U.S. v. Munoz
| Decision Date | 26 April 1996 |
| Docket Number | No. 95-2133,95-2133 |
| Citation | 83 F.3d 7 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES, Appellee, v. John Jairo MUNOZ, Defendant, Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit |
Appeal from the United States District Court, for the District of Rhode Island [Hon. Francis J. Boyle, Senior U.S. District Judge].
Sara Rapport, San Diego, CA, on brief, for appellant.
Sheldon Whitehouse, United States Attorney, Margaret E. Curran, Assistant United States Attorney, and Stephanie S. Browne, Assistant United States Attorney, Providence, RI, on brief, for appellee.
Before SELYA, BOUDIN and STAHL, Circuit Judges.
Defendant-appellant John Jairo Munoz Estrada pled guilty to illegal reentry after deportation, in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326. He appeals from his sentence on the sole ground that the district court erred in denying him a one-level reduction pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 3E1.1(b)(2) for "timely notifying authorities of his intention to enter a plea of guilty." We vacate his sentence and remand for resentencing.
United States v. Morillo, 8 F.3d 864, 871 (1st Cir.1993). "The clearly erroneous standard ... guides appellate review of district court determinations under section 3E1.1(b)." Id.
"The timeliness of the defendant's acceptance of responsibility is ... context specific." U.S.S.G. § 3E1.1, comment. (n. 6). To qualify for the additional one-level reduction under § 3E1.1(b)(2), the defendant "must have notified authorities of his intention to enter a plea of guilty at a sufficiently early point in the process so that the government may avoid preparing for trial and the court may schedule its calendar efficiently." Id.
In denying the one-level reduction for timeliness, the district court focused on the court's ability to "allocate its resources efficiently," § 3E1.1(b)(2), rather than on the government's expenditure of resources in preparing for trial. (The government concedes in its brief that "[t]here was no direct evidence on the record that the prosecution had actually prepared for trial--outside of preparing responses to defense counsel's boilerplate motions.") 1 Specifically, the court emphasized that Munoz did not plead guilty until after the case was placed on the court's trial calendar.
Wasting judicial resources is, of course, a valid ground for denying the extra one-level reduction. Here, however, the case was placed on the court's trial calendar on March 22, 1995. Munoz did not actually enter his plea until April 5, 1995. The language of § 3E1.1(b)(2) refers to the date that the defendant "notif[ies] authorities of...
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...barrage of pretrial motions (as did the appellees) usually cannot expect to receive the bonus discount, see United States v. Munoz, 83 F.3d 7, 9 n. 1 (1st Cir.1996) (per curiam) (dictum). But generalities are often unhelpful in specific cases, and the trier's judgment on acceptance of respo......
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