Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca4-23-06911/USCOURTS-ca4-23-06911-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
Alejandro Chavez-Lopez
Appellant
United States of America
Appellee

Document Text:

UNPUBLISHED

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 23-6911

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff - Appellee,

v.

ALEJANDRO CHAVEZ-LOPEZ,

Defendant - Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, at 

Charlotte. Robert J. Conrad, Jr., District Judge. (3:17-cr-00073-RJC-DCK-2)

Submitted: December 10, 2024 Decided: December 20, 2024

Before NIEMEYER, AGEE, and RICHARDSON, Circuit Judges.

Affirmed in part, vacated in part, and remanded by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Alejandro Chavez-Lopez, Appellant Pro Se. Elizabeth Margaret Greenough, Assistant 

United States Attorney, Charlotte, North Carolina, Amy Elizabeth Ray, Assistant United

States Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Asheville, North 

Carolina, for Appellee.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.

USCA4 Appeal: 23-6911 Doc: 20 Filed: 12/20/2024 Pg: 1 of 3
2

PER CURIAM:

Alejandro Chavez-Lopez appeals the district court’s orders dismissing his motion 

for a sentence reduction under Section 404 of the First Step Act of 2018 and his motion for 

compassionate release under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A). The district court dismissed the 

first motion because Chavez-Lopez was not eligible for relief under Section 404. We have 

reviewed the record and find no reversible error in that ruling. We therefore affirm the 

district court’s order dismissing the Section 404 motion. See United States v. ChavezLopez, No. 3:17-cr-00073-RJC-DCK-2 (W.D.N.C. Aug. 22, 2023) (PACER No. 159).

Turning to the order dismissing Chavez-Lopez’s motion for compassionate release 

(PACER No. 160), the dismissal was based on the Government’s assertion in response to 

the motion that he had not exhausted his administrative remedies by filing a request for 

compassionate release in prison since the district court denied his last such motion, even 

though his prior motion, which provided evidence of his exhaustion, was still pending. 

On appeal, the Government acknowledges that it mistakenly represented to the 

district court that the court denied Chavez-Lopez’s first motion for compassionate release. 

The Government moves to remand the case to allow it to correct its assertion of facts 

relating to exhaustion and permit the district court to consider, in the first instance, whether 

Chavez-Lopez has met the exhaustion requirement based on the corrected record. Since 

the district court’s order rested on a mistake of fact, we agree that a remand is appropriate. 

Accordingly, we affirm the district court’s order dismissing Chavez-Lopez’s motion 

for a sentence reduction under First Step Act § 404, but we vacate the district court’s order 

dismissing his motion for compassionate release under § 3582(c)(1)(A), grant the motion 

USCA4 Appeal: 23-6911 Doc: 20 Filed: 12/20/2024 Pg: 2 of 3
3

to remand, and remand for further consideration of the compassionate-release motion. We 

dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal contentions are adequately 

presented in the materials before this court and argument would not aid the decisional 

process.

AFFIRMED IN PART,

VACATED IN PART, 

AND REMANDED

USCA4 Appeal: 23-6911 Doc: 20 Filed: 12/20/2024 Pg: 3 of 3