U.S.A. v. Elizalde-Adame, 01-1058
| Decision Date | 13 August 2001 |
| Docket Number | No. 01-1058,01-1058 |
| Citation | 262 F.3d 637 |
| Parties | (7th Cir. 2001) United States of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Libia Elizalde-Adame, Defendant-Appellant |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. No. 99 CR 227--David H. Coar, Judge.
Before Bauer, Easterbrook, and Kanne, Circuit Judges.
On March 31, 1999, federal agents with the Immigration and Naturalization Service ("INS") arrested Libia Elizalde- Adame at an apartment in Chicago where she made counterfeit immigration documents. Acting on a tip from a reliable informant, the agents went to the apartment building and knocked on Elizalde-Adame's door. Elizalde-Adame asked, in Spanish, who was there. One of the agents responded in Spanish that she was her new neighbor. Elizalde-Adame then opened the door part way, at which time the agents saw equipment and other items associated with the manufacture of counterfeit immigration documents inside the apartment. The agents then displayed their badges and told Elizalde-Adame that she was under arrest. While Elizalde- Adame was still standing inside her apartment, one of the agents told her to put her hands on the wall and to separate her feet, and she complied. The agents then entered Elizalde-Adame's apartment without her consent and searched her. The parties dispute whether the agents gave Elizalde-Adame Miranda warnings before or after entering the apartment. Nevertheless, Elizalde-Adame eventually signed a Miranda waiver form, after which she admitted that she was in the country illegally and that she had been producing the documents for a young male throughout the month preceding the arrest. She then gave the agents consent to search the apartment, whereupon they discovered incriminating equipment and documents.
After waiving her right to be charged by indictment, Elizalde-Adame was charged by information with production of false identification documents in violation of 18 U.S.C. sec. 1028. She was granted leave by the court to file a motion to quash the arrest and to suppress the evidence obtained following the arrest. After conducting an evidentiary hearing (during which Elizalde-Adame and the arresting agents testified regarding the circumstances of the arrest), and after receiving briefs on the issue of warrantless entry into a home to complete an arrest, the district court denied Eli zalde-Adame's motion to suppress.
Subsequently, Elizalde-Adame signed a plea agreement and entered a plea of guilty before the district court. Neither in the plea agreement nor during the plea colloquy did Elizalde-Adame condition her plea on the right to appeal the denial of her suppression motion. At the sentencing hearing, the district court adjusted Elizalde-Adame's criminal history category from I to III on the basis of a prior misdemeanor supervision and determined that she did not merit a sentence reduction for acceptance of responsibility. After denying Elizalde- Adame's motion for a downward departure based upon extraordinary familial responsibility, the district court sentenced her to 41 months in prison. Elizalde-Adame appeals the district court's denial of her motion to suppress.
Before we address the merits of Elizalde-Adame's appeal, we must determine whether it is properly before us. Elizalde-Adame pled guilty unconditionally, and the district court accepted her plea. As the government notes, an unconditional guilty plea waives all non-jurisdictional defects occurring prior to the plea, including Fourth Amendment claims like the one raised here. See United States v. Galbraith, 200 F.3d 1006, 1010 (7th Cir. 2000); United States v. Cain, 155 F.3d 840, 842 (7th Cir. 1998). Fed. R. Crim. P. 11(a)(2) provides that a defendant may enter a conditional plea of guilty "with the approval of the court and the consent of the government, . . . reserving in writing the right, on appeal from the judgment, to review of the adverse determination of any specified pretrial motion." However, in order to preserve an issue for appeal by means of a conditional plea, "the plea must precisely identify the pretrial issues which the defendant wishes to preserve for review," Cain, 155 F.3d at 842, and the defendant must obtain both the approval of the district court and the "unequivocal acquiescence" of the government. See United States v. Markling, 7 F.3d 1309, 1312 (7th Cir. 1993); United States v. Yasak, 884 F.2d 996, 999 (7th Cir. 1989). Whether or not Elizalde-Adame intended to reserve her right to appeal the motion to suppress, she did not observe these requirements. By its terms, the written plea agreement that she signed is unconditional. And, as we have noted, Elizalde-Adame never expressly requested during the plea hearing to enter a conditional guilty plea or to reserve her right to appeal the denial of the suppression motion. Further, neither the district court nor the government ever assented to the entry of a conditional plea.
While we have ruled that the writing requirement of Fed. R. Crim. P. 11(a)(2) is not jurisdictional and have therefore upheld the validity of conditional pleas absent a writing in certain limited circumstances, those circumstances are not present here. We have found a valid conditional plea without a written plea agreement where: (1) the government did not challenge the defendant's characterization of his plea as conditional or his right to bring a particular appeal; (2) something in the record (for example, the transcript of the plea hearing or correspondence between the government's and the defendant's attorneys) plainly showed that the government had agreed to a conditional plea and that the district court had accepted it; and (3) we felt assured that our decision on the matter appealed would dispose of the case. See Markling, 7 F.3d at 1313; Yasak, 884 F.2d at 999-1000. Here, however, we are confronted not merely with the absence of a written conditional plea, but with the presence of...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Harnishfeger v. United States
...the district court’s decision based on facts that were not before that court. Contra, Fed. R. App. P. 10(a) ; United States v. Elizalde-Adame , 262 F.3d 637, 640 (7th Cir. 2001) ("[W]e still could not consider the claims because they are based on factual material outside of the record which......
-
U.S. v. Combs
...did not condition plea agreement on right to appeal pre-plea motions we lacked jurisdiction to review claims); United States v. Elizalde–Adame, 262 F.3d 637, 640 (7th Cir.2001) (concluding that defendant's plea was “unequivocally unconditional” and thus we lacked “jurisdiction to hear the a......
-
State v. Trevino
...See United States v. Markling, 7 F.3d 1309, 1312–13 (7th Cir.1993); Yasak, 884 F.2d at 999; see also United States v. Elizalde–Adame, 262 F.3d 637, 639 (7th Cir.2001). Specifically, federal courts have found a valid conditional guilty plea without a writing when: (1) the government did not ......
-
Koons v. U.S.
...defects occurring prior to the plea,” United States v. Villegas, 388 F.3d 317, 322 (7th Cir.2004) (quoting United States v. Elizalde–Adame, 262 F.3d 637, 639 (7th Cir.2001)), Koons can challenge the validity of his guilty plea by demonstrating that he received ineffective assistance from co......
-
Pleas
...both parties and the court agreed to the conditional plea. United States v. PLEAS §12:47 Federal Criminal Practice 12-16 Elizalde-Adame , 262 F.3d 637, 639 (7th Cir. 2001) (valid conditional plea without written plea agreement where government did not challenge claim that plea was condition......