United States v. Morillo, 910 F.3d 1

Franklyn Morillo pled guilty (Oct 2016) in D.N.H. to conspiracy to distribute oxycodone and cocaine pursuant to a plea agreement that included an appeal-waiver tied to a stipulated base offense level between 26 and 30.
At sentencing (May 2017) the district court adopted a base offense level of 30 and sentenced Morillo to 168 months' imprisonment; the court also imposed supervised-release conditions challenged on appeal.
Morillo appealed, arguing the district judge failed to conduct a meaningful Rule 11(b)(1)(N) colloquy regarding his waiver and contesting certain sentencing enhancements and supervised-release conditions.
Government invoked the appeal waiver in the plea agreement to bar the appeal; the district court’s colloquy and the written plea agreement were central to whether the waiver was enforceable.
The First Circuit analyzed the waiver under Teeter’s three-part test and Borrero-Acevedo’s plain-error standard for unpreserved Rule 11(b)(1)(N) errors, and considered whether Teeter’s miscarriage-of-justice exception applied.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Enforceability of appeal waiver	Morillo: waiver invalid because judge failed to meaningfully interrogate him under Rule 11(b)(1)(N)	Government: written waiver + colloquy suffice; waiver bars appeal	Waiver enforceable; colloquy adequate and written waiver clear, so appeal barred
Standard for unpreserved Rule 11(b)(1)(N) error	Morillo: plain error in colloquy should negate waiver	Government: Borrero-Acevedo plain-error test applies; Morillo didn’t preserve objection	Borrero-Acevedo standard applies; Morillo fails to show he wouldn’t have pled but for any error
Miscarriage-of-justice exception to waivers	Morillo: waiver should be set aside under Teeter’s exception	Government: claims are garden-variety sentencing disputes not rising to egregiousness	Exception not met; claims are not egregious and do not risk miscarriage of justice
Challenge to supervised-release conditions	Morillo: conditions inconsistent with 2016 guidelines amendments	Government: conditions relate to offense conduct and are within sentence scope	Conditions upheld; they fall within sentence and are consistent with guidelines amendments

United States v. Teeter, 257 F.3d 14 (1st Cir. 2001) (sets three-part test for appeal-waiver validity and recognizes miscarriage-of-justice exception)
United States v. Borrero-Acevedo, 533 F.3d 11 (1st Cir. 2008) (applies plain-error standard to unpreserved Rule 11(b)(1)(N) colloquy challenges)
Sotirion v. United States, 617 F.3d 27 (1st Cir. 2010) (clarifies when Teeter vs. Borrero-Acevedo frameworks apply)
United States v. Santiago, 769 F.3d 1 (1st Cir. 2014) (holds supervised-release conditions are part of the sentence and can be covered by appeal waivers)
United States v. Cabrera-Rivera, 893 F.3d 14 (1st Cir. 2018) (discusses application of Teeter’s miscarriage-of-justice exception)

Affirmed.