United States v. Herminio Solano-Martinez , 556 F. App'x 174 ( 2013 )

UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
No. 13-4512
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff - Appellee,
v.
HERMINIO SOLANO-MARTINEZ,
Defendant - Appellant.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of
South Carolina, at Charleston. Patrick Michael Duffy, Senior
District Judge. (2:12-cr-00553-PMD-1)
Submitted: December 19, 2013 Decided: December 23, 2013
Before SHEDD, DAVIS, and FLOYD, Circuit Judges.
Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.
J. Robert Haley, Assistant Federal Public Defender, Charleston,
South Carolina, for Appellant. Robert Nicholas Bianchi, OFFICE
OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Charleston, South Carolina, for
Appellee.
Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.
PER CURIAM:
Herminio Solano-Martinez appeals his conviction and
sixty-month sentence, following his guilty plea, to possession
with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine, in
violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2 (2012), 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1),
(b)(1)(B) (2012). Solano-Martinez’s counsel filed a brief in
accordance with Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738 (1967),
stating that there are no meritorious grounds for appeal but
questioning the validity of Solano-Martinez’s guilty plea and
the reasonableness of Solano-Martinez’s statutory mandatory
minimum sentence. Solano-Martinez was notified of his right to
file a pro se supplemental brief but has not done so. Finding
no error, we affirm.
Because Solano-Martinez did not move the district
court to withdraw his guilty plea, any errors in the Fed. R.
Crim. P. 11 hearing are reviewed for plain error. United States
v. Martinez, 277 F.3d 517, 525 (4th Cir. 2002); see Henderson v.
Untied States, 133 S. Ct. 1121, 1126-27 (2013) (discussing plain
error standard). A review of the record establishes that the
district court complied with Rule 11’s requirements, ensuring
that Solano-Martinez’s plea was knowing and voluntary, that he
understood the rights he was giving up by pleading guilty and
the sentence he faced, and that he committed the offense to
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which he was pleading guilty. Accordingly, we affirm Solano-
Martinez’s conviction.
We review a sentence “under a deferential abuse-of-
discretion standard.” Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 41
(2007). The first step in this review requires us to ensure
that the district court committed no significant procedural
error, such as improperly calculating the Guidelines range,
failing to consider the 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) (2012) factors, or
failing to adequately explain the sentence. Id. at 51; United
States v. Carter, 564 F.3d 325, 328 (4th Cir. 2009). If the
sentence is procedurally reasonable, we then consider the
substantive reasonableness of the sentence imposed, “tak[ing]
into account the totality of the circumstances.” Gall, 552 U.S.
at 51. Moreover, “[a] statutorily required sentence . . . is
per se reasonable[.]” United States v. Farrior, 535 F.3d 210,
224 (4th Cir. 2008).
Here, the district court properly calculated Solano-
Martinez’s Guidelines sentence, considered the § 3553(a)
factors, and sentenced Solano-Martinez to a sixty-month term,
the statutory mandatory minimum. We therefore conclude that
Solano-Martinez’s sentence is procedurally and substantively
reasonable.
In accordance with Anders, we have reviewed the entire
record and have found no meritorious issues for appeal. We
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therefore affirm the district court’s judgment. This court
requires that counsel inform Solano-Martinez, in writing, of the
right to petition the Supreme Court of the United States for
further review. If Solano-Martinez requests that a petition be
filed, but counsel believes that such a petition would be
frivolous, then counsel may move in this court for leave to
withdraw from representation. Counsel’s motion must state that
a copy thereof was served on his client. We dispense with oral
argument because the facts and legal contentions are adequately
presented in the materials before the court and argument would
not aid the decisional process.
AFFIRMED
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