United States v. Jose Puentes

681 F. App'x 341
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedMarch 9, 2017
Docket15-11092
StatusUnpublished

This text of 681 F. App'x 341 (United States v. Jose Puentes) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth 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. Jose Puentes, 681 F. App'x 341 (5th Cir. 2017).

Opinion

PER CURIAM: *

Defendant Jose Milton Puentes challenges the district court’s calculation of his sentence after pleading guilty to one count of distribution of a controlled substance in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) and (b)(1)(B). We AFFIRM.

I. Background

In March 2013, reliable confidential sources approached agents from the Fort Worth office of the Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) about Defendant Jose Milton Puentes’s drug distribution activities. While in California, Puentes sold the confidential sources a shipment of methamphetamine. That shipment, which contained a total of 416.9 grams of methamphetamine, was received by DEA agents in Fort Worth, Texas in April 2013.

Under the direction of the DEA, the confidential sources continued meeting with Puentes in California throughout 2013. In May 2014, the confidential sources advised DEA agents that Puentes had provided them with 1.1 grams of methamphetamine (among other drugs) as samples of the drugs he had available for purchase.

DEA agents subsequently executed a search warrant at Puentes’s California residence in June 2014. During the search, DEA agents seized 440 grams of methamphetamine from a detached storage shed. *343 The agents also seized a .22-caliber pistol and multiple rounds of ammunition from Puentes’s bedroom in the residence. Puentes was detained during the search and released afterwards, pending further investigation.

Puentes was subsequently named in a one-count indictment filed in the Northern District of Texas on April 15, 2015. The indictment charged Puentes with distribution of a controlled substance in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) and (b)(1)(B). According to the indictment, at the time he made the shipment to DEA agents in April 2013, Puentes knowingly and intentionally possessed with intent to distribute fifty grams or more of a mixture or substance containing methamphetamine, a Schedule II controlled substance.

Puentes was contacted by DEA agents in California in May 2015. He initially entered a plea of not guilty, but withdrew that plea shortly thereafter and entered a plea of guilty. Puentes’s presentence investigation report (“PSR”) determined that Puentes was accountable for a total of 858 grams of methamphetamine, which resulted in a base offense level of thirty-four. The PSR then recommended four two-level enhancements. Relevant to Puentes’s appeal, the PSR recommended an enhancement pursuant to United States Sentencing Guideline § 2Dl.l(b)(l) because Puentes possessed a firearm. The resulting total offense level was forty-two, which, based on Puentes’s criminal history category of I, resulted in a Guideline imprisonment range of 360 months to life. That range was then limited by the statutorily authorized maximum sentence of forty years to create a final Guideline range of 360 to 480 months. 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(B)

Puentes filed a series of objections to both the base offense level and the various enhancements. Among his arguments, Puentes disputed the connection between the firearm discovered during the June 2014 search and the April 2013 shipment of methamphetamine. Puentes further argued that the firearm was not connected with the discovery of methamphetamine during the June 2014 search as the drugs were in a separate building from the firearm, the firearm was not on Puentes’s person, and the firearm was unloaded and stored.

At his sentencing hearing, Puentes argued that there was no proof that a firearm was present during the commission of the offense of conviction (the April 2013 shipment) and that there was no evidence that drug trafficking activity took place at the residence. Counsel for Puentes explained that the firearm was not in the same place as the methamphetamine. Overruling the objections, the district court found both that drug transactions occurred at the residence and that there was a presumption that the firearm was used to protect Puentes’s drug activities.

The district court sentenced Puentes to 360 months of imprisonment and a four-year term of supervised release. Despite having overruled all of Puentes’s objections, the district court noted that its sentence was “the sentence the Court would impose even if some of those objections had been sustained because I would be guided by the factors the Court should consider under the statute, and that’s the sentence I would impose under that guidance.” Puentes objected to. the sentence as being procedurally and substantively unreasonable, and filed a timely notice of appeal.

II. Standard of Review

A district court’s determination that an enhancement based on § 2Dl.l(b)(l) applies is a factual finding reviewed for clear error. United States v. Romans, 823 F.3d 299, 317 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, — U.S. *344 -, 137 S.Ct. 195, 196 L.Ed.2d 156 (2016). “A factual finding is not clearly erroneous if it is plausible, considering the record as a whole.” United States v. Ruiz, 621 F.3d 390, 396 (5th Cir. 2010) (per curiam). “[A] district court is permitted to draw reasonable inferences from the facts, and these inferences are fact-findings reviewed for clear error as well.” United States v. King, 773 F.3d 48, 52 (5th Cir. 2014) (quoting United States v. Caldwell, 448 F.3d 287, 290 (5th Cir. 2006)).

III. Discussion

U.S.S.G. § 2Dl.l(b)(l) provides for a two-level enhancement to a defendant’s offense level “[i]f a dangerous weapon (including a firearm) was possessed.” The Government has the burden “of showing by a preponderance of the evidence that a temporal and spatial relation existed between the weapon, the drug trafficking activity, and the defendant.” United States v. Salado, 339 F.3d 285, 293-94 (5th Cir. 2003) (citing United States v. Eastland, 989 F.2d 760, 770 (5th Cir. 1993)). To satisfy its burden under this standard, “the Government must show that the weapon was found in the same location where drugs ... are stored or where part of the transaction occurred.” Id. at 294. If such a showing is made, the defendant can avoid enhancement by demonstrating that “it was clearly improbable that the weapon was connected with the offense.” Ruiz, 621 F.3d at 396.

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Related

United States v. Salado
339 F.3d 285 (Fifth Circuit, 2003)
United States v. Caldwell
448 F.3d 287 (Fifth Circuit, 2006)
United States v. Ruiz
621 F.3d 390 (Fifth Circuit, 2010)
United States v. Wilfrido Bonilla Vasquez
874 F.2d 250 (Fifth Circuit, 1989)
United States v. Corey Juluke
426 F.3d 323 (Fifth Circuit, 2005)
United States v. Nicholas Harris
702 F.3d 226 (Fifth Circuit, 2012)
United States v. Edmundo Zuniga
720 F.3d 587 (Fifth Circuit, 2013)
United States v. James King
773 F.3d 48 (Fifth Circuit, 2014)
United States v. James Romans
823 F.3d 299 (Fifth Circuit, 2016)

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Bluebook (online)
681 F. App'x 341, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-jose-puentes-ca5-2017.