United States v. Gomez-Estrada, 273 F.3d 400, 1st Cir. (2001)

273 F.3d 400 (1st Cir.
2001)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Appellee,

v.
GUILLERMO DEJESUS GOMEZ-ESTRADA, Defendant,
Appellant.
No. 01-1085
United States Court of Appeals For the First Circuit

Heard Nov. 7, 2001
Decided November 27, 2001
APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE

DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS. Hon. Nancy Gertner, U.S. District
Judge
Leo T. Sorokin, Federal Defender Office, for appellant.
Timothy Q. Feeley, Assistant United States Attorney, with whom James
B. Farmer, United States Attorney, was on brief, for the United States.
Before Selya, Circuit Judge, Coffin, Senior Circuit Judge, and Saris, *
District Judge.
SELYA, Circuit Judge.
A federal grand jury charged defendant-appellant Guillermo DeJesus GomezEstrada with unlawful reentry (i.e., being an alien who, having been previously
arrested and deported from the United States, was found therein without having
received the express consent of the United States Attorney General to reapply
for admission). The statute invoked by the grand jury, 8 U.S.C. 1326,
provides in the first instance for a maximum sentence of two years, id.
1326(a), but makes provision for increases in that maximum in certain
circumstances, id. 1326(b). One such circumstance is when the defendant has
been convicted of committing an "aggravated felony" prior to his unlawful
reentry.1 See id. 1326(b)(2). In that event, the maximum penalty rises to
twenty years.
The appellant eventually pled guilty to the single-count indictment. At the Rule
11 hearing, the government represented to the court that, prior to the appellant's
initial deportation, he had been convicted of a drug-trafficking offense -- an
aggravated felony -- in the United States District Court for the District of
Rhode Island and sentenced to a ten-year incarcerative term. Although the
appellant did not specifically admit to the prior conviction, the district court
nonetheless accepted his plea (warning him that he might face a sentence of up
to twenty years). At the disposition hearing, the government repeated its
representation and provided the court with appropriate documentation. Once
again, the appellant did not admit to the prior conviction, but neither did he
challenge the accuracy of the prosecutor's representation.
As said, the significance of the prior conviction is that it operates as a sentenceenhancer in the "unlawful reentry" context. Here, however, the appellant
contested the power of the court to take the prior conviction into account. In
this regard, he noted that it had neither been referenced in the indictment nor
proven to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. Thus, he contended, the Supreme
Court's opinion in Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466 (2000), dictated that
an enhanced sentence could not be imposed.
The sentencing court rejected this contention, deeming itself bound by the
Supreme Court's antecedent decision in Almendarez-Torres v. United States,
523 U.S. 224 (1998). Accordingly, the court gave weight to the prior
conviction and imposed an enhanced sentence (forty months). This appeal
ensued.
Before us, the appellant restates his Apprendi-based thesis. He starts with the
general premise that, absent a waiver, any fact increasing the statutory
maximum penalty must be charged in an indictment and proven to a jury
beyond a reasonable doubt. Although he acknowledges that the Apprendi Court
specifically carved out the fact of a prior conviction from the operation of this
general premise, see Apprendi, 530 U.S. at 490, he asserts that this carve-out
(and the Court's concomitant refusal to overrule Almendarez-Torres) was
qualified. In his view, the Apprendi Court limited the holding of AlmendarezTorres to those cases in which a defendant actually admits to a prior felony
conviction.
This, then, is the linchpin of the appellant's thesis. Because he avoided an

