Court Opinion

ID: 2963805
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2015-09-21 21:15:24.220153+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:42:46.383522
License: Public Domain

USCA1 Opinion

	

          January 10, 1996      [NOT FOR PUBLICATION]
                            UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                                FOR THE FIRST CIRCUIT

                                 ____________________

          No. 93-2014

                                    UNITED STATES,

                                      Appellee,

                                          v.

                          DANIEL CRUZ-TORRES, a/k/a EL GAGO,

                                Defendant - Appellant.

                                 ____________________

                     APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

                           FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO

                 [Hon. Raymond L. Acosta, Senior U.S. District Judge]
                                          __________________________

                                 ____________________

                                        Before

                               Torruella, Chief Judge,
                                          ___________

                           Campbell, Senior Circuit Judge,
                                     ____________________

                              and Watson,* Senior Judge.
                                           ____________

                                _____________________

               Lydia  Lizarr bar-Masini, by  Appointment of the  Court, for
               ________________________
          appellant.
               Julie J.  Shemitz, Attorney, Criminal Division, Narcotic and
               _________________
          Dangerous  Drug Section,  U.S. Department  of Justice,  with whom
          Jo Ann  Harris,  Assistant  Attorney General,  Theresa  M.B.  Van
          ______________                                 __________________
          Vliet,  Chief, Criminal  Division,  Narcotic and  Dangerous  Drug
          _____
          Section, U.S. Department of Justice, Guillermo Gil, Acting United
                                               _____________
          States Attorney, and  Lena Watkins, Attorney,  Criminal Division,
                                ____________
          Narcotic and Dangerous Drug  Section, U.S. Department of Justice,
          were on brief for appellee.

                              
          ____________________

          *  Of the United States  Court of International Trade, sitting by
          designation.

                                 ____________________

                                 ____________________

                                         -2-

                    WATSON,  Senior  Judge.    This  is  an  appeal  from a
                    WATSON,  Senior  Judge.
                             _____________

          sentence imposed in the  U.S. District Court for the  District of

          Puerto Rico.   Appellant was  sentenced to  imprisonment for  ten

          years, after pleading guilty to conspiring to possess cocaine and

          marijuana with  intent  to distribute  them, in  violation of  21

          U.S.C.   846.  Between the early part  of 1987  and the middle of

          1989,  he  participated in  a  conspiracy to  import  cocaine and

          marijuana by helping to  unload drugs from boats onto  the shores

          of Puerto Rico.   In the  plea agreement it  was stipulated  that

          appellant was responsible  for the  importation of  approximately

          10,000 pounds of marijuana and 100 kilograms of cocaine.

                      The ten-year  sentence represented the  trial judge's

          adjustment  of the sentence from  a potential 135  to 168 months,

          downward  to  the  mandatory  minimum  of  120   months  for  the

          mitigating  circumstance  of  appellant's condition  of  paranoid

          schizophrenia.

                    Appellant claims that the  trial judge erred in failing

          to  take into  account in  the sentencing  defendant's diminished

          capacity to foresee the amount of drugs that were involved in the

          conspiracy to which he belonged.  This claim has no merit.   In a

          challenge to the court's factfinding the sentence is reviewed for

          clear  error.  United States v. Thompson,  32 F.3d 1, 4 (1st Cir.
                         _____________    ________

          1994).

                      The  amount  of drugs  attributable to  appellant was

          settled  for all purposes by the plea agreement pursuant to which

          he pleaded  guilty to Count One of the indictment.  That plea has

                                         -3-

          not been  challenged, nor is there the  slightest indication that

          it was defective.   The  record shows that  the trial judge  took

          great  care  to ascertain  that the  guilty  plea was  being made

          competently, knowingly and voluntarily.   At that time, appellant

          acknowledged that, although he did not  know if it was cocaine or

          marijuana,  he had  unloaded packages  of drugs  from boats.   He

          acknowledged that he had  read and discussed the  indictment with

          his   attorney.    He  entered  into  a  written  plea  agreement

          specifying  that  he  was  responsible for  the  importation  and

          distribution of approximately 10,000  pounds of marijuana and 100

          kilograms of cocaine,  so it is  clear that  the amount of  drugs

          involved was fully understood.

                      Appellant  has a long history  of mental illness.  He

          was discharged from the  army in 1973, after serving  in Vietnam,

          with  a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia.  He was given a 100%

          service-connected  disability.   It took  eight months  of court-

          supervised hospitalization and treatment for  appellant to become

          competent to proceed to trial and, after the plea, the sentencing

          was delayed for another hospitalization.

                      Nevertheless,  the  sentencing  judge  was  under  no

          obligation at the time of sentencing to reopen the subject of the

          amount of drugs that plaintiff could reasonably have foreseen.  A

          proper reliance on the guilty  plea distinguishes this case  from

          those in which  the district  court failed to  make a  sufficient

          finding  of  foreseeability.   See,  United  States v.  Valencia-
                                         ___   ______________     _________

          Lucena, 988  F.2d 228, 233-235  (1st Cir. 1993).   It is  obvious
          ______

                                         -4-

          that  when  a  guilty plea  resolves  the  question  of what  was

          foreseeable  to a defendant it would be unreasonable to require a

          sentencing judge to make a new determination of foreseeability at

          the time  of sentencing.  In  this case his reliance  on the plea

          agreement and the information contained in the presentence report

          was  more than sufficient to satisfy the requirement in 18 U.S.C.

             3553(c)  (Supp.  1992)  that  "[t]he  court  at  the  time  of

          sentencing, shall  state  in  open  court  the  reasons  for  its

          imposition of the particular sentence . . . ."

                      In any event, the  sentencing judge departed from the

          Sentencing Guidelines pursuant to    5K2.13 and, in circumstances

          that ordinarily  would have required  a minimum  sentence of  135

          months, lowered the term  of imprisonment to 120 months.  That is

          the mandatory minimum term of imprisonment for the crime to which

          appellant  pleaded  guilty.   Without  undoing  the guilty  plea,

          appellant could not hope for a better result.  Affirmed.
                                                         Affirmed
                                                         ________

                                         -5-