United States v. Brooks ( 2019 )

17‐2172
United States v. Brooks
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT
SUMMARY ORDER
Rulings by summary order do not have precedential effect. Citation to a
summary order filed on or after January 1, 2007, is permitted and is
governed by Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 32.1 and this Court’s Local
Rule 32.1.1. When citing a summary order in a document filed with this
Court, a party must cite either the Federal Appendix or an electronic
database (with the notation “Summary Order”). A party citing a summary
order must serve a copy of it on any party not represented by counsel.
At a stated term of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit,
held at the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse, 40 Foley Square, in the
City of New York, on the 21st day of February, two thousand and nineteen.
Present:
REENA RAGGI,
PETER W. HALL,
RICHARD J. SULLIVAN
Circuit Judges.
United States of America,
Appellee,
v. 17-2172-cr
Timothy Cunningham, AKA New York, Leshone
Gray, AKA Twin,
Defendants,
Darrell Brooks,
Defendant-Appellant.
For Appellee: NICHOLAS J. MOSCOW, Assistant United States
Attorney (Jack James Dennehy, Susan Corkery,
Assistant United States Attorneys, on the brief), for
Richard P. Donoghue the United States Attorney the
Eastern District of New York, Brooklyn, New York.
For Appellant: DANIEL MATTHEW PEREZ, Law Offices of Daniel M.
Perez, Newton, New Jersey.
Appeal from a judgment entered July 10, 2017 in the Eastern District of New
York (Irizarry, C.J.)
UPON DUE CONSIDERATION, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED,
ADJUDGED, AND DECREED that the district court’s judgment is AFFIRMED.
Darrell Brooks was convicted in the district court of three specified violations of
supervised release: (1) committing attempted murder in violation of South Carolina law; (2)
possession of a firearm by a felon in violation of South Carolina law; and (3) possession of a
firearm in violation of a special condition of his supervised release. The court sentenced
Brooks to 24 months’ imprisonment followed by one year of supervised release. Brooks now
appeals his conviction. We assume the parties’ familiarity with the underlying facts, the
procedural history, and the arguments presented on appeal, which we describe only as
necessary to explain our decision to affirm.
A district court may revoke a term of supervised release if the court “finds by a
preponderance of the evidence that the defendant violated a condition of supervised release.”
18 U.S.C. § 3583(e)(3). We review a revocation of supervised release for abuse of discretion.
United States v. Spencer, 640 F.3d 513, 520 (2d Cir. 2011).
Brooks argues that the government failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence
that he committed attempted murder under South Carolina law because, he asserts, there
was no evidence he had a specific intent to kill Deshawn Nesmith. See S.C. Code Ann. § 16-
3-29; State v. King, 422 S.C. 47 (2017) (explaining specific intent is a requirement for
attempted murder). The government disagrees, pointing to the evidence that “Brooks fired
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the gun at close range and hit the victim in the chest, requiring intensive care hospitalization
at a trauma center and a surgery,” Appellee’s Br. 17, which it says is sufficient evidence of
specific intent. Regardless of whether the government’s contention is correct, Brooks pled
guilty to the lesser-included crime of first-degree assault in South Carolina. That conviction
by itself constituted a violation of the condition that he not commit any new crimes while on
supervised release, and the assault constituted a Grade A violation, mandating a revocation
of supervised release in any event. U.S. SENTENCING GUIDELINES MANUAL § 7B1.3(a)(1).1
The government also presented sufficient evidence to prove Brooks’s guilt on Specifications
Two and Three, which are also Grade A violations requiring the revocation of supervised
release. Brooks asserts that the government failed to meet its burden of disproving his claim
of self-defense with respect to the attempted murder violation, and that the conduct charged
in Specifications Two and Three constitute lawful activity under South Carolina law.
Alternatively, he asks us to remand his case for resentencing on Specifications Two and Three
because his claim of self-defense precludes a finding of guilty on Specification One. We are
unpersuaded.
As part of Brooks plea allocution in South Carolina, the court explained that the
charges against him “alleged that you did with intent to kill another person; specifically,
Deshawn Nesmith with malice aforethought, by shooting him in the chest.” App’x 82-83. After
describing the facts underlying the charges, the court asked Brooks if he understood that by
pleading guilty he was admitting the truth of the charges against him, to which Brooks
responded “yes.” Id. at 84.
1
Under the U.S. sentencing guidelines, a Grade A violation exists if it involves: “conduct constituting
(A) a federal, state, or local offense punishable by a term of imprisonment exceeding one year that (i)
is a crime of violence, (ii) is a controlled substance offense, or (iii) involves possession of a firearm or
destructive device of a type described in 26 U.S.C. § 5845(a); or (B) any other federal, state, or local
offense punishable by a term of imprisonment exceeding twenty years. U.S. SENTENCING GUIDELINES
MANUAL § 7B1.3(a)(1).
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With respect to Specification One, the government is correct that “[a] guilty plea
waives all defenses . . . [and Brooks] waived those under oath before a judge when he pled
guilty.” Id. at 132; see Rivers v. Strickland, 264 S.C. 121, 124 (1975) ( “[T]he general rule is
that a plea of guilty, voluntarily and understandingly made, constitutes a waiver of
nonjurisdictional defects and defenses”). The South Carolina state court informed Brooks of
his constitutional rights before he pleaded guilty. Brooks indicated he understood his rights
and stated that he wanted to give up those rights and plead guilty. By pleading guilty, as he
did in South Carolina, Brooks thereby knowingly and voluntarily waived his right to present
the very defenses he seeks to have us recognize here: to wit, that he acted in self-defense and
that his conduct was lawful under South Carolina law.
Given these circumstances, we will not disturb, and thus we affirm, Brooks’s violation
on Specification One. We also affirm his violation on Specifications Two (felon in possession
of a firearm) and Three (firearm possession in violation of special condition of supervised
release). His guilty plea in South Carolina to first-degree assault, including his admission in
those court proceedings that he possessed a firearm while committing the crime, waived the
challenges he asserts with respect to Specification Two. As to Specification Three—violating
his supervised release by possessing a firearm—any challenge to it necessarily fails due to
his conviction on Specification Two involving the illegal possession of a firearm.
We have considered Brooks’s remaining claims and find them to be without merit.
The judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED.
FOR THE COURT:
Catherine O’Hagan Wolfe, Clerk of Court
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