Unreported / Non-Citable
Background
Huey Joseph Hebert, III pleaded guilty to three narcotics-related offenses and was sentenced in December 2013 to 360 months in prison. The district court denied his first motion under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 in August 2015, and the Fifth Circuit later dismissed his appeal.
In May 2026, the district court reduced Hebert’s sentence by 36 months following a Sentencing Guidelines change. Hebert then filed another § 2255 motion on September 24, 2026, alleging ineffective assistance of counsel at his original 2013 sentencing.
The Court’s Holding
The district court denied the motion as untimely. Applying § 2255(f), the court determined that Hebert’s original judgment became final on February 18, 2014, when his time to appeal expired, making February 18, 2015, the deadline for filing the motion.
Because Hebert filed the present motion more than 11 years after that deadline, the court concluded that it was time-barred. The court also denied a certificate of appealability, finding that reasonable jurists would not debate the correctness of its procedural ruling.
Key Takeaways
- A § 2255 motion generally must be filed within one year after the challenged judgment becomes final.
- Hebert’s 2026 ineffective-assistance motion was untimely because it challenged his original 2013 sentencing but was filed more than 11 years after the limitations period expired.
- The court denied a certificate of appealability because the time-bar ruling was not reasonably debatable.
Why It Matters
The decision underscores the strict one-year limitations period governing federal collateral attacks under § 2255. A later sentence reduction did not lead the court to treat Hebert’s challenge to counsel’s performance at the original sentencing as timely.