United States v. Dwight Rudisill

UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
v. No. 99-4588
DWIGHT ALEXANDER RUDISILL,
Defendant-Appellant.
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Western District of North Carolina, at Shelby.
Lacy H. Thornburg, District Judge.
(CR-98-212)
Submitted: April 28, 2000
Decided: May 15, 2000
Before LUTTIG and MICHAEL, Circuit Judges,
and HAMILTON, Senior Circuit Judge.
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Vacated and remanded by unpublished per curiam opinion.
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COUNSEL
E. Fitzgerald Parnell, III, POYNER & SPRUILL, L.L.P., Charlotte,
North Carolina, for Appellant. Mark T. Calloway, United States
Attorney, Brian Lee Whisler, Assistant United States Attorney, Char-
lotte, North Carolina, for Appellee.
_________________________________________________________________
Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. See
Local Rule 36(c).
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OPINION
PER CURIAM:
Dwight Alexander Rudisill appeals his sentence of 300 months fol-
lowing his plea of guilty to a violation of 18 U.S.C.A. § 2119 (West
Supp. 1999). Because "serious bodily injury" is an offense element
that was not charged in the indictment or enumerated by the district
court when advising Rudisill of the charges against him, we vacate
Rudisill's sentence and remand for resentencing.
A waiver of the right to appeal is enforceable against a defendant
so long as it is "the result of a knowing and intelligent decision to
forego the right to appeal." United States v. Wessells, 936 F.2d 165,
167 (4th Cir. 1991). See also United States v. Marin, 961 F.2d 493,
496 (4th Cir. 1992). Generally, if the district court fully questions a
defendant regarding the waiver of his right to appeal during the Fed.
R. Crim. P. 11 colloquy, the waiver is both valid and enforceable. See
Wessells, 936 F.2d at 167-68; United States v. Wiggins, 905 F.2d 51,
53-54 (4th Cir. 1990). However, waiver of appeal does not prohibit
the appeal of a sentence imposed in excess of the statutory maximum.
See Marin, 961 F.2d at 496.
In Jones v. United States, 526 U.S. 227, 119 S. Ct. 1215 (1999),
decided after Rudisill's plea colloquy but prior to his sentencing, the
Supreme Court held that the subsections of 18 U.S.C.A. § 2119 estab-
lishing higher penalties set forth additional elements of the offense
that must be charged in the indictment and submitted to a jury. See
Jones, 119 S. Ct. at 1219. The count of the indictment to which Rudi-
sill pled guilty does not reference a subsection of§ 2119, nor does it
state that Rudisill actually caused serious bodily injury.
The failure of an indictment to allege an essential element is not
subject to harmless error analysis as it constitutes a "structural defect
in the trial mechanism." United States v. Floresca, 38 F.3d 706, 711-
2
14 (4th Cir. 1994). See United States v. Spruill, 118 F.3d 221, 227
(4th Cir. 1997); United States v. Hooker, 841 F.2d 1225, 1228 (4th
Cir. 1988). It is error for the district court to sentence a defendant
where an indictment fails to allege an essential element of the offense
and the district court fails to include the element when advising the
defendant of the elements of the crime with which he is charged. See
United States v. Davis, 184 F.3d 366, 371-72 n.5 (4th Cir. 1999).
Because the indictment alleges only the offense elements contained
in 18 U.S.C.A. § 2119(1), and because Rudisill therefore pled guilty
only to a violation of that section, we vacate the sentence erroneously
imposed by the district court under 18 U.S.C.A.§ 2119(2), and
remand for resentencing under 18 U.S.C.A. § 2119(1).
VACATED AND REMANDED
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