Robert Jinx Castro v. United States

Robert Jinx Castro, a pro se federal prisoner, seeks to appeal a district court judgment denying his 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion to vacate his sentence. Castro argues that he received ineffective assistance of counsel at sentencing because his lawyer failed to object to an inappropriate sentencing range and that his sentence violates Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000). The district court rejected both arguments in denying Castro’s § 2255 motion, but it neither denied nor granted Castro a certificate of appealability (“COA”).

Castro filed a timely notice of…