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JON M. SANDS

Federal Public Defender

BENJAMIN D. SINGERMAN

Assistant Federal Public Defender

California State Bar No. 242725

ben_singerman@fd.org

407 W. Congress, Suite 501

Tucson, AZ 85701-1355

Telephone: (520)879-7500, Fax: (520)879-7600

Attorneys for Defendant

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

DISTRICT OF ARIZONA

United States of America,

Plaintiff,

vs.

Rita Guadalupe Robles-Nevarez,

Defendant.

CR15-01504-TUC-JGZ-CRP-3

SENTENCING MEMORANDUM

Defendant Rita Guadalupe Robles-Nevarez, by and through undersigned counsel, 

submits the following Sentencing and Disposition Memorandum for the Court's consideration 

at the time of sentencing and disposition:

Ms. Robles-Nevarez submits that a sentence of time served (173 days) would be 

sufficient but not greater than necessary to ” to accomplish the objectives of § 3553(a).

On April 27, 2015, Ms. Robles-Nevarez sold a real estate property she owned in 

Santa Ana, Sonora, Mexico for US $65,000 to Rogelio Robles Caudillo. (See Exhibit A, 

which is the notarized real estate contract between Ms. Robles-Nevarez and Mr. Robles 

Caudillo.) Mr. Caudillo bought the property from Ms. Robles-Nevarez for cash, which he 

delivered to her in the United States. Ms. Robles-Nevarez wanted to deliver this money to 

her mother, who lives in Magdalena, Sonora, Mexico. Magdalena was Ms. RoblesNevarez’s hometown; it was also the hometown of her co-defendants Marco Allan Nevarez 

Guzman and Jesus Eduardo Miramontes. She admits that she enlisted them to help her 

return the money to Mexico. She fully accepts responsibility for conspiring to smuggle the 

proceeds of her real estate deal back to Mexico without declaring it. She emphatically 

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denies, however, that she was part of a conspiracy to drive vehicles loaded with drugs into 

the United States, or that she regularly had other people drive cash-laden vehicles with drug 

proceeds back into Mexico. She asserts that Mr. Nevarez Guzman and Mr. Miramontes 

have attempted to exaggerate her role in their activities in order to minimize their own 

culpable conduct.

Since 2010, Ms. Robles-Nevarez has operated a party planning business in Mexico 

and Tucson, which yielded a monthly profit of approximately $2,000 in Tucson and about 

70,000 pesos ($3700) a year in Mexico. In other words, her yearly income for the past five 

years has been about US $27,000 a year. She and her husband live in southwest Tucson 

with their two children: Juan Angel, age 14; and Jennifer Alexandra, age 11. The 

Presentence Report notes that “A home inspection was conducted on January 14, 2016, and 

it appears the defendant was not living beyond her means.” (PSR ¶ 38.)

For her party planning business, Ms. Robles-Nevarez regularly drove from Tucson to 

Mexico to buy party supplies, which she then brought back to the United States. She will 

lose that source of income when she is deported from the United States at the end of her 

incarceration for this offense. She has also lost to forfeiture the proceeds of her sale of her 

family’s property ($65,458) as well as the 2015 Ford Edge, which she bought less than a 

month before her co-defendants were caught in it at the border.

For Ms. Robles-Nevarez, her inevitable removal from the United States is the most 

punitive result of her conviction. Her daughter Jennifer is a United States citizen. Since 

birth, Jennifer has been under the care of a cardiologist due to a birth defect in her aortic 

valve. Ms. Robles-Nevarez’s siblings and mother live in Magdalena, but Ms. RoblesNevarez is distraught that her husband and young children will likely remain in the United 

States much of the time, visiting her in Mexico when they can. Because Ms. RoblesNevarez understands that she will never be permitted to return to the United States, her 

punishment for her conviction will truly last a lifetime.

Ms. Robles-Nevarez is 41 years old and has no prior criminal history. She has been 

gainfully employed as a self-employed small businesswoman and is the mother of two 

young children. Her source of the money she conspired to smuggle was not illicit, but was 

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the legal sale of a piece of land she owned in Mexico. She deeply regrets involving herself 

with her codefendants to help her smuggle the money undeclared to Mexico. She firmly 

denies any other criminal involvement, and her lower middle class lifestyle, as verified by 

the Probation Office, demonstrates and clarifies that she is not the narcotics smuggling 

ringleader that the government, without proof, implies.

Her co-defendant Marco Allan Nevarez was sentenced to time served on December 

22, 2015: a sentence of 5 months of imprisonment. A sentence of 6 months, or time-served, 

for Ms. Robles-Nevarez would not create an unwarranted sentence disparity among them, 

given that they were found guilty of similar conduct.

Therefore, respectfully, a sentence of time served (173 days imprisonment) would be 

sufficient and the “least restrictive” to accomplish the objectives of § 3553(a).

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED: February 10, 2016.

JON M. SANDS

Federal Public Defender

s/ Benjamin D. Singerman 

BENJAMIN D. SINGERMAN

Assistant Federal Public Defender

Certificate of Service

I hereby certify that on February 10, 2016, I electronically transmitted the attached 

document to the Clerk’s Office using the CM/ECF System for filing and transmittal of a 

Notice of Electronic filing to the following CM/ECF registrants:

Lawrence Corbin Lee, Assistant U.S. Attorney

Kelly A. Burruel, United States Probation Officer

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