FILED
United States Court of Appeals
Tenth Circuit
March 26, 2013
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALSElisabeth A. Shumaker
Clerk of Court
TENTH CIRCUIT
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff–Appellee,
No. 12-3272
v. (D.C. Nos. 2:10-CV-02413-CM &
2:06-CR-20044-CM-3)
WALTER B. SANDS, (D. Kan.)
Defendant–Appellant.
ORDER DENYING CERTIFICATE OF APPEALABILITY*
Before LUCERO, McKAY, and MURPHY, Circuit Judges.
Appellant Walter Sands seeks a certificate of appealability to appeal the district
court’s denial of his 28 U.S.C. § 2255 habeas petition. Appellant was convicted by a
federal jury on several drug and firearm charges, and he received a thirty-five-year
sentence of imprisonment. On direct appeal, counsel filed an Anders brief, and this court
dismissed the appeal. United States v. Sands, 329 F. App’x 794 (10th Cir. 2009).
Appellant then filed a § 2255 habeas petition raising various claims of ineffective
*
This order is not binding precedent except under the doctrines of law of the case,
res judicata, and collateral estoppel. It may be cited, however, for its persuasive value
consistent with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 and 10th Cir. R. 32.1.
assistance of trial counsel. The district court denied some of Appellant’s claims on the
basis of the record but held an evidentiary hearing to resolve contested factual issues
regarding Appellant’s claims that trial counsel misadvised Appellant regarding his
likelihood of succeeding at trial and improperly advised him to proceed to trial rather than
accepting a twenty-year plea offer.
At the evidentiary hearing, the district court heard testimony from Appellant,
represented by appointed counsel, and from his trial attorney. The court found trial
counsel’s testimony to be more credible than Appellant’s. On the basis of that credibility
determination, the district court found that trial counsel informed Appellant the jury could
still convict him even if the government’s evidence was weak and did not advise
Appellant his chance of winning was significantly greater than his chance of losing at
trial. The court found that counsel advised Appellant of the plea offer and of the benefits
of entering a plea of guilty and informed him he faced a minimum of twenty-five years’
imprisonment if he was found guilty at trial. The court further found that Appellant
repeatedly told counsel he would not enter into a plea agreement for more than a ten-year
term of imprisonment. Based on these findings, the court concluded that Appellant had
not shown ineffective assistance of trial counsel.
After thoroughly reviewing Appellant’s arguments and the record on appeal, we
conclude that reasonable jurists would not debate whether the district court’s factual
findings should be affirmed under the clear error standard of review. See Slack v.
McDaniel, 529 U.S. 473, 484 (2000) (holding that a certificate of appealability should
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issue only if the petitioner “demonstrate[s] that reasonable jurists would find the district
court’s assessment of the constitutional claims debatable or wrong”); United States v.
Whalen, 976 F.2d 1346, 1347 (10th Cir. 1992) (“We review the district court’s fact
findings in a section 2255 proceeding under the clearly erroneous standard, although the
performance and prejudice prongs under Strickland involve mixed questions of law and
fact which we review de novo.” (internal quotation marks omitted)). We further conclude
that reasonable jurists would not debate whether the district court erred in concluding
based on these findings that Appellant had not shown ineffective assistance of counsel.
See Slack, 529 U.S. at 484; Whalen, 976 F.2d at 1347. For substantially the same reasons
given by the district court, we DENY Appellant’s request for a certificate of appealability
and DISMISS the appeal.
ENTERED FOR THE COURT
Monroe G. McKay
Circuit Judge
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