Martinez v. Zavaras, No. 11-1208 (10th Cir. 2011)
Annotate this CasePro se prisoner Defendant Raymond Martinez sought a certificate of appealability (COA) to challenge a district court's dismissal of his petition for habeas relief. Defendant was wanted on a warrant for escape. During a chase, Defendant displayed a weapon, and he was shot by an officer. A cocaine pipe, cocaine and over three-thousand dollars in cash were found on his person. A jury found Defendant guilty of assaulting a peace officer in addition to possession of cocaine. The state trial court sentenced Defendant to two concurrent 64-year terms for the assault and two concurrent 24-year terms for possession. Defendant appealed to the Colorado Court of Appeals. It affirmed except that it vacated the conviction for possession of a controlled substance and remanded the case to the trial court with instructions (1) to merge the charge of possession into the charge of possession with intent to distribute and (2) to vacate the 24-year sentence on the possession charge. After the trial court vacated the 24-year sentence, Defendant filed a post-conviction motion for reconsideration of his sentence which was denied. Upon review, the Tenth Circuit found that the district court's opinion was "thorough and persuasive, and Defendant has not pointed to any flaw in the analysis. No reasonable jurist could debate the correctness of the district court's decision." Accordingly, the Court denied Defendant's request for a COA and dismissed his appeal.
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