Source: http://ma.findacase.com/research/wfrmDocViewer.aspx/xq/fac.20150401_0000085.C01.htm/qx
Timestamp: 2017-01-16 10:42:11
Document Index: 526384519

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 3', '§ 960', '§ 841', '§ 3', '§ 3', '§ 3', '§ 3', '§ 3', '§ 3', '§ 5']

| United States v. Melendez-Rivera
United States v. Melendez-Rivera
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Appellee,v.JULIO MELÉ NDEZ-RIVERA, Defendant, Appellant
Joshua L. Solomon, Matthew B. Arnould, and Pollack Solomon Duffy LLP on brief for appellant.
Rosa Emilia Rodríguez-Vélez, United States Attorney, Nelson Pérez-Sosa, Assistant United States Attorney, Chief, Appellate Division, and Francisco A. Besosa-Martí nez, Assistant United States Attorney, on brief for appellee.
This sentencing appeal hinges on two claims of error. One is hopeless, but the other requires us to answer a question about whether an additional one-level downward adjustment for acceptance of responsibility, see U.S.S.G. § 3E1.1(b), sometimes may be available without a government motion. Concluding that the answer to this question is affirmative, we remand for resentencing.
Because this appeal follows a guilty plea, we glean the relevant facts from the change-of-plea colloquy, the unchallenged portions of the presentence investigation report (PSI Report), and the transcript of the disposition hearing. See United States v. Vargas, 560 F.3d 45, 47 (1st Cir. 2009); United States v. Dietz, 950 F.2d 50, 51 (1st Cir. 1991). In April of 2011, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were hot on the heels of a drug-trafficking ring. As part of this investigation, an undercover agent (whom we shall call " X" ) began negotiating a drug smuggle with members of the ring. On April 14, one of the suspects, Eliezer Delgado-Ramos (" Delgado" ), met with X to coordinate the venture. Defendant-appellant Julio Melé ndez-Rivera attended this meeting.
The hatched plot contemplated that X would rendezvous with a vessel at sea, receive approximately 1,000 kilograms of cocaine, bring the contraband ashore in Puerto Rico, and place it in a van that Page 28
would subsequently be driven away by the drug ring. On May 1, X effected the transfer at sea, and federal agents seized the cocaine before it reached the shore.
In due season, a federal grand jury sitting in the District of Puerto Rico returned an indictment. Pertinently, it charged the appellant with conspiracy to import over five kilograms of cocaine into the United States (count 1), see 21 U.S.C. § § 960, 963, and conspiracy to distribute over five kilograms of cocaine (count 2), see id. § § 841(a)(1), 846. After some preliminary skirmishing, the appellant entered a straight guilty plea. The probation office then prepared the PSI Report, which recommended a guideline sentencing range of 188-235 months.
Prior to the disposition hearing, the appellant filed a sentencing memorandum urging a downward adjustment for what he deemed his mitigating role in the offense.[1] See U.S.S.G. § 3B1.2(b). The sentencing memorandum further urged a three-level downward adjustment for acceptance of responsibility (rather than the two-level adjustment recommended in the PSI Report). See id. § 3E1.1(b).
The sentencing court convened the disposition hearing on August 23, 2013. The court eschewed any mitigating role adjustment, concluding that the appellant's part in the conspiracy was not minor. At the same time, it granted a two-level reduction for acceptance of responsibility but rejected the appellant's importunings for an additional adjustment, stating " I don't think I can grant it. I don't have the discretion to do so unless the government files [a] motion." The court proceeded to impose a bottom-of-the-range term of immurement: 188 months. This timely appeal ensued.
The sentencing guidelines authorize a two-level reduction in a defendant's offense level upon a finding that " the defendant was a minor participant in [the relevant] criminal activity." Id. § 3B1.2(b). To qