United States v. Vladimir Hernandez

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, No. 22-50134

Plaintiff-Appellee, D.C. No. 2:19-cr-00715- v. VAP-

VLADIMIR STEVEN HERNANDEZ,

OPINION

Defendant-Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California Virginia A. Phillips, Chief District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted December 5, 2023 Pasadena, California

Filed June 28, 2024

Before: Kim McLane Wardlaw, Kenneth K. Lee, and Patrick J. Bumatay, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge Lee; Dissent by Judge Bumatay SUMMARY *

Criminal Law

The panel vacated the district court’s order denying Vladimir Hernandez’s motion to withdraw his guilty plea, and remanded, in a case in which the panel addressed whether a criminal defendant’s belated realization that his safety-valve proffer could lead to reprisal in prison counts as a “fair and just” reason to withdraw his guilty plea under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 11(d)(2). The panel held that a defendant must first offer in good faith a “new” basis for seeking to withdraw his…