United States District Court, D. Colorado
ORDER REJECTING PLEA AGREEMENT
William J. Martinez United States District Judge
This
matter is before the Court on Defendant's Plea Agreement.
(ECF No. 76.) Pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure
11(b), the Court accepted Defendant's guilty plea to
Count 1 of the Information (ECF No. 73). (See ECF
No. 75.) However, plea agreements are governed
separately under Rule 11(c). See United States v.
Hyde, 520 U.S. 670, 674 (1997) (under Rule 11,
“[g]uilty pleas can be accepted while plea agreements
are deferred, and the acceptance of the two can be separated
in time”). By separate order following the
change-of-plea hearing, the Court announced, “The
Parties are advised that I am expressly deferring the
decision on whether to accept the Plea Agreement until I have
the opportunity to review the Presentence Investigation
Report prepared on the Defendant. By way of separate order,
the Parties will be advised of my decision.” (ECF No.
82.) This is that order. And, for the reasons explained
below, the Court rejects the Plea Agreement.
I.
BACKGROUND
The
Indictment, which is dated September 27, 2018, charges
Defendant with distribution, and possession with intent to
distribute, five or more grams of actual methamphetamine and
fifty or more grams of a mixture and substance containing
methamphetamine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1)
and (b)(1)(B)(viii) (“Count 1”); and conspiracy
to do the same, along with co-defendant Samuel Proctor, in
violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846 (“Count 3”).
(ECF No. 1.)[1]
Defendant
was arrested on October 2, 2018 (ECF No. 5), arraigned on
October 5, 2018, and pleaded not guilty (ECF No. 11). She was
released later that same day on a personal recognizance bond.
(ECF No. 13.)
On
March 15, 2019, Defendant filed a Notice of Disposition and
requested a change-of-plea hearing. (ECF No. 62.) The Court
set a change-of-plea hearing for April 25, 2019. (ECF No.
64.) The Court, however, received and reviewed the Plea
Agreement ahead of that hearing. (See id.) The major
points of the Plea Agreement are:
• Defendant pleads guilty to a single-count Information,
filed on the same day as the change-of-plea hearing, charging
Defendant with conspiracy (Proctor being the co-conspirator)
to distribute and possess with intent to distribute
methamphetamine and a mixture and substance containing
methamphetamine. (ECF No. 73 at 1; ECF No. 76 at 1.) The most
significant difference between this charge and the conspiracy
charge in the Indictment (Count 3) is that the Indictment
links the conspiracy to a violation of 21 U.S.C. §
841(b)(1)(B)(viii), which carries a five-year mandatory
minimum sentence, whereas the Information's version of
conspiracy pleads 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(C) as the
underlying substantive offense, which contains no mandatory
minimum in the circumstances presented here.
• In exchange for pleading guilty to the conspiracy
charge in the Information, the Government agrees to dismiss
Defendant from the Indictment. (ECF No. 76 at 1.)
• The parties “jointly recommend [to the Court] a
period of confinement of time served [i.e., four
days], with 3 years of supervised release to follow.”
(Id. at 2.)
The
Plea Agreement's preliminary sentencing calculation
estimated an offense level of 12 and a criminal history
category of VI, for an advisory sentencing range of 30- 37
months. (Id. at 7-8.) The Plea Agreement also stated
“the parties['] understand[ing] that the Court is
free, upon consideration and proper application of all 18
U.S.C. § 3553 factors, to impose” a sentence
below, within, or above the advisory guideline range (up to
the statutory maximum). (Id. at 9.)
The
change-of-plea hearing took place on April 25, 2019, as
scheduled. (ECF No. 75.) As already noted, the Court accepted
Defendant's plea but later advised the parties that it
reserved ruling on whether it would accept the Plea
Agreement. (ECF No. 82.)
II.
LEGAL STANDARD
The
Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure contemplate three types
of ...