United States v. Andino-Arroyo

Court of Appeals for the First Circuit·Decided August 4, 2026·No. 24-1978·Published

Opinion

United States Court of Appeals For the First Circuit

No. 24-1978 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Appellee,

v.

CHRISTIAN JOEL ANDINO-ARROYO, a/k/a Christian Finfo, Defendant, Appellant.

APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO

[Hon. Francisco A. Besosa, U.S. District Judge]

Before

Montecalvo, Lynch, and Aframe, Circuit Judges.

Luis A. Rodríguez Muñoz and Landrón Vera LLC on brief for appellant.

Jeniffer Vélez-Pérez, Assistant United States Attorney, Juan Carlos Reyes-Ramos, Assistant United States Attorney, Chief, Appellate Division, and W. Stephen Muldrow, United States Attorney, on brief for appellee.

August 4, 2026

LYNCH, Circuit Judge. After Christian Joel Andino-Arroyo1 was convicted in 2011 of conspiring to possess cocaine with intent to distribute it, he was sentenced to five years' imprisonment and eight years of supervised release. Andino now appeals from the sentence imposed by the district court after the fourth occasion of revocation of his supervised release. Although the parties jointly recommended an above-Guidelines prison term of fifteen months with no further supervised release, the district court rejected this recommendation. The court instead imposed thirty-six months' imprisonment, the statutory maximum under 18 U.S.C. § 3583(e)(3), with no supervised release to follow. In explaining that upward variance, the court emphasized Andino's repeated and "utter disregard for the law and the [court-imposed] conditions of supervision," and his "fail[ure] to take advantage of the opportunities and assistance provided by the probation office and the [c]ourt for his reintegration into the free community."

On appeal, Andino raises two challenges to his revocation sentence. First, he contends that the district court failed to justify its decision to vary upward after he had argued at sentencing that the sentence was harsher than necessary. Second, in what Andino characterizes as a question of statutory

1 We refer to the appellant as "Andino," consistent with Spanish naming customs.

interpretation of 18 U.S.C. § 3583(e), he argues that the sentence was so harsh as to be punitive and reasons from the sentence's purported severity that the court relied on a factor excluded from consideration under that statutory provision. Indeed, he argues the sentence amounted to "retributive punishment." We affirm.

I.

The relevant facts are undisputed.

In 2011, Andino pled guilty to one count of conspiring to possess with intent to distribute at least 500 grams, but less than two kilograms, of cocaine within 1,000 feet of a protected location, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 846, and 860. The district court sentenced Andino to five years' imprisonment, followed by eight years of supervised release.2 Over the ensuing years, Andino repeatedly violated the conditions of his supervised release, leading on three occasions to further imprisonment. As to the first occasion, in March 2017, nearly two years into his first term of supervised release, probation notified the district court that Andino had been arrested after police found a high-capacity pistol magazine containing twenty-nine rounds of .40-caliber ammunition in the car he was driving. In April 2018, the court revoked Andino's supervised release after finding that he had violated a condition by

2 The same district court judge later imposed each of Andino's four revocation sentences.

committing the federal crime of possessing ammunition as a convicted felon. The court sentenced him to six months' imprisonment, followed by four years of supervised release.

As to the second occasion, in September 2020, about ten months into his second term of supervised release, probation reported that Andino had tested positive for marijuana after he denied using it, had spent nights at a friend's residence without notifying probation, and had become unemployed without providing evidence that he was seeking work. With Andino's agreement, the court modified the conditions of his supervised release to add location monitoring and a curfew. Four days later, probation went to his approved residence to install the monitoring equipment but could not find Andino. Andino failed to report to or contact probation, and nearly a month later, probation still did not know his whereabouts. In September 2021, the court revoked supervised release a second time after finding that Andino had violated three conditions: failing to report to his probation officer as instructed, failing to live at a residence approved by probation, and failing to follow his probation officer's instructions. The court sentenced him to six months' imprisonment, followed by two years of supervised release with additional special conditions including home detention with location monitoring for six months.

As to the third occasion, in April 2023, fifteen months into his third term of supervised release, probation reported that

Andino had repeatedly failed to attend substance abuse treatment and, despite denying drug use, had tested positive for cocaine on four occasions and oxycodone on one occasion. At Andino's request and with the government's agreement, the district court held the revocation hearing in abeyance for ninety days to allow him to complete outpatient treatment and continue working. The court explicitly left in place Andino's existing supervised release conditions, including electronic monitoring, and imposed a curfew. Six days later, probation received several alerts of Andino's unauthorized departures from and returns to his residence. Andino was instructed to report to probation the next morning to discuss the alerts, but he did not. After probation was unable to locate him, his probation officer found the electronic monitoring receiver inside a black plastic bag behind a dumpster at the public housing complex where he lived. That bag also contained several empty plastic vials resembling those used to sell controlled substances. In July 2023, the district court revoked supervised release a third time after finding that Andino had violated six conditions: unlawfully using and possessing controlled substances, failing to follow his probation officer's instructions, failing to participate in substance abuse treatment, failing to comply with location monitoring, failing to report to his probation officer as instructed, and failing to report his change of address. The court sentenced him to twelve months' imprisonment, followed by eighteen

months of supervised release, and imposed a six-month curfew with electronic monitoring to begin upon his release from custody.

On March 11, 2024, before his release from prison, Andino's supervised release conditions were explained to him in Spanish, and probation reported that he signed the judgment acknowledging those conditions. Upon his release on June 3, 2024, Andino began serving the term of supervised release at issue here and reported to probation for installation of an electronic monitoring device.

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