United States v. Isaac Sprauer

Isaac Sprauer pled guilty to being a felon in possession of ammunition in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922 (g)(1). He was sentenced to 77 months of imprisonment. Sprauer has timely appealed from the district court’s sentencing decision. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and 18 U.S.C. § 3742 . We affirm in part, vacate in part, and remand for resentencing.

I

Sprauer contends the district court erred in relying on the Government expert’s testimony in finding that Sprauer was competent to enter a guilty plea. “When analyzing competence to plead guilty, we look to whether a defendant has ‘the ability to make a reasoned choice among the alternatives presented to him.’ ” Miles v. Stainer, 108 F.3d 1109, 1112 (9th Cir.1997) (quoting Chavez v. United States, 656 F.2d 512, 518 (9th Cir.1981)).

The district court did not clearly err in finding that Sprauer was competent to enter a guilty plea, based on the testimony of the prosecution’s expert. “In performing its fact-finding and credibility functions, a district court is free to assign greater weight to the findings of experts produced by the Government than to the opposing opinions of the medical witnesses produced by the…