Judge John Keenan
Gonzalez sold a DEA informant two kilos of cocaine. In 2000 he pleaded guilty to conspiracy and substantive counts of distributing and possessing with intent to distribute five kilos or more of cocaine. He absconded after release on bail. Initially sentenced to concurrent terms of 216 months in prison, upon remand district court found Gonzalez eligible for safety valve relief under 18 USC §3553(f). Denying reduction under Sentencing Guidelines §3E1.1 the court recalculated the sentencing range to 188 to 235 months. Noting that it was not obliged to impose a sentence below the mandatory minimum because he qualified for safety-valve relief, the court resentenced Gonzalez to 216 months on each of the three counts, to run concurrently. Rejecting claims of counsel’s ineffectiveness, district court denied Gonzalez relief from sentence under 28 USC §2255. Among other things, it court concluded that Gonzalez’s jury trial right was not violated when it imposed sentence based in part on the recommendations in the pre-sentence report. Thus the court deemed sentence procedurally reasonable and that counsel’s failure to object to sentence as procedurally unreasonable did not constitute deficient performance.
