UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff, | V. Case No. 1:10-cr-00256-RCL-3 WILFREDO MEJIA, Defendant. MEMORANDUM OPINION In December 2009, defendant-movant Wilfredo Mejia, a member of the violent street gang MS-13, orchestrated the armed robbery of a Washington, D.C., bordello. Proffer at 9-10, ECF No. 217. Mejia hoped to rob any patrons then inside and to force the bordello “to begin paying rent to MS-13.” Jd. at 9. Mejia drove four gang members to the site, and he waited in the getaway vehicle as his associates tied up the bordello’s patrons and assaulted them with a gun and a knife. Jd. A few minutes into the gangsters’ shakedown, however, the police arrived. Jd. at 10. Officers managed to apprehend three of the perpetrators, but Mejia and his fourth associate slipped away. Jd. at 10. A few months later, they too were arrested. Id. In November 2011, the United States obtained a superseding indictment against Mejia that charged him with twenty-three felonies arising from the bordello incident: RICO conspiracy, kidnapping in aid of racketeering and aiding and abetting the same, four counts of kidnapping while armed in aid of racketeering and aiding and abetting the same, five counts of assault with a dangerous weapon in aid of racketeering and aiding and abetting the same, five counts of armed robbery, five counts of kidnapping while armed, first-degree burglary while armed, and possession of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence and aiding and abetting the same. Third Super. Ind., ECF No. 101. On July 20, 2012, Mejia and the government reached a plea agreement. Plea Agreement, ECF No. 216. Mejia would admit his guilt as to all counts and would enter a plea of guilty to Counts 1 (RICO conspiracy) and 23 (possession of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence), in exchange for the government’s recommendation of a 141-month sentence of imprisonment. Jd. Mejia signed that agreement and the government’s factual proffer in support thereof, ECF No. 217, and he allocuted to the crimes charged in the indictment before the Court on the same day. See Appendix A. On October 5, 2012, the Court, Judge Rosemary M. Collyer presiding, sentenced Mejia to the agreed-upon 141 months’ confinement. Min. Entry of 10/05/2012. Mejia now challenges his conviction for Count. 23, possession of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, in violation of 18 U.S.C.'§ 924(c)(1)(A). Supp. Mot. at 3, ECF No. 662. In 2016, Mejia filed an “abridged,” one-page motion under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 to vacate that conviction under the Supreme Court’s decision in Johnson v. United States, 576 U.S. 591 (2015), which invalidated the so-called “residual clause” of the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA). Mejia filed a “supplement” to that motion on June 3, 2020, setting forth his legal arguments. ECF No. 671. The United States responded on September 9, ECF No. 671, and Mejia replied on September 24. ECF No. ...
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