United States v. Small, No. 09-2292 (1st Cir. 2011)
Annotate this CaseWhile on probation for a state law violation, the defendant was told by his probation officer that he could go hunting with his 10-year-old son but could not possess a gun. Game wardens, knowing that the defendant was a convicted felon, watched his truck and saw a gun on the seat. The district court excluded evidence of conversations with the probation officer and with an attorney. The defendant entered a conditional guilty plea; the court later denied a motion to withdraw the plea. The defendant was sentenced as a felon in possession of a firearm. The First Circuit affirmed. Any testimony by the probation officer or attorney would have been irrelevant to the elements of the federal offense. The defendant knowingly and willing entered a plea of guilty and attempted to withdraw it only after losing evidentiary motions. The court correctly treated a prior conviction for escape as a crime of violence for purposes of sentencing; although the defendant walked out of a medical facility without violence, the crime of escape is generally violent.
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