United States v. Gary Lee Wickham

Defendant Gary Lee Wickham entered a conditional guilty plea to a charge of escape from custody in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 751 . He appeals the district court’s denial of his motion to dismiss the information for violation of the Speedy Trial Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3161 et seq. We affirm.

I.

Wickham was serving a federal sentence at the Gateway Community Correctional Center in Los Angeles, California. On July 31,1991, a complaint was filed in the Central District of California charging Wickham with escape from custody in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 751 . Deputy United States Marshals arrested Wickham in Dallas, Texas on August 1, 1991.

On August 2, 1991, Wickham appeared before a United States Magistrate Judge in the Northern District of Texas. Although Wick-ham initially elected to waive the removal hearing and have the preliminary hearing held in Los Angeles, he subsequently decided to plead guilty in Texas to the escape charge pursuant to Rule 20 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. Accordingly, he signed a Consent to Transfer form. That form and the information were both filed in the Central District of California on October 16, 1991. The case was then transferred to the…