Case ID: f-appx_146/html/0758-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "PER CURIAM: \n    ", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Isabel RUANO, Defendant-Appellant.
    No. 04-40871.
    Summary Calendar.
    United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.
    Decided Oct. 31, 2005.
    James Lee Turner, Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney’s Office Southern District of Texas, Houston, TX, Michelle Palacios, U.S. Attorney’s Office Southern District of Texas, McAllen, TX, for Plaintiff-Appellee.
    Guillermo Ruben Garcia, Laredo, TX, for Defendant-Appellant.
    Before JOLLY, DAVIS, and OWEN, Circuit Judges.
   PER CURIAM:

Isabel Ruano appeals from the sentence imposed following her guilty plea to transporting illegal aliens for commercial gain. She argues that she was sentenced in contravention to United States v. Booker, — U.S. -, 125 S.Ct. 738, 160 L.Ed.2d 621 (2005), when her sentence was enhanced pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 2L1.1(5) (2003) and by virtue of the fact that she was sentenced pursuant to the mandatory Sentencing Guidelines regime.

The district court, however, opined that if the Guidelines were held unconstitutional, it would impose the same sentence. Therefore, the Government has carried its burden of establishing that the sentencing errors suffered by Ruano were harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. United States v. Walters, 418 F.3d 461, 464 (5th Cir.2005); United States v. Akpan, 407 F.3d 360, 376 (5th Cir.2005).

AFFIRMED. 
      
       Pursuant to 5th Cir. R. 47.5, the court has determined that this opinion should not be published and is not precedent except under the limited circumstances set forth in 5th Cir. R. 47.5.4.