Benford

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,  No. 07-50210 Plaintiff-Appellee, D.C. No. v.  CR-05-00010-DOC-

CURTIS JEFFERY BENFORD,

Defendant-Appellant.  OPINION

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California David O. Carter, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted June 1, 2009—Pasadena, California

Filed August 3, 2009

Before: Pamela Ann Rymer, Susan P. Graber, and Carlos T. Bea, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge Graber

10103 UNITED STATES v. BENFORD 10105

COUNSEL

Tarik S. Adlai, Law Offices of Tarik S. Adlai, Pasadena, Cali- fornia, for the defendant-appellant.

Anne C. Gannon, Assistant United States Attorney, Santa Ana, California, for the plaintiff-appellee.

OPINION

GRABER, Circuit Judge:

Defendant Curtis Jeffery Benford appeals his conviction and resulting 147-month sentence for armed robbery. We hold: (1) the absence of defense counsel from a short pretrial conference at which the pre-existing trial date was confirmed and at which nothing else of substance happened…