IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT

No. 13-50836

Summary Calendar

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff-Appellee

v.

SAMIR GARCIA,

Defendant-Appellant

Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Western District of Texas

USDC No. 2:12-CR-1690-1

Before BENAVIDES, CLEMENT, and OWEN, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM:*

Samir Garcia pleaded guilty to unlawfully reentering the United States 

in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a), (b)(2). Garcia was subject to an advisory 

guidelines imprisonment range of 46 to 57 months. The district court’s 

guidelines calculation rested in part on a 16-level increase in Garcia’s offense 

level, which increase was predicated on his 2012 conviction for aggravated 

battery. The district court sentenced Garcia within the applicable guidelines 

* 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.

United States Court of Appeals

Fifth Circuit

FILED

May 8, 2014

Lyle W. Cayce

Clerk

 

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No. 13-50836

range to 57 months of imprisonment and a three-year term of supervised 

release. Garcia filed a timely notice of appeal.

On appeal, Garcia maintains that his sentence is unreasonable, 

contending that it is greater than necessary to meet the sentencing goals of 18 

U.S.C. § 3553(a) in light of the mitigating factors presented by his case. More 

specifically, he asserts that his sentence failed to reflect that his family faced 

severe hardship in Honduras, that he returned to the United States to support 

his family, that he earned a 16-level increase for a conviction that also 

increased his criminal history score, that his offense is non-violent in nature, 

that this is his first conviction for illegal reentry, and that the 57-month 

sentence imposed is three times longer than his longest previous sentence. He 

also asserts that the district court placed too much emphasis on his prior 

convictions in selecting a sentence.

We review the substantive reasonableness of a sentence by examining 

the totality of the circumstances under an abuse of discretion standard. Gall 

v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 51 (2007); United States v. Mondragon-Santiago, 

564 F.3d 357, 360 (5th Cir. 2009). Although Garcia raises the issue to preserve 

it for further review, he concedes that his within-guidelines sentence enjoys a 

presumption of substantive reasonableness. United States v. Tuma, 738 F.3d 

681, 695 (5th Cir. 2013), petition for cert. filed (Mar. 19, 2014) (No. 13-1152). 

That “presumption is rebutted only upon a showing that the sentence does not 

account for a factor that should receive significant weight, it gives significant 

weight to an irrelevant or improper factor, or it represents a clear error of 

judgment in balancing sentencing factors.” United States v. Cooks, 589 F.3d 

173, 186 (5th Cir.2009). Garcia has not made this showing.

The record reflects that the district court conducted an individualized 

assessment of an appropriate sentence based on the facts presented, as it was 

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No. 13-50836

required to do under Gall, 552 U.S. at 50, and decided that a 57-month 

sentence was appropriate. That Garcia or this court “might reasonably have 

concluded that a different sentence was appropriate is insufficient to justify 

reversal of the district court.” Gall, 552 U.S. at 51. Considering the totality of 

the circumstances presented in this case in light of the § 3553(a) factors, we 

perceive no abuse of discretion in the district court’s conclusion that a top-ofthe-guidelines sentence was appropriate here. See id.; Mondragon-Santiago, 

564 F.3d at 360. Accordingly, we conclude that Garcia’s sentence is 

substantively reasonable, and we affirm the judgment of the district court.

AFFIRMED.

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 Case: 13-50836 Document: 00512623388 Page: 3 Date Filed: 05/08/2014