United States v. Kelley ( 2023 )

Case: 23-10093 Document: 00516959850 Page: 1 Date Filed: 11/07/2023
United States Court of Appeals
for the Fifth Circuit
____________
United States Court of Appeals
Fifth Circuit
No. 23-10093
Summary Calendar FILED
____________ November 7, 2023
Lyle W. Cayce
United States of America, Clerk
Plaintiff—Appellee,
versus
James Henry Kelley, III,
Defendant—Appellant.
______________________________
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Northern District of Texas
USDC Nos. 4:20-CR-243-1, 4:22-CV-81
______________________________
Before Elrod, Oldham, and Wilson, Circuit Judges.
Per Curiam: *
James Henry Kelley, III, pled guilty, without a plea agreement, to
possession of 50 grams or more of a mixture and substance containing a
detectable amount of methamphetamine with the intent to distribute it, in
violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) & (b)(1)(B). The district court granted
Kelley’s motion for a downward variance based on a policy disagreement
_____________________
*
This opinion is not designated for publication. See 5th Cir. R. 47.5.
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No. 23-10093
with the methamphetamine guidelines. Relevant here, the district court
overruled the Government’s objection to the probation officer’s
recommendation not to apply a two-level reckless endangerment
enhancement under U.S.S.G. § 3C1.2; the district court agreed that an
enhancement was not warranted based on Kelley’s conduct. The district
court sentenced Kelley to 180 months of imprisonment and imposed a four-
year term of supervised release.
Kelley now challenges his guilty plea and sentence, arguing that both
were based on erroneous material information or assumptions. He also filed
an opposed motion requesting that this court take judicial notice of the docket
sheet and documents filed in a personal injury lawsuit that he filed against the
City of Fort Worth—documents that were not before the district court but
which he contends show that his conduct was not reckless, contrary to the
Government’s arguments at sentencing. His opposed motion to modify the
record on appeal by supplementing the record with those same documents
was previously denied by this court.
Contrary to Kelley’s assertion, the documents filed in Kelley’s
personal injury lawsuit are not necessary to resolve the appeal. Nevertheless,
we take judicial notice of the fact that Kelley filed a personal injury lawsuit
against the City of Fort Worth in Tarrant County, Texas, on August 24,
2022, seeking damages for the injuries he sustained during an August 24,
2020 vehicular collision. In all other respects, the motion is denied.
With respect to his guilty plea, Kelley raises no argument that his
guilty plea was induced by threats, improper coercion, or false promises.
Thus, his guilty-plea challenge does not implicate the voluntary nature of his
plea but only whether his plea was knowing, which requires a full
understanding of the essential components and consequences of a guilty plea.
See United States v. Hernandez, 234 F.3d 252, 254–55 & n.3 (5th Cir. 2000).
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As an initial matter, the Government correctly argues that, insofar as Kelley
raised a “thinly-veiled” claim under Brady v. Maryland, 3737 U.S. 83 (1963),
Kelley’s unconditional guilty plea waived any such claim, see United States v.
Conroy, 567 F.3d 174, 178–79 (5th Cir. 2009) (citations omitted).
As for whether Kelley’s plea was knowing, the record reflects that the
magistrate judge complied with the requirements of Federal Rule of Criminal
Procedure 11, and that Kelley understood the nature of the charges, i.e., the
elements of the offense, as well as the consequences of his guilty plea, and the
nature of the constitutional protections he was waiving. See Boykin v.
Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 244 (1969); United States v. Urias-Marrufo, 744 F.3d
361, 366 (5th Cir. 2014). Kelley has not identified any error by the magistrate
judge, much less shown a reasonable probability that, but for the error, he
would not have entered a guilty plea. See United States v. Dominguez Benitez,
542 U.S. 74, 83 (2004). Moreover, Kelley has not shown that his guilty plea
was based on an erroneous fact that was material to whether he knowingly
possessed a controlled substance containing 50 grams or more of a detectable
amount of methamphetamine with the intent to distribute it. Accordingly,
we find that Kelley’s guilty plea was knowing.
With respect to his sentence, Kelley argues that the district court
committed a procedural error by basing the sentence on erroneous material
information or assumptions regarding the collision. We find that Kelley
preserved this issue on appeal by arguing in the district court that the
presentence report’s description of the collision between his motorcycle and
the patrol car was not accurate—specifically, by arguing that it was the fault
of the police officer, who did not pull away from the curb “to clear a path”
for the pursuit of Kelley but instead positioned the patrol car directly in the
path of Kelley’s motorcycle. See United States v. Neal, 578 F.3d 270, 272 (5th
Cir. 2009).
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We review a sentencing challenge under a deferential abuse-of-
discretion standard regardless of whether the sentence is inside or outside
the Guidelines range. See Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 51 (2007). We
“must first ensure that the district court committed no significant procedural
error.” Id. Procedural errors include “selecting a sentence based on clearly
erroneous facts.” Id. “Sentences based upon erroneous and material
information or assumptions violate due process.” United States v. Gentry,
941 F.3d 767, 788 (5th Cir. 2019) (internal quotation marks and citation
omitted).
Kelley has not satisfied his burden of establishing that the district
court relied on erroneous information in choosing his sentence. See United
States v. Warren, 720 F.3d 321, 331 (5th Cir. 2013). True enough, the district
court stated—in response to Kelley’s argument that the collision was not
caused by his reckless conduct but by the officer’s reckless conduct—that it
could not “hold it in [Kelley’s] favor that he didn’t yield. I mean, he ran, so
he’s put in motion what happened.” But Kelley has not shown on appeal
that the statements that he failed to yield and that he ran from officers were
based on clearly erroneous facts. And though the Government urged the
district court to impose a 188-month sentence based in part on Kelley’s
reckless conduct, the district court gave no indication that it agreed with the
Government’s assertion that Kelley was reckless and put others in danger.
Indeed, the court rejected that argument in overruling the Government’s
objection to the decision not to apply an enhancement or upward departure
or variance based on Kelley’s conduct.
Finally, it is plausible from the record as a whole that the district court
did not rely on erroneous facts regarding the collision in imposing the 180-
month sentence, which though higher than the 151-month sentence Kelley
requested was lower than the sentence recommended by the Government.
In imposing the sentence, the district court made no mention of Kelley’s
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conduct as characterized by the Government. Rather, the court stated that it
considered all of the sentencing factors set forth in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a), as
well as the conduct that Kelley admitted in his factual resume. Kelley has not
shown that the district court relied on any erroneous material facts in
imposing the sentence or otherwise committed a procedural error at
sentencing.
The judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED. The motion for
judicial notice is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part.
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