Benitez

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

CRISTOBAL RODRIGUEZ BENITEZ,  No. 04-56231 Petitioner-Appellant, v.  D.C. No.

CV-02-00489-DMS

SYLVIA GARCIA, Warden,

OPINION

Respondent-Appellee.  Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of California Dana M. Sabraw, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted July 13, 2005—Pasadena, California

Filed May 23, 2006

Before: Jerome Farris, Dorothy W. Nelson, and Richard C. Tallman, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge D.W. Nelson COUNSEL

Barbara Strickland, San Diego, California, for the appellant.

Matthew Mulford, Deputy Attorney General, San Diego, Cali- fornia, for the appellee.

OPINION

D.W. NELSON, Senior Circuit Judge:

Cristobal Rodriguez Benitez was arrested in Venezuela and extradited to the United States. Benitez was tried and con- victed of murder, and sentenced to an indeterminate sentence of fifteen years to life (in addition to four years for the use of a firearm).1 Benitez petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus,

1 The sentencing hearing transcript and the abstract of judgment indicate that…