United States v. Mark Neal

MEMORANDUM

Mark Anthony Neal appeals his conviction and sentence for unlawful reentry after deportation in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326 , arguing that the district court abused its discretion by rejecting his guilty plea, thereby subjecting him to a higher sentence. Because the district court’s basis for rejecting Neal’s plea is not entirely clear from the record and may well have been erroneous, we vacate the rejection of his plea and remand with directions to hold a new plea hearing.

1. It is probable that the district court rejected Neal’s guilty plea because it believed that Neal’s refusal to affirmatively admit alienage necessarily fatally undermined the plea’s factual basis. Such a ground for rejecting the plea would constitute error. A court “may conclude that a factual basis exists from anything that appears on the record.” United States v. Mancinas-Flores, 588 F.3d 677, 682 (9th Cir.2009). Where a defendant is unable or unwilling to admit an element of the crime, “the court must look to other evidence in the record to determine whether the plea has a factual basis.” Id. (emphasis added).

2. It is also possible that the district court found that the plea lacked factual…