United States v. Mends
United States v. Mends
Opinion of the Court
SUMMARY ORDER
UPON DUE CONSIDERATION, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED that defendant’s guilty plea on count two for aggravated identity theft is vacated and the case remanded for further proceedings.
Mends argues that, to be convicted of aggravated identity theft, he must have known that the “means of identification” that he unlawfully transferred, possessed or used, belonged to “another person” under 18 U.S.C. § 1028A(a)(l). Mends asserts that the district court erred in accepting his guilty plea because he did not alloeute to possessing knowledge that the individual whose identity was used in obtaining the false passport was an actual individual. The Supreme Court recently agreed with Mends’s position in Flores-Figueroa v. United States, — U.S.-, 129 S.Ct. 1886, 173 L.Ed.2d 853 (2009). It held that “ § 1028Aa(l) requires the Government to show that the defendant knew that the means of identification at issue belonged to another person.” Id. at 1894. In light of this decision, the government now agrees that Mends’s guilty plea for aggravated identity theft should be vacated.
For the foregoing reasons, we VACATE Mends’s guilty plea to aggravated identity theft and REMAND to the district court for further proceedings consistent with this order.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- United States v. Nick MENDS, also known as Rodney David
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published