F I L E D
United States Court of Appeals
Tenth Circuit
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
August 1, 2005
TENTH CIRCUIT
PATRICK FISHER
Clerk
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff - Appellee,
No. 04-2292
v. (D.C. Nos. CIV-04-759 and
CR-99-541 JC)
VICTOR MANUEL CHAVEZ, (D.N.M.)
Defendant - Appellant.
ORDER
DENYING CERTIFICATE OF APPEALABILITY
Before KELLY, O’BRIEN, and TYMKOVICH, Circuit Judges.
Defendant-Appellant Victor Manuel Chavez, a federal inmate appearing pro
se, seeks to appeal from the district court’s denial of his 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion
to vacate, set aside, or correct his sentence. In order to merit a certificate of
appealability (COA), Mr. Chavez must make “a substantial showing of the denial
of a constitutional right.” 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c)(2); Miller-El v. Cockrell, 537 U.S.
322, 336 (2003). To make such a showing, he must demonstrate that reasonable
jurists would find the district court’s resolution of the constitutional issue
contained in his motion debatable or wrong. Slack v. McDaniel, 529 U.S. 473,
484 (2000). Because we determine that Mr. Chavez has not made such a showing,
we deny a COA and dismiss the appeal.
On June 24, 2002, the district court sentenced Mr. Chavez to 78 months’
imprisonment to be followed by four years of supervised release. At that time,
Mr. Chavez was serving an Illinois sentence, but had been released to federal
authorities pursuant to a writ of habeas corpus ad prosequendum. Mr. Chavez
spent two years with federal authorities. Because Mr. Chavez would not receive
credit for those two years on his federal sentence (as that time was being credited
to his Illinois sentence, 18 U.S.C. § 3585), he sought a downward departure. The
district court denied his motion for downward departure, but sought to give him
credit by sentencing him to the low end of the Guidelines range (78 months) and
allowing the federal sentence to run concurrent with the state sentence pursuant to
U.S.S.G. § 5G1.3(c).
Mr. Chavez subsequently filed his § 2255 motion alleging that he had
received ineffective assistance of counsel because he did not receive credit on his
federal sentence for the two years spent in federal custody, and his counsel failed
to press various Interstate Agreement on Detainers (IAD) issues. He maintained
that he was unaware that he would not receive credit for the two years until
presented with a sentence computation in federal prison. The district court denied
the § 2255 motion on the merits, which it alternatively construed as an application
for writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2241, and dismissed the action with
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prejudice. The district court concluded that Mr. Chavez’s motion was based upon
the mistaken belief that service of his federal sentence began two years later,
rather than when the district court sentenced him (June 24, 2002). Doc. 8 at 2.
To demonstrate ineffective assistance of counsel, Mr. Chavez must show
deficient performance of counsel and resulting prejudice. Strickland v.
Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687 (1984). On appeal, he recognizes that the district
court did attempt to give him credit for the two years in federal custody by
making the federal sentence concurrent with the state sentence he was serving.
Brief and COA at 19. He argues that had counsel invoked the 1994 version of
U.S.S.G. § 5G1.3(c) and ex post facto principles, the district court would have
been required to reduce his sentence (based upon the time already served on the
Illinois sentence). The district court’s implicit rejection of this claim is not
reasonably debatable–the district court was not required to adjust Mr. Chavez’s
federal sentence (for conspiracy to distribute cocaine in New Mexico) by the
amount of his discharged Illinois sentence for a subsequent narcotics offense.
Accordingly, we DENY the application for COA and DISMISS the appeal.
Entered for the Court
Paul J. Kelly, Jr.
Circuit Judge
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