FILED United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit June 2, 2021 PUBLISH Christopher M. Wolpert Clerk of Court UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS TENTH CIRCUIT UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, v. Nos. 19-8021 & 19-8022 CHRISTOPHER DOMINGUEZ, Defendant - Appellant. Appeals from the United States District Court for the District of Wyoming (D.C. No. 2:18-CR-00186-NDF-1) (D.C. No. 2:17-CR-00098-NDF-3) Grant R. Smith, Assistant Federal Public Defender (Virginia L. Grady, Federal Public Defender, with him on the briefs), Office of the Federal Public Defender, Denver, Colorado, for Defendant-Appellant. Stuart S. Healy, III, Assistant United States Attorney (L. Robert Murray, Acting United States Attorney, with him on the brief), Office of the United States Attorney, District of Wyoming, Cheyenne, Wyoming, for Plaintiff-Appellee. Before HOLMES, Circuit Judge, LUCERO, Senior Circuit Judge, and EID, Circuit Judge. HOLMES, Circuit Judge. Christopher Dominguez appeals from the district court’s denial of his motion to withdraw his guilty plea. He contends that his plea is invalid for two reasons: first, he did not knowingly and intelligently plead guilty, and second, he did not receive the requisite “close assistance” of counsel in making his plea. Based on these contentions, he asks that we reverse the district court’s decision and remand with instructions to vacate his plea. We decline to do so. Despite his arguments to the contrary, Mr. Dominguez does not convince us that he unknowingly and unintelligently pleaded guilty or that he did not receive “close assistance” of counsel. Accordingly, exercising jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, we affirm the district court’s judgment. I This case arises from Mr. Dominguez’s involvement in a series of robberies in New Mexico and Wyoming. On December 3, 2016, Mr. Dominguez was arrested along with two other suspects, Antoine Mitchell and Moses D. Dickens III, for the armed robbery on that same day of the Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy in Raton, New Mexico. There were a number of salient features of the robbery. The robbery was committed by only three men. Prior to the robbery, the robbers had stolen a vehicle, which they used during the robbery and abandoned thereafter. During the robbery, the robbers wore face coverings, displayed firearms, and ordered the pharmacy employees to load certain drugs into black trash bags that the robbers supplied. The robbers identified the requested drugs by name, 2 specifically mentioning “Oxy 30,” by which they apparently meant Oxycontin and Oxycodone. After Mr. Dominguez and his cohorts were arrested, the Raton Police Department posted information concerning the robbery, including photos, on the Department’s Facebook page. This post drew the attention of a pharmacist who had been shot during a robbery of the Medicap Pharmacy in Cheyenne, Wyoming, on October 6, 2016. The salient features of that robbery closely resembled those of the Raton, New Mexico, robbery. However, notably, the robbers in the Wyoming robbery of the Medicap Pharmacy obtained the stolen vehicle used in the robbery by carjacking a female victim. Moreover, not only did they display their firearms, they also engaged in a gun …
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