United States v. Alexander Sierra La Torres

── United States v. Alexander Sierra La Torres ── Court: Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Date: June 08, 2026 Category: NEW USCA11 Case: 25-10625 Document: 42-1 Date Filed: 06/08/2026 Page: 1 of 8 NOT FOR PUBLICATION In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit ____________________ No. 25-10625 Non-Argument Calendar ____________________ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, versus ALEXANDER DE JESUS SIERRA LA TORRES, a.k.a. Alex, Defendant-Appellant. ____________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida D.C. Docket No. 1:22-cr-20223-CMA-3 ____________________ Before ROSENBAUM, NEWSOM, and BRASHER, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM: Alexander Sierra La Torres pled guilty to and was convicted of two counts of conspiracy to import cocaine. Sierra La Torres USCA11 Case: 25-10625 Document: 42-1 Date Filed: 06/08/2026 Page: 2 of 8 2 Opinion of the Court 25-10625 now appeals, arguing that the district court plainly erred during his plea colloquy by failing to inform him of the nature of the charges, as required by Fed. R. Crim. P. 11. Because the record does not show that the court failed to comply with Rule 11, or that Sierra La Torres’s substantial rights were affected, we affirm his convictions. I. Sierra La Torres was charged in a multi-defendant indict- ment with two counts of conspiracy to distribute and import five or more kilograms of cocaine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 959(a), 960(b)(1)(B), and 963. He pled guilty to both counts in October 2024 without a written agreement. At the change-of-plea hearing, the district court conducted the plea colloquy with Sierra La Torres through a Spanish-language interpreter. The court confirmed that Sierra La Torres was com- petent to proceed and that he had received a copy of his indictment and reviewed it with counsel. Sierra La Torres said he was “of course” satisfied with his counsel’s representation and advice, and he confirmed his intent to plead guilty. The district court asked the government to state the ele- ments of the offenses. The government replied, “The elements are that the Defendant manufactured or distributed 5 kilograms or more of a controlled substance, that being cocaine, that the De- fendant had reasonable cause to believe that such controlled sub- stance would be unlawfully imported into the United States.” De- fense counsel agreed that the government’s statement of the ele- ments was accurate. USCA11 Case: 25-10625 Document: 42-1 Date Filed: 06/08/2026 Page: 3 of 8 25-10625 Opinion of the Court 3 Next, the district court asked defense counsel to state the steps he had taken to familiarize Sierra La Torres about the charges and his options. Counsel first noted that he was “fluent in Spanish, so . . . all the conversations [they] had were in Spanish and [they] understood each other perfectly fine.” Counsel then explained that he and Sierra La Torres had gone “over the entire discovery that the [g]overnment provided” and “met on numerous occasions,” and that “[f]rom the very inception,” Sierra La Torres “had the de-