United States v. Gutierrez-Sanchez

559 F.3d 1088, 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 6090, 2009 WL 736760
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedMarch 23, 2009
Docket08-50254
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 559 F.3d 1088 (United States v. Gutierrez-Sanchez) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth 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. Gutierrez-Sanchez, 559 F.3d 1088, 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 6090, 2009 WL 736760 (9th Cir. 2009).

Opinion

OPINION

FRIEDMAN, Circuit Judge:

The appellant Hugo Gutierrez-Sanchez challenges his sentence primarily because, although he pleaded guilty to an offense for which the United States Sentencing Guidelines (“the Guidelines”) recommended a particular sentence, he was given a more severe sentence that the Guidelines recommended for a related, more serious offense. The Guidelines, however, provide that if a plea agreement “specifically establishes the commission of additional offense(s),” it shall be “treated as if the defendant had been convicted of additional count(s) charging those offense(s).” U.S.S.G. § lB1.2(c). Since in his plea agreement Gutierrez admitted facts that established the more serious offense on which his sentence was based, the district court did not err in its calculation of the Guidelines recommended sentence. The sentence actually imposed also was substantively reasonable. We therefore affirm.

I

Prior to his present difficulties, Gutierrez twelve times had entered the United States illegally from Mexico and been removed to Mexico. While in the United States during this period, he was thrice criminally convicted.

In the present case, Gutierrez was apprehended hiding in dense brush several hundred yards north of the United States — Mexican border. He was arrested and charged with being a deported alien found in the United States, in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326. Gutierrez entered into a so-called “fast-track” arrangement with the government, under which he agreed to plead guilty to a lesser offense and waived various rights. He signed a written agreement in which he pleaded guilty to making a false statement to a federal official, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001, namely, that in 2004, after having illegally entered the country, he told a federal officer “that his name was Salvador Beltran-Bera.”

Gutierrez and the government agreed upon his offense level and criminal history under the Guidelines calculations, which produced a Guidelines range sentence of 6-12 months imprisonment. The parties agreed to recommend a sentence of 9 months imprisonment. In the plea agreement, Gutierrez also stated that he “understands that the sentence is within the sole discretion of the sentencing judge” and that “the recommendation made by the Government is not binding on the Court, and defendant’s actual sentence remains uncertain at this time.”

The district court accepted Gutierrez’ guilty plea but rejected the recommended 9 months imprisonment sentence. The court stated that it was “inclined to sentence within what I think is the applicable guideline range for the real offense, which is coming back over here.” After hearing Gutierrez’ objections, the court “f[ou]nd that the real offense here, the one that the Guideline calculations should be predicated upon, is a[n 8 U.S.C. § ] 1326.” The court calculated the Guidelines range for this offense at 10-16 months imprisonment (which calculation Gutierrez does not chal *1090 lenge) and, after considering the specified sentencing factors under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a), sentenced Gutierrez to 16 months imprisonment.

II

A. On appeal, this court “first consider[s] whether the district court committed significant procedural error, then ... consider^] the substantive reasonableness of the sentence.” United States v. Carty, 520 F.3d 984, 993 (9th Cir.2008) (en banc). In Carty, we held that

[i]t would be procedural error for a district court to fail to calculate — or to calculate incorrectly — the Guidelines range; to treat the Guidelines as mandatory instead of advisory; to fail to consider the § 3553(a) factors; to choose a sentence based on clearly erroneous facts; or to fail adequately to explain the sentence selected, including any deviation from the Guidelines range.

Id.

Gutierrez contends that the district court committed procedural error by not calculating the Guidelines recommended sentence for his violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001, but instead calculating his sentence based on a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1326. Gutierrez alternatively argues that the district court gave undue weight to one of the § 3553(a) sentencing factors, deterrence, and that this resulted in a substantively unreasonable sentence.

B. As noted, the Guidelines provide:

A plea agreement (written or made orally on the record) containing a stipulation that specifically establishes the commission of additional offense(s) shall be treated as if the defendant had been convicted of additional count(s) charging those offense(s).

U.S.S.G. § lB1.2(e).

The Guidelines further provide that “in the case of a stipulation to the commission of additional offense(s), the guidelines are to be applied as if the defendant had been convicted of an additional count for each of the offenses stipulated.” U.S.S.G. § 1B1.2 cmt. n. 3.

In his written plea agreement, after admitting that in 2004 he had made a false statement to a federal official, Gutierrez stated in the next paragraph:

Defendant agrees further that the offense involved a violation of a prior, specific administrative order because defendant is an unlawful alien who was lawfully deported on February 22, 2004[,] prior to the instant offense and as part of that deportation, defendant was ordered by the immigration judge not to reenter the United States without requesting and obtaining permission from the Attorney General or designated successor, and that this fact results in the increase in offense level set forth in paragraph 5 below.

Under the Guidelines, Gutierrez’ statement in his plea agreement constituted a “stipulation that specifically established] the commission of [the] additional offense” of an alien illegally present in the United States, in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326. Gutierrez admitted all the elements of the latter offense: that (1) he was an alien who (2) had been lawfully deported and (3) had returned to the United States (4) without the permission of the Attorney General and (5) had the requisite general intent, i.e., he knew he was illegally in the United States when he lied to the federal officers about his immigration status. See United States v. Covian-Sandoval, 462 F.3d 1090, 1093, 1094 n. 1 (9th Cir.2006). Because Gutierrez’ plea agreement establishes the mens rea necessary for a “found in” offense under § 1326, we need not address his argument that his plea agreement did not establish the specific intent needed to violate the prohibition in § 1326 against attempted reentry. United States v.

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Related

United States v. Hugo Gutierrez-Sanchez
587 F.3d 904 (Ninth Circuit, 2009)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
559 F.3d 1088, 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 6090, 2009 WL 736760, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-gutierrez-sanchez-ca9-2009.