United States v. Carpena

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedApril 21, 2026
Docket25-5046
StatusPublished

This text of United States v. Carpena (United States v. Carpena) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Carpena, (10th Cir. 2026).

Opinion

Appellate Case: 25-5046 Document: 50-1 Date Filed: 04/21/2026 Page: 1 FILED United States Court of Appeals PUBLISH Tenth Circuit

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS April 21, 2026 Christopher M. Wolpert FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT Clerk of Court _________________________________

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff - Appellee,

v. No. 25-5046

FABIAN COBOS CARPENA,

Defendant - Appellant. _________________________________

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma (D.C. No. 4:24-CR-00173-SEH-1) _________________________________

William D. Lunn, Jr., Tulsa, Oklahoma, appearing for Appellant.

Elliot Anderson, Assistant United States Attorney (Clinton J. Johnson, United States Attorney, with him on the brief), Office of the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Oklahoma, Tulsa, Oklahoma, appearing for Appellee. _________________________________

Before MATHESON, EBEL, and CARSON, Circuit Judges. _________________________________

MATHESON, Circuit Judge. _________________________________

Fabian Cobos Carpena pled guilty to Unlawful Reentry of a Removed Alien in

violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326, reserving the right to appeal the district court’s denial Appellate Case: 25-5046 Document: 50-1 Date Filed: 04/21/2026 Page: 2

of his motion for a jury instruction on a duress defense. Exercising jurisdiction under

28 U.S.C. § 1291, we affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Factual History 1

2010 to 2013 - Initial Entry and Deportation

Mr. Cobos Carpena was 16-years-old and living in Mexico when

Rosanna Miranda Torres, a 29-year-old American citizen, contacted him online.

Despite their age difference, according to Mr. Cobos Carpena’s declaration, they

“developed a long-distance relationship.” ROA, Vol. I at 46.

Ms. Torres convinced Mr. Cobos Carpena to come to the United States. She

organized his border crossing. She sent men to transport him across the border,

resulting in his illegal entry into the United States, but they did not immediately

release him or deliver him to Ms. Torres. Instead, they held him in Texas for

approximately three weeks, constantly “threatening” him and “feeding [him] poorly.”

Id. They told him to “obey all” of Ms. Torres’s orders or “they would hurt [him]”

1 Mr. Cobos Carpena’s motion for a duress jury instruction included a written factual offer of proof. He supplemented his offer of proof with exhibits, including his own declaration, a protective order application, police reports, and letters from his sister, nephew, and ex-girlfriend. We draw the facts primarily from Mr. Cobos Carpena’s declaration. To determine whether the evidence was sufficient to warrant a duress jury instruction, “we review the evidence in the light most favorable to the defendant,” United States v. Dixon, 901 F.3d 1170, 1178 (10th Cir. 2018), and “we must give full credence to defendant’s testimony,” United States v. Yazzie, 188 F.3d 1178, 1185 (10th Cir. 1999) (quotations omitted).

2 Appellate Case: 25-5046 Document: 50-1 Date Filed: 04/21/2026 Page: 3

and that his “only choices were to be sent to [Ms. Torres] or to be killed.” Id. After

they turned him over to Ms. Torres, she brought him to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Mr. Cobos Carpena had family in Tulsa, but Ms. Torres prohibited him from

seeing them. She told him to “only do what she ordered” and warned that “if [he]

didn’t obey her, [he] was going to be sent back to Mexico and that the men who

picked [him] up would kill [him] at the border.” Id.

From 2010 to 2013, Mr. Cobos Carpena lived with Ms. Torres in her apartment

and faced regular abuse and threats from her. She locked him in the apartment,

forced him to have sex with her, and ordered him to complete tasks such as picking

up people and packages “without any explanation.” Id. at 47. Ms. Torres told him he

“had to do everything to please her and make her happy so she wouldn’t kill [him.]”

Id. Although she restricted his contact with family, he joined relatives on occasion at

“casual dinners” and family events. Id. at 53-54. But Mr. Cobos Carpena’s sister

said she sometimes could not get hold of her brother for days.

In 2013, Ms. Torres ordered Mr. Cobos Carpena to pick up some people who

had been stealing cars. He was arrested with them. He “tried explaining to the police

that [he] was acting under threats from a group of people.” Id. at 47. Following his

conviction for burglary and obstructing a police officer, he was removed to Mexico.

