Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca8-04-03542/USCOURTS-ca8-04-03542-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
Jose Luis Rios-Muro
Appellant
United States of America
Appellee

Document Text:

1

The Honorable John R. Tunheim, United States District Judge for the District

of Minnesota.

United States Court of Appeals

FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT

___________

No. 04-3542

___________

United States of America, *

*

Appellee, *

* Appeal from the United States

v. * District Court for the

* District of Minnesota.

Jose Luis Rios-Muro, *

* [UNPUBLISHED]

Appellant. *

___________

Submitted: January 12, 2006

Filed: January 12, 2006

___________

Before ARNOLD, BYE, and SMITH, Circuit Judges.

___________

PER CURIAM.

Jose Luis Rios-Muro appeals the sentence the district court1

 imposed following

his guilty plea to illegally reentering the United States after having been convicted of

an aggravated felony (burglary) and deported, in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a) and

(b)(2). Rios-Muro argues that the district court should have departed downward based

on overstated criminal history and based on cultural assimilation. He also argues that

the district court impermissibly double counted the burglary conviction, by using it

both to enhance his base offense level and to compute his criminal history.

Appellate Case: 04-3542 Page: 1 Date Filed: 01/12/2006 Entry ID: 1996388
-2-

These arguments fail. First, the district court’s decision not to grant a

downward departure based on overstated criminal history is unreviewable. See United

States v. Frokjer, 415 F.3d 865, 874 (8th Cir. 2005) (denial of downward departure

is unreviewable unless district court had unconstitutional motive or erroneously

believed it lacked authority to depart). Second, Rios-Muro did not move below for

a departure based on cultural assimilation, and the district court did not plainly err in

not departing sua sponte. See United States v. Montanye, 996 F.2d 190, 192 (8th Cir.

1993) (en banc) (standard of review). Third, the district court did not err in

considering Rios-Muro’s burglary conviction in computing both his offense level and

his criminal history. See U.S.S.G. § 2L1.2, comment. (n.6) (“conviction taken into

account under . . . [U.S.S.G. § 2L1.2(b)(1)] is not excluded from consideration of

whether that conviction receives criminal history points”); cf. United States v. Dyck,

334 F.3d 736, 740 (8th Cir. 2003) (in illegal-reentry case, defendant’s prior

drug-trafficking conviction could be used both to enhance his base offense level

pursuant to § 2L1.2(b)(1) and to compute his criminal history category).

Accordingly, we affirm.

______________________________

Appellate Case: 04-3542 Page: 2 Date Filed: 01/12/2006 Entry ID: 1996388