FILED
United States Court of Appeals
Tenth Circuit
October 21, 2008
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
Elisabeth A. Shumaker
Clerk of Court
TENTH CIRCUIT
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff–Appellee,
No. 08-7060
(D.C. No. 6:07-CV-00407-RAW and
v.
6:04-CR-00061-RAW-1)
(E.D. Okla.)
ISMAEL MORALES,
Defendant–Appellant.
ORDER DENYING CERTIFICATE
OF APPEALABILITY
Before LUCERO, TYMKOVICH, and HOLMES, Circuit Judges.
Ismael Morales requests a certificate of appealability (“COA”) following
the district court’s denial of his 28 U.S.C. § 2255 application for a writ of habeas
corpus alleging ineffective assistance of counsel at sentencing. Because the
district court denied Morales a COA, he may not appeal the district court’s
decision absent a grant of COA by this court. § 2253(c)(1)(B). A COA may issue
“only if the applicant has made a substantial showing of the denial of a
constitutional right.” § 2253(c)(2). This requires Morales to show “that
reasonable jurists could debate whether (or, for that matter, agree that) the
petition should have been resolved in a different manner or that the issues
presented were adequate to deserve encouragement to proceed further.” Slack v.
McDaniel, 529 U.S. 473, 484 (2000) (quotations omitted). Because Morales
cannot make this showing, we deny Morales’s application for a COA and dismiss
his appeal.
Morales was arrested after he purchased 84 grams of methamphetamine at a
home in Arkoma, Oklahoma, on April 15, 2004. He pleaded guilty to one count
of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine under 21 U.S.C.
§ 841(a)(1), (b)(1)(A)(viii), and 18 U.S.C. § 2. The district court sentenced
Morales to 174 months’ imprisonment. This court vacated Morales’s sentence
because it contravened the Supreme Court’s holding in United States v. Booker,
543 U.S. 220 (2005), and remanded for resentencing.
On remand, the district court imposed the identical sentence. United States
v. Morales, 232 F. App’x 800, 802 (10th Cir. 2007) (unpublished). The district
judge calculated Morales’s sentence including a two-level enhancement for
possession of a firearm under the United States Sentencing Guidelines
(“Guidelines”) § 2D1.1(b)(1). In a letter to the United States Probation Office
(“Probation Office”), Morales’s attorney objected to the application of this
enhancement because Morales contended that the firearms were located in his
codefendant’s locked bedroom, and he had no knowledge of their existence. The
Probation Office addressed this objection in an addendum to Morales’s
presentence report, concluding that there was nonetheless sufficient evidence of
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possession to support applying the firearm enhancement. Morales’s attorney
objected again at resentencing, but the court took judicial notice of the firearm
testimony from the original sentencing hearing and overruled the objection.
Morales, 232 F. App’x at 802. On direct appeal, Morales argued that the district
court applied the Guidelines as though they were mandatory, and that the court
erred in applying the enhancement for possession of a firearm. Id. This court
rejected those claims and affirmed Morales’s sentence. Id. at 805.
Morales then filed an application for a writ of habeas corpus under 28
U.S.C. § 2255 arguing that his trial counsel was ineffective at sentencing for
failing to contest whether Morales lived at the house where the methamphetamine
sale occurred and the firearms were found. Morales claims that this would have
demonstrated that he did not possess the firearms when he was arrested for
possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute. The district court
denied the § 2255 application, a subsequent motion for reconsideration, and
Morales’s application for a COA.
In order to determine whether Morales has made a substantial showing of
the denial of a constitutional right, we examine the merits of his ineffective
assistance claim. Under Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687 (1984),
Morales must show that his counsel’s actions fell below an objective standard of
reasonableness, and that this deficiency prejudiced the proceedings. In order for
the conduct to be prejudicial, there must be “a reasonable probability that, but for
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counsel’s unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been
different.” Id. at 694. Morales is not entitled to a COA because he cannot
demonstrate prejudice.
Morales contends that his sentence would have been different but for trial
counsel’s failure to argue that Morales did not live where the firearms were
found. He urges that, had his attorney properly contested this assertion, the
district court could not have found that Morales possessed the firearms for
purposes of the § 2D1.1 enhancement.
Morales’s attorney objected to the application of the sentencing
enhancement based on the location of the firearms in a locked room and
Morales’s unawareness of these firearms. Accordingly, we cannot say there is a
reasonable probability that the court would have declined to apply the firearm
enhancement had Morales’s attorney also raised the narrow factual issue
regarding Morales’s place of residence. Residence in the home where the
firearms were located was certainly not necessary for the judge to find, by a
preponderance of the evidence, that Morales possessed the firearms.
Consequently, because Morales cannot demonstrate prejudice under Strickland,
we conclude that he has not made a substantial showing of the denial of a
constitutional right.
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Morales’s application for a COA is DENIED, and his appeal is
DISMISSED.
ENTERED FOR THE COURT
Carlos F. Lucero
Circuit Judge
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