2013 to 2023 - Reentry and Continued Abuse

When Mr. Cobos Carpena arrived in Mexico, Ms. Torres’s men immediately

kidnapped him. They held him for three weeks—beating him daily, interrogating

him about “what [he] said to the authorities,” and feeding him along with the dogs.

3 Appellate Case: 25-5046 Document: 50-1 Date Filed: 04/21/2026 Page: 4

Id. at 48. The men were armed and repeatedly threatened him but decided not “to kill

[him] this time” because he “never gave [Ms. Torres] away.” Id. They transported

him back to the United States, which was his illegal reentry, and returned him to

Ms. Torres.

Ms. Torres’s abuse intensified upon his return. She said his “sole job was to

obey her every word” and that “the only way [he] was getting rid of her was by

getting killed or being sent to prison.” Id. She used physical beatings and

humiliation to control and punish him. In his declaration, he described beatings as “a

normal occurrence in the house.” Id. at 49. She knocked out his teeth, broke a

broom across his back, and “threatened [him] with a knife for a long period of time.”

Id.

Mr. Cobos Carpena’s nephew recalled “one occasion” when his uncle asked to

be picked up “after [Ms. Torres] physically abused him and abandoned him without

shoes, crying, and with bruises.” Id. at 53. Ms. Torres also controlled his access to

food, clothes, and the apartment. She “took [his] clothes away and forced [him] to

walk around the block in nothing but [his] underpants,” “drugged [him] so that [he]

would be easy to handle” by “slip[ping] things in [his] food and drinks,” and “locked

[him] outside the house.” Id. at 48.

Mr. Cobos Carpena continued to have some contact with his family, but

Ms. Torres started to harass them, threatening to hurt his family if he was deported

and having her men “shoot up” his sister’s house in 2022. Id. at 49.

4 Appellate Case: 25-5046 Document: 50-1 Date Filed: 04/21/2026 Page: 5

April 30, 2023 - Escape

On April 30, 2023, Mr. Cobos Carpena escaped from Ms. Torres’s apartment.

He had purchased a truck for his father, but when the truck arrived, Ms. Torres kept it

and took his “keys, . . . clothes, and $1,000” in his wallet. Id. Then she physically

attacked him—grabbing his neck, burying her nails in his throat so that he couldn’t

speak, and putting a knife against his throat. Mr. Cobos Carpena “struggled with her

and managed to get away.” Id. at 50. As he ran away, she chased him in the truck,

attempted to run over him, and yelled that “she was going to get [him] killed.” Id.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

United States v. Bailey
444 U.S. 394 (Supreme Court, 1980)
Dixon v. United States
548 U.S. 1 (Supreme Court, 2006)
United States v. Glass
128 F.3d 1398 (Tenth Circuit, 1997)
United States v. Gutierrez-Gonzalez
184 F.3d 1160 (Tenth Circuit, 1999)
United States v. Yazzie
188 F.3d 1178 (Tenth Circuit, 1999)
Zurich North America v. Matrix Service, Inc.
426 F.3d 1281 (Tenth Circuit, 2005)
United States v. Al-Rekabi
454 F.3d 1113 (Tenth Circuit, 2006)
United States v. Portillo-Vega
478 F.3d 1194 (Tenth Circuit, 2007)
United States v. Beckstrom
647 F.3d 1012 (Tenth Circuit, 2011)
United States v. Bill Lee Scott
901 F.2d 871 (Tenth Circuit, 1990)
United States v. Victor Manuel Meraz-Valeta
26 F.3d 992 (Tenth Circuit, 1994)
United States v. Ricardo Aguirre-Tello
353 F.3d 1199 (Tenth Circuit, 2004)
United States v. Juan Deshannon Butler
485 F.3d 569 (Tenth Circuit, 2007)
United States v. Estefani Zaragoza-Moreira
780 F.3d 971 (Ninth Circuit, 2015)
United States v. Dixon
901 F.3d 1170 (Tenth Circuit, 2018)
United States v. Arias-Quijada
926 F.3d 1257 (Tenth Circuit, 2019)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
United States v. Carpena, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-carpena-ca10-2026.