Jorge Osbaldo Aguilera v. United States of America

United States Court of Appeals
For the Eighth Circuit
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No. 14-1350
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Jorge Osbaldo Aguilera
lllllllllllllllllllllPetitioner - Appellant
v.
United States of America
lllllllllllllllllllllRespondent - Appellee
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Appeal from United States District Court
for the Northern District of Iowa - Sioux City
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Submitted: September 25, 2014
Filed: October 3, 2014
[Unpublished]
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Before LOKEN, MELLOY, and GRUENDER, Circuit Judges.
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PER CURIAM.
Jorge Aguilera, who was sentenced to 120 months in prison after a jury found
him guilty of drug offenses, see United States v. Aguilera, 625 F.3d 482, 484-85 (8th

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Cir. 2010), appeals the district court’s order denying his 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion1
after an evidentiary hearing. The district court granted Aguilera a certificate of
appealability on his claim that his counsel was ineffective for having him provide a
written proffer for safety-valve relief, rather than having him submit to an interview.
Upon de novo review of the district court’s denial of this ineffective-assistance
claim, and clear-error review of underlying factual findings, see Covey v. United
States, 377 F.3d 903, 906 (8th Cir. 2004), we agree with the court that the decision
of trial counsel not to subject Aguilera to a potentially prejudicial and likely futile
proffer interview was a virtually unchallengeable matter of strategy, see Forsyth v.
Ault, 537 F.3d 887, 892 (8th Cir. 2008), and Aguilera failed to show that he suffered
resulting prejudice. We therefore affirm the judgment of the district court, and we
grant counsel’s motion to withdraw.
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The Honorable Donald E. O’Brien, United States District Judge for the1
Northern District of Iowa.
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