United States Court of Appeals For the Eighth Circuit ___________________________

No. 17-3304 ___________________________

United States of America

lllllllllllllllllllllPlaintiff - Appellee

v.

Tyrone Anderson

lllllllllllllllllllllDefendant - Appellant ____________

Appeal from United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas - Little Rock ____________

Submitted: June 29, 2018 Filed: July 5, 2018 [Unpublished] ____________

Before LOKEN, BOWMAN, and GRUENDER, Circuit Judges. ____________

PER CURIAM.

In this direct criminal appeal, Tyrone Anderson challenges the sentence the district court1 imposed after he pleaded guilty to a drug charge, pursuant to a written

1 The Honorable James M. Moody, Jr., United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Arkansas. plea agreement. His counsel has moved to withdraw and submitted a brief under Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738 (1967), discussing whether Anderson entered a voluntary guilty plea; and whether he should have been sentenced as a career offender.

We conclude that Anderson’s guilty plea was valid because he stated at the plea hearing that he understood the terms of the agreement, and that he entered into the guilty plea willingly, see Nguyen v. United States, 114 F.3d 699, 703 (8th Cir. 1997); and that the career-offender provision was properly applied based on his convictions for two controlled substance offenses, see U.S.S.G. § 4B1.1(a) (defining career offender). Furthermore, we have independently reviewed the record under Penson v. Ohio, 488 U.S. 75 (1988), and have found no non-frivolous issues for appeal .

Accordingly, we grant counsel’s motion, and we affirm. ______________________________

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