Court Opinion

ID: 9495874
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:12:33.013825+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:57:14.855093
License: Public Domain

TALLMAN, Circuit Judge,
dissenting in part.
The Apprendi error in this case was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, and Banuelos’ sentence should therefore remain unchanged.
*708Overwhelming evidence linked Banuelos to an extensive drug distribution conspiracy. Confronted with this evidence, Ban-uelos decided to plead guilty after the government agreed to drop a methamphetamine distribution count. During his plea colloquy, Banuelos admitted his participation in the conspiracy. He further conceded that the conspiracy distributed more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana. Because Pinkerton v. United States, 328 U.S. 640, 66 S.Ct. 1180, 90 L.Ed. 1489 (1946), instructs that a conspirator is generally liable for the reasonably foreseeable acts of his co-conspirators — and a conspiracy to distribute 1,000 or more kilograms of marijuana is punishable by up to life imprisonment under 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(A) — one might have thought Banuelos sealed his fate by making these admissions.
Nevertheless, with nothing to lose, Ban-uelos decided to roll the dice and challenge at sentencing the quantity of marijuana distributed by the conspiracy that was attributable to him. He argued that he was not responsible for 1,000 kilograms of marijuana because it was not reasonably foreseeable to him that the conspiracy distributed that quantity. At sentencing, then, the district court was asked to decide one critical question: for what quantity of drugs distributed by the conspiracy should Banuelos be held accountable?
Prior to the sentencing hearing — the only proceeding in this case in which this key factual issue was to be determined— Banuelos admitted to Probation Officer Ramsdell (who prepared the presentence investigation report) that Banuelos possessed quantities of marijuana well in excess of 100 kilograms with the intent to distribute the drug.1 At the sentencing hearing, counsel for Banuelos admitted that 1816 pounds (about 825 kilograms) of marijuana distributed by the conspiracy was attributable to her client, although she emphasized that the biggest single drug deal in which her client participated was a 300 pound (about 136 kilograms) sale of marijuana. Thus, before a decision was rendered on the quantity of marijuana attributable to Banuelos, one fact was absolutely undisputed: by his own admissions Banuelos distributed more than 100 kilograms of marijuana.
Based on these admissions, Banuelos was subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of 5 years imprisonment and a statutory maximum sentence of 40 years imprisonment under 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(B). Because Banuelos was sentenced to less than 40 years imprisonment (he got 10 years), the Apprendi error here was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. United States v. Saya, 247 F.3d 929, 942 (9th Cir.2001) (explaining that Apprendi relief is not available when the actual sentence received does not exceed the statutory maximum sentence authorized by facts proven beyond a reasonable doubt); see also United States v. Jordan, 291 F.3d 1091, 1095 (9th Cir.2002) (noting that one method to determine whether an Apprendi error is harmless is to examine if the sentence received “is greater than the maximum sentence the defendant should have faced”).
Because the Apprendi error was harmless, Banuelos’ sentence should stand. Nonetheless, the Court holds that Banue-los must be resentenced and that the maxi*709mum possible sentence on remand is five years imprisonment because Banuelos pled guilty to an indeterminate quantity of marijuana.2 See 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(D). According to the Court, Banuelos’ admissions are irrelevant because our precedent instructs that “[a] stipulation at sentencing does not address the jury’s finding and cannot be considered under Apprendi.” Jordan, 291 F.3d at 1097; see also United States v. Nordby, 225 F.3d 1053, 1061 n. 6 (9th Cir.2000). But unlike our decisions in Jordan and Nordby, there was no jury finding in this case because Banuelos pled guilty to the conspiracy to distribute controlled substances. The only relevant issue remaining before the district court was to be decided at sentencing; specifically, the court had to determine what quantity of marijuana distributed by the conspiracy was attributable to Banuelos. Because the only factual issue in this case was to be resolved at sentencing, Banuelos’ admissions to the court’s probation officer made prior to the sentencing hearing, as well as his admissions made at the sentencing hearing, must be binding upon him if logic and reason mean anything in this case.3
*710I note that United States v. Vonn, 535 U.S. 55, 122 S.Ct. 1043, 152 L.Ed.2d 90 (2002), undercuts the Jordan and Nordby approach that admissions made outside of the plea colloquy are irrelevant to an Ap-prendi analysis. Vonn held that, when considering the effect of a Rule 11 violation, an appellate court is not limited to consideration of only the record of the plea proceeding. Id. at 1054-55. Though Vonn did not address the scope of our inquiry when deciding Apprendi error, I believe it is relevant in this case where ample evidence in the record establishes beyond any doubt that Banuelos distributed more than 100 kilograms of marijuana — the only issue relevant to assessing whether the Apprendi error prejudiced Banuelos.
Banuelos’ sentence should remain unchanged because the Apprendi error in this case was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Because the Court announces a different remedy, I respectfully dissent.

. The presentence report notes: "In total, the defendant believed that he may have been involved in the distribution of 1,600 pounds (about 727 kilograms) of marijuana.'' In his objections to the presentence report, Banue-los did not challenge the 1600-pound figure. Instead, Banuelos admitted that he brokered one 300 pound sale (about 136 kilograms) of marijuana and attempted to broker an additional 300 pound sale.

. The Court is simply incorrect when it asserts that Banuelos pled guilty only to "an unspecified quantity of marijuana.” Banue-los’ guilty plea explicitly contemplated that the district court would determine a quantity of marijuana attributable to him. At the plea colloquy Banuelos was warned that he faced a maximum punishment of life in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of ten years imprisonment if the court determined that 1,000 kilograms or more of marijuana distributed by the conspiracy were attributable to him:
THE COURT: Mr. Banuelos, now, the penalties that you’re subject to in this case, the minimum and maximum, have you discussed those with your attorney?
DEFENDANT: Yes, I have, Your Honor.
THE COURT: And what are they? I guess — Let me ask the Government. It depends on the amounts and the type of drugs, correct?
PROSECUTOR: The conspiracy to which Mr. Banuelos is pleading guilty involve [sic] the distribution of over 1,000 kilograms of marijuana.... Therefore, the penalties which is [sic] attached to this particular conspiracy are a mandatory minimum term of 10 years in custody and up to life imprisonment....
THE COURT: Do you understand what [the prosecutor] has just stated, Mr. Banue-los?
DEFENDANT: Yes, I do, Your Honor.
THE COURT: That's the minimum and maximum, if I find that you are responsible for the entire amount of drugs that was distributed by the conspirators in this case. Do you understand?
DEFENDANT: Yes, Your Honor.
THE COURT: However, as I said before, I will determine how much of the drugs you should be responsible for. But at this time I can’t make any promises or guarantees about what sentence that will be. Do you understand?
DEFENDANT: Yes, I do, Your Honor.
Thus, Banuelos effectively pled guilty to whatever quantity of marijuana the district court determined was appropriate at sentencing. A fair reading of the record belies the Court’s overly technical characterization of Banuelos’ Rule 11 plea. We have recently been warned by the Supreme Court of the perils of analysis that is "more zealous than the policy behind the Rule demands.” United States v. Vonn, 535 U.S. 55, 122 S.Ct. 1043, 1054, 152 L.Ed.2d 90 (2002).

. It is true, as the Court points out, that the district court did not advise Banuelos that he had a right to have a jury decide what quantity of marijuana was attributable to him. But this is irrelevant. Banuelos’ admissions that he possessed more than 100 kilograms of the drug acted to waive his right to a juiy determination of that quantity. See United States v. Sanchez, 269 F.3d 1250, 1272 n. 40 (11th Cir.2001) (en banc) (”[J]ust as the defendant’s guilty plea to a substantive offense serves as the equivalent to a jury’s finding beyond a reasonable doubt of that defendant’s guilt, so does a stipulation to a specific drug quanti*710ty — whether as part of a written plea agreement, part of a jury trial, or at sentencing— serve as the equivalent of a jury finding on that issue, since the stipulation takes the issue away from the jury.”) (emphasis added). Because Banuelos admitted his personal involvement in a conspiracy to distribute more than 100 kilograms of marijuana to the probation officer and through his attorney in open court, what possible harm arose from failing to empanel a jury to determine this quantity?
Of course, Banuelos never waived his right to have a juiy determine if 1,000 kilograms of marijuana distributed by the conspiracy were attributable to him. If Banuelos had been sentenced to more than 40 years imprisonment — the statutoiy maximum for possessing more than 100 kilograms of the drug under 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(B) — then the Apprendi error in this case would not have been harmless, and Banuelos would be entitled to relief. That is not what happened here.