United States v. Vilma Elizabeth Canas-Sanchez

660 F. App'x 722
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedAugust 16, 2016
Docket14-14418
StatusUnpublished

This text of 660 F. App'x 722 (United States v. Vilma Elizabeth Canas-Sanchez) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh 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. Vilma Elizabeth Canas-Sanchez, 660 F. App'x 722 (11th Cir. 2016).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

Vilma Canas-Sanchez appeals her 46-month sentence, imposed after she pled guilty to one count of reentry of a deported alien, in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a), (b)(2). She argues that the district court issued a substantively unreasonable sentence. After a thorough review of the record and consideration of the parties’ briefs, we affirm Canas-Sanchez’s sentence because her sentence was not substantively unreasonable under the totality of the circumstances.

I. BACKGROUND

Canas-Sanchez, a Guatemalan national, first illegally entered the United States in 1994. She began engaging in criminal activity a short time afterward. In 1997, she was convicted of petty theft and sentenced to three years’ probation. In 1998, she was arrested for possession of more than 400 grams of cocaine. She pled guilty to drug trafficking and was sentenced to 26 years’ imprisonment. She was paroled from prison in 2005 and deported to Mexico after misrepresenting herself as a Mexican citizen to immigration authorities.

Canas-Sanchez illegally reentered the United States almost immediately after her 2005 deportation and was living in Georgia by January 2006. Most recently, in March 2014, she was arrested for driving without a license and running a red light.

In July 2014, Canas-Sanchez pled guilty to illegally reentering the United States in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a), (b)(2). Given her criminal history, the probation officer preparing her presentence investigation report (“PSI”) calculated a Sentencing Guidelines range of 46 to 57 months. The statutory maximum was 20 years’ imprisonment.

At sentencing, Canas-Sanchez did not object to the guidelines range calculated in the PSI; rather, she requested a probationary sentence or a sentence below the applicable guidelines range. She explained that her positive, active involvement in her community and rehabilitation from her previous criminal conduct warranted a sentence below the guidelines range. Specifically, she called her husband, whom she married in 2008 and with whom she has a daughter, and two other witnesses who testified that she was very involved with her church and committed to helping others in her neighborhood and religious community. These witnesses also described her work as a caregiver for the disabled.

The district court ultimately rejected Canas-Sanchez’s arguments for a sentence below the applicable guidelines range and sentenced her to 46 months’ imprisonment. The court stated that Canas-Sanchez exhibited a pattern of lawlessness and had not been deterred from engaging in criminal activity despite her previous incarceration for drug trafficking and subsequent deportation. The court described her prior convictions for petty theft, drug trafficking, and the instant conviction and noted that she lied to .deportation authorities about her country of origin in order to be deported to Mexico rather than Guatemala.

The court went on to label Canas-San-chez a recidivist and self-interested individual with a general lack of respect for the law. As a result, the court found that all of the § 3553(a) factors- weighed in favor of imposing a guidelines sentence. The district court sentenced Canas-San-chez to 46 months’ imprisonment, the low *724 est end of the applicable guidelines range. This is her appeal.

II. DISCUSSION

We review the district court’s sentence for reasonableness under an abuse of discretion standard. Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 41, 128 S.Ct. 586, 169 L.Ed.2d 445 (2007). This standard reflects the notion that district courts have an “institutional advantage in making sentencing determinations.” United States v. Alfaro-Moncada, 607 F.3d 720, 735 (11th Cir. 2010) (internal quotation marks omitted). Reviewing a sentence for reasonableness involves two steps. First, we must consider whether the district court committed procedural error, such as inadequately explaining the chosen sentence or “treating the Guidelines as mandatory.” Gall, 552 U.S. at 51, 128 S.Ct. 586. Second, we must examine the substantive reasonableness of the sentence in light of the totality of the circumstances. Id. As Canas-Sanchez does not contend that the district court committed a procedural error, we need only consider whether her sentence was substantively unreasonable.

A review of substantive reasonableness includés determining whether the sentence achieves the purposes of the 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) factors. 1 United States v. Docampo, 573 F.3d 1091, 1096 (11th Cir. 2009). The party challenging the sentence bears the burden of showing it is unreasonable in light of both the record and the § 3553(a) factors. United States v. Tome, 611 F.3d 1371, 1378 (11th Cir. 2010). “The weight to be accorded any given § 3553(a) factor is a matter committed to the sound discretion of the district court....” United States v. Clay, 483 F.3d 739, 743 (11th Cir. 2007) (internal quotation marks omitted). However, “we will remand for resentenc-ing if we are left with the definite and firm conviction that the district court committed a clear error of judgment in weighing the § 3553(a) factors by arriving at a sentence that lies outside the range of reasonable sentences dictated by the facts of the case.” Id. (internal quotation marks omitted).

A district court abuses its discretion and imposes a substantively unreasonable sentence when it “(1) fails to afford consideration to relevant [§ 3553(a)] factors that were due significant weight, (2) gives significant weight to an improper or irrelevant factor, or (3) commits a clear error of judgment in considering the proper factors.” United States v. Rosales-Bruno, 789 F.3d 1249, 1256 (11th Cir. 2015). Although we do not presume a sentence within the applicable guidelines, range is reasonable, “we ordinarily ... expect a sentence within the guidelines range to be reasonable.” United States v. Hunt, 526 F.3d 739, 746 (11th Cir. 2008) (internal quotation marks omitted). Moreover, a sentence “appreciably below” the statutory maximum penalty is indicative of a reasonable sentence. See United States v. Valnor, 451 F.3d 744, 751-52 (11th Cir. 2006) (upholding a sentence as reasonable in part because it was appreciably below the statutory maximum).

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Related

United States v. Lesmarge Valnor
451 F.3d 744 (Eleventh Circuit, 2006)
United States v. John Windell Clay
483 F.3d 739 (Eleventh Circuit, 2007)
United States v. Hunt
526 F.3d 739 (Eleventh Circuit, 2008)
United States v. Docampo
573 F.3d 1091 (Eleventh Circuit, 2009)
Gall v. United States
552 U.S. 38 (Supreme Court, 2007)
United States v. Alfaro-Moncada
607 F.3d 720 (Eleventh Circuit, 2010)
United States v. Tome
611 F.3d 1371 (Eleventh Circuit, 2010)
United States v. Jesus Rosales-Bruno
789 F.3d 1249 (Eleventh Circuit, 2015)

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660 F. App'x 722, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-vilma-elizabeth-canas-sanchez-ca11-2016.