whether the sentencing court abused its discretion in

        concluding that the sentence it chose satisfied the standards set forth in § 3553(a).” United

        States v. Nance, 957 F.3d 204, 212 (4th Cir. 2020) (internal quotation marks omitted).

               After review of the record, we conclude that the district court did not reversibly err

        in calculating Hamlin’s Guidelines range. The district court afforded counsel an adequate

        opportunity to argue for an appropriate sentence and properly heard allocution from

        Hamlin. After considering the arguments of counsel, Hamlin’s allocution, the advisory

        Guidelines range, and the 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) factors, the district court determined that a

        prison term of 12 months and 1 day was warranted based on the nature and circumstances

        of Hamlin’s offense conduct, his history and characteristics, and the needs for the sentence

        imposed to reflect the seriousness of his offense, to promote respect for the law, to provide

        just punishment, to afford adequate deterrence to criminal conduct, and to protect the

        public. See 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)(1), (2)(A)-(C). The district court’s explanation was

        sufficient to support the imposition of this term. We also accord “due deference to the

        district court’s decision that the § 3553(a) factors, on a whole,” justified imposition of an

        upward variant sentence one day above the top end of the Guidelines range. United

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        States v. Zuk, 874 F.3d 398, 409 (4th Cir. 2017) (internal quotation marks omitted).

        We thus discern no abuse of discretion in the district court’s imposition of Hamlin’s prison

        sentence.

               In accordance with Anders, we have reviewed the entire record in this case and have

        found no meritorious grounds for appeal. We therefore affirm the criminal judgment. This

        court requires that counsel inform Hamlin, in writing, of the right to petition the Supreme

        Court of the United States for further review. If Hamlin requests that a petition be filed,

        but counsel believes that such a petition would be frivolous, then counsel may move in this

        court for leave to withdraw from representation. Counsel’s motion must state that a copy

        thereof was served on Hamlin.

               We dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal contentions are

        adequately presented in the materials before this court and argument would not aid the

        decisional process.

                                                                                       AFFIRMED

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