United States Court of Appeals

For the Seventh Circuit

Chicago, Illinois 60604

Submitted August 28, 2012

Decided August 28, 2012

Before

RICHARD A. POSNER, Circuit Judge

ILANA DIAMOND ROVNER, Circuit Judge

DIANE P. WOOD, Circuit Judge

No. 12-1949

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff-Appellee,

v.

LAZARO MARTINEZ-MEDINA,

Defendant-Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District

Court for the Western District of Wisconsin.

No. 11-CR-127-WMC-01

William M. Conley,

Chief Judge.

O R D E R

Lazaro Martinez-Medina, a Mexican citizen, was last removed to Mexico in 1998

after completing a sentence in Minnesota for assault. Twice before Martinez-Medina had

been deported after serving time for additional crimes including aggravated assault,

burglary, disorderly conduct, and driving under the influence. A month after the latest

removal he was back in the United States and incurred 12 more convictions just for battery,

assault, burglary, and disorderly conduct. Federal authorities were alerted in 2011 that he

again was jailed in the United States, this time in Wisconsin for obstructing a police officer.

He was taken into federal custody and pleaded guilty to being in the United States

unlawfully after his removal, see 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a). The district court sentenced him within

the guidelines imprisonment range to 84 months.

NONPRECEDENTIAL DISPOSITION

To be cited only in accordance with

 Fed. R. App. P. 32.1
No. 12-1949 Page 2

Martinez-Medina filed a notice of appeal, but his appointed lawyer believes the

appeal is frivolous and seeks to withdraw under Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738, 744

(1967). Martinez-Medina hasn’t responded to counsel’s motion. See CIR. R. 51(b). We

confine our review to the potential issues discussed in counsel’s facially adequate brief.

See United States v. Schuh, 289 F.3d 968, 973–74 (7th Cir. 2002). Counsel advises that

Martinez-Medina does not wish to challenge his guilty plea, and thus counsel

appropriately omits discussion about the adequacy of the plea colloquy and the

voluntariness of the plea. See United States v. Knox, 287 F.3d 667, 670–72 (7th Cir. 2002).

Counsel has not identified any ground on which to challenge the guidelines

calculations, which Martinez-Medina accepted without objection in the district court. That

leaves counsel with little else to discuss. Martinez-Medina’s total offense level of 21 and

Category VI criminal history (based on 28 criminal-history points) yielded an

imprisonment range of 77 to 96 months. In selecting 84 months, the district court noted that

Martinez-Medina had been deported three times and incurred an extensive criminal record

“replete with crimes of violence, many while under supervision for past violence,” that has

“left a slew of victims in his path,” including women, other prisoners, the homeless, and

even a shelter worker. See 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)(1). And, the court added, Martinez-Medina

had used a number of aliases, had worked only for brief periods, and was contemplating

joining the Zetas gang in Mexico after his release from federal prison. The judge reasonably

concluded that these considerations outweighed Martinez-Medina’s argument in

mitigation that his age, 43, and the timing of his most-recent convictions (in 2008 for

assaulting a former girlfriend and then another prisoner after his arrest) indicates that his

criminal behavior had “slowed down.” (His lawyer at sentencing did not mention that

Martinez-Medina still faced pending charges for bail jumping and retail thefts allegedly

committed on three different occasions during the six months before he was charged in this

case.) Counsel considered challenging the reasonableness of Martinez-Medina’s prison

term but has not identified any reason to disturb the presumption of reasonableness

applicable to Martinez-Medina’s within-guidelines sentence. See Rita v. United States, 551

U.S. 338, 350–51 (2007); United States v. Moreno-Padilla, 602 F.3d 802, 810 (7th Cir. 2010).

Counsel’s motion to withdraw is GRANTED, and the appeal is DISMISSED.