United States v. Luna Mendoza

MEMORANDUM **

Defendant Jossue Luna Mendoza pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to *648 distribute methamphetamine, 21 U.S.C. § 846 , in exchange for dismissal of two counts of distributing methamphetamine, 21 U.S.C. § 841 . As relevant here, the written agreement provided for a sentencing range of 168 to 188 months’ imprisonment. In the agreement Luna Mendoza gave up any right to appeal his sentence, or to attack it collaterally, so long as the sentence imposed by the district court fell within that range, unless the collateral attack were “based on a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, a claim of newly discovered evidence, or an explicitly retroactive change in the applicable Sentencing Guidelines, sentencing statutes, or statutes of conviction.” Luna Mendoza concedes that he entered into the plea agreement knowingly and voluntarily. He was sentenced at the bottom of the agreed range, to 168 months in prison.

Nevertheless, Luna Mendoza brought the present motion under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 , attacking the sentence collaterally on the ground that some of the convictions underlying his criminal history score were set aside later by a California court because he…