USA v. Gandia-Maysonet

• Decision Date: 08 May 2000
• Docket Number: D,No. 98-1144,GANDIA-MAYSONE,98-1144
• Citation: 227 F.3d 1
• Parties: (1st Cir. 2000) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Appellee, v. DANIELefendant, Appellant. . Heard
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

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227 F.3d 1 (1st Cir. 2000) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Appellee,
v.
DANIEL GANDIA-MAYSONET, Defendant, Appellant. No. 98-1144. United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit. Heard May 8, 2000.
Decided September 13, 2000.

APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO. Hon. Salvador E. Casellas, U.S. District Judge.

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Alexander Zeno, by appointment of the court, for appellant.

Camille Velez-Rive, Assistant United States Attorney, with whom Guillermo Gil, United States Attorney, and Jorge E. Vega-Pacheco, Assistant United States Attorney, Chief, Criminal Division, were on brief for the United States.

Before: Selya, Circuit Judge, Coffin, Senior Circuit Judge, and Boudin, Circuit Judge.

BOUDIN, Circuit Judge.

Daniel Gandia-Maysonet was convicted upon a plea of guilty to one count of carjacking, 18 U.S.C. § 2119 (1994), and one count of using a firearm in connection with that crime, 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1) (1994). On this appeal he seeks to set aside his plea. Because no trial has been held, there is no definitive version of the facts of the underlying crime. Based on Gandia's version and that of the government (to which Gandia did not object), the essential outline of events is as follows.

On March 20, 1995, in Vega Baja, in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Ivan Pizarro-Torres invited Gandia to take a drive and then asked him to rob Victor Colon-Ortiz, a lottery ticket seller. Gandia said he would not do the robbery alone, so Ivan Pizarro enlisted his cousin, Samuel Pizarro, to join in the scheme. Ivan Pizarro then drove Gandia and Samuel Pizarro to a point near Colon's home and departed with his vehicle, leaving Gandia and Samuel Pizarro with Ivan's pistol. Gandia and Samuel Pizarro circled the house, spotted Colon in his carport, and approached him.

Samuel Pizarro announced that this was a hold-up; Colon took out a knife and moved toward Samuel, and Samuel then shot Colon five times, killing him.¹ Colon's wife was also shot and suffered serious injury but survived. Samuel Pizarro proceeded to drive Colon's car through a closed gate, and Gandia then joined him. After fleeing with Colon's car, the pair retrieved money from the trunk of the car and shared it with Ivan Pizarro. Some months later, Gandia and another individual shot and killed Samuel Pizarro. Gandia is now serving a 30-year Commonwealth sentence for that crime.

In December 1996, the government indicted Gandia and Ivan Pizarro for carjacking and using a firearm in the course of carjacking, directly and while aiding and abetting each other as well as others not charged. Samuel Pizarro was no longer available as a witness, but Ivan Pizarro agreed to testify against Gandia, and the government disclosed that it had recovered Gandia's fingerprint from the trunk of Colon's car. In light of this evidence, Gandia and the government reached a plea agreement, which provided for Gandia to plead

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guilty to both counts in exchange for an agreed-upon sentence of 30 years for carjacking and a consecutive 5-year sentence on the firearm count.

On May 12, 1997, the district court conducted a change-of-plea hearing and accepted Gandia's guilty plea under Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. In the colloquy, Gandia accepted as true the government's written version of facts attached to the plea agreement, and he made a short statement inculpating himself in the robbery. After a presentence report, the court imposed the agreed-upon sentence on October 7, 1997. Gandia then filed a notice of appeal.

Thereafter, Gandia's counsel filed an Anders brief, pursuant to Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738, 744 (1967). In response to this court's direction, Gandia's counsel briefed two issues for our consideration. One is whether Gandia's guilty plea was invalid because the scienter element of the carjacking crime was misstated at several points in the hearing, so that the plea was not knowing and voluntary. The other is whether the facts to which Gandia admitted provide a sufficient factual basis for a plea to the carjacking offense, as required by Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 11(f).

Appellate review of guilty pleas reflects a fairly specialized body of doctrine. Failures to comply with very specific, yet technical, requirements of Rule 11 are often found "harmless," Fed. R. Crim. P. 11(h). E.g., United States v. McDonald, 121 F.3d 7, 11 (1st Cir. 1997), cert. denied, 522 U.S. 1062 (1998). But, because a guilty plea is a shortcut around the fact-finding process, reviewing courts have been willing to intervene when an error in the guilty plea process arguably affects a "core concern" of Rule 11. United States v. Hernandez-Wilson, 186 F.3d 1, 5 (1st Cir. 1999). This includes ensuring that the defendant understands the elements of the charges that the prosecution would have to prove at trial. See United States v. Ferguson, 60 F.3d 1, 2 (1st Cir. 1995); United States v. Cotal-Crespo, 47 F.3d 1, 4-6 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 516 U.S. 827 (1995).

We think that this core requirement has not been satisfied here. To sum up at the start, everyone involved--the prosecutor, the district court and Gandia's counsel--misunderstood the scienter element in the offense in a manner prejudicial to Gandia; and although we think that the facts proffered at the Rule...