Delgado

Jesus Garcia Delgado claims his appellate counsel ineffectively assisted him by failing to raise any arguable issues in his appellate brief. The district court agreed and granted his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. We affirm.

I

Delgado is a forty-five-year old man of Hispanic descent who speaks and understands very little English. In 1994, he was arrested along with five eodefendants and *1150 charged with manufacturing methamphetamine, possession of ephedrine with intent to manufacture methamphetamine, and possession of methamphetamine for sale. The felony complaint also sought sentence enhancements.

Delgado initially rejected a plea agreement and entered a plea of not guilty, but subsequently pled guilty to the three counts and the two sentence enhancements. As part of a global joint plea agreement, the state sentencing judge agreed not to sentence any of the defendants to more than fifteen years and agreed to consider mitigating factors at the sentencing hearing.

Delgado’s appointed trial counsel did not attend the preliminary hearing, the sentencing hearing, or Delgado’s signing of the change-of-plea agreement. In fact, an attorney for a codefendant explained the…