United States v. Christopher Padilla
Dissenting Opinion
On November 23, 2016, Christopher Padilla came before the district court to change his plea. During the course of the hearing, the court asked the government to "establish the factual basis the government would prove if th[e] case were to go to trial." Padilla, through his attorney, said he agreed to the factual bases underlying Counts 1 and 3, but had some reservations regarding Count 2. After further discussion, Padilla's attorney asked-because Count 2 had "been the main sticking point in this case"-if the district court would "still allow Mr. Padilla to enter pleas of guilty to Count One and Three, and then if we would have a trial it would solely be on Count Two?" The government objected, and the district court stated, "I'm not willing to go down that path. I think the charged counts are what he needs to plead guilty to, and we either need to have a trial or a plea to the indictment as it currently stands." Left with those two choices, Padilla then pleaded guilty to all three counts in the indictment.
As the court notes, a defendant does not have "an absolute right to have his guilty plea accepted by the court," Lynch,
Opinion of the Court
In this direct criminal appeal, Christopher Padilla challenges the sentence the district court
After careful review, we conclude that no plain procedural error occurred, and any such error would have been harmless because the district court sentenced Padilla to the statutory minimum, see United States v. Henson,
We have independently reviewed the record under Penson v. Ohio,
Accordingly, we grant counsel's motion to withdraw and affirm.
The Honorable Beth Phillips, United States District Judge for the Western District of Missouri.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Christopher Brian PADILLA, Defendant-Appellant.
- Cited By
- 3 cases
- Status
- Published