U.S. v. Wyatt

Dist. Ct. did not commit plain error in sentencing defendant to 10-year term of incarceration on charge of conspiring to traffic minor, under circumstances where both defendant and govt. had recommended said sentence. While govt. had breached plea agreement by failing to mention to Dist. Ct. prior to sentencing that defendant had cooperated with govt. on other matters, said failure did not require new sentence hearing before different Dist. Ct. judge, since: (1) under plain error standard, defendant was required to show that he would have received lower sentence if govt. had mentioned his cooperation; and (2) defendant failed to make required showing, where instant sentence was already substantially below applicable guidelines, where defendant’s counsel apprised Dist. Ct. of defendant’s cooperation, where Dist. Ct. would not have accepted 10-year sentence recommendation without taking defendant’s cooperation into account, and where Dist. Ct. imposed precise sentence that defendant had asked for. Ct. further noted that plea agreement would bar defendant from arguing anything less than 10-year sentence at any new sentencing hearing, and all that defendant could hope for at new sentencing hearing was chance that Dist. Ct. would sua sponte make decision to sentence defendant to lower sentence that was already far beneath guideline range.