explicit admission of the prior conviction, the appellant reasons, AlmendarezTorres does not apply; Apprendi governs unreservedly; and, accordingly, the
maximum penalty that could have been levied in his case, absent a jury finding
that he had previously been convicted of an aggravated felony, was the twoyear (unenhanced) statutory maximum. See 8 U.S.C. 1326(a). Although we
give the appellant high marks for ingenuity, we reject his argument.
7
In the first place, the Apprendi Court, 530 U.S. at 489-90, made pellucid that it
was not overruling Almendarez-Torres; and we deem ourselves bound to follow
the holding in Almendarez-Torres unless and until the Supreme Court abrogates
that decision. In so ruling, we align ourselves not only with precedent in this
circuit, e.g., United States v. Johnstone, 251 F.3d 281, 286 n.7 (1st Cir. 2001);
United States v. Terry, 240 F.3d 65, 73-74 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 121 S. Ct.
1965 (2001), but also with an unbroken skein of cases from our sister circuits,
e.g., United States v. Palomino-Rivera, 258 F.3d 656, 661 (7th Cir. 2001);
United States v. Raya-Ramirez, 244 F.3d 976, 977 (8th Cir. 2001); United
States v. Latorre-Benavides, 241 F.3d 262, 264 (2d Cir.) (per curiam), cert.
denied, 121 S. Ct. 2013 (2001); United States v. Guadamuz-Solis, 232 F.3d
1363, 1363 (11th Cir. 2000) (per curiam); United States v. Martinez-Villalva,
232 F.3d 1329, 1331 (10th Cir. 2000); United States v. Dabeit, 231 F.3d 979,
984 (5th Cir. 2000), cert. denied, 531 U.S. 1202 (2001).
In the second place, there is simply no authority for the appellant's imaginative
argument that Apprendi somehow limited the holding of Almendarez-Torres to
only those unlawful reentry cases in which the defendant explicitly admits the
commission of a prior aggravated felony. The only court squarely to confront
this argument has repudiated it, see United States v. Arellano-Rivera, 244 F.3d
1119, 1127 (9th Cir. 2001), and several of our own post-Apprendi cases (such
as Johnstone and Terry) involve defendants who appear to have made no such
express admission. To cinch matters, the appellant's argument gives undue
prominence to a stray reference in Almendarez-Torres. The unmistakable focus
of that decision was section 1326(b) itself, measured against the requirements
of the Constitution. See Almendarez-Torres, 523 U.S. at 226. In the critical
portion of its opinion, the Almendarez-Torres Court never mentioned, let alone
relied on, the defendant's admission of his prior convictions during the changeof-plea colloquy.2
We need go no further. We hold unequivocally that Apprendi neither overruled

Almendarez-Torres nor limited Almendarez-Torres to cases in which a
defendant admits a prior aggravated felony conviction on the record. To the
contrary, when the Apprendi Court wrote that "[o]ther than the fact of a prior
conviction, any fact that increases the penalty for a crime beyond the
prescribed statutory maximum must be submitted to a jury, and proved beyond
a reasonable doubt," Apprendi, 530 U.S. at 490 (emphasis supplied), the Court
meant exactly that. It follows inexorably that the district court appropriately
enhanced the appellant's sentence for unlawful reentry on the basis of his prior
conviction for an aggravated felony even though the existence of that
conviction was not admitted by the appellant, nor charged in the indictment,
nor proved to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt.
10
Affirmed.
Notes:
*
Of the District of Massachusetts, sitting by designation.
By statute, the term "aggravated felony" includes crimes involving illicit

trafficking in controlled substances. See 8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(43)(B).
The Almendarez-Torres Court referred to the defendant's "admission" anent his

prior convictions only in the context of a far different issue -- the quantum of
proof required at sentencing. Almendarez-Torres, 523 U.S. at 248. That issue is
not raised in this appeal.

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273 F.3d 400 (1st Cir.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Appellee,

United States Court of Appeals For the First Circuit

APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE

This, then, is the linchpin of the appellant's thesis. Because he avoided an

We need go no further. We hold unequivocally that Apprendi neither overruled

Of the District of Massachusetts, sitting by designation.

By statute, the term "aggravated felony" includes crimes involving illicit

The Almendarez-Torres Court referred to the defendant's "admission" anent his

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