United States v. Erwin Darrell Newman

Defendant-appellant Erwin Darrell Newman (“Newman”) appeals his sentence under the Sentencing Guidelines. Under a plea agreement, Newman pled guilty to three of seven counts of bank robbery, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2113 (a) (1988), and the Government moved to dismiss the remaining four counts alleged in the indictment. Newman received a sentence of 72 months (6 years) incarceration and three years supervised release. On appeal, Newman contends the district court erred by including his 1978 unlawful taking of a motor vehicle conviction (“1978 conviction”), in violation of Cal.Veh.Code § 10851 (West Supp.1990), in the computation of his criminal history score under the Sentencing Guidelines. Newman argues his state guilty plea resulting in the 1978 conviction was not voluntary and intelligent under the standards pronounced in Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238 , 89 S.Ct. 1709 , 23 L.Ed.2d 274 (1969) and its progeny. We affirm.

DISCUSSION

The sole issue on appeal is whether the three criminal history points from the 1978 conviction should have been included in Newman’s criminal history category computation. See U.S.S.G. § 4Al.l(a), at 4.1 (Nov.1989). The parties do not contest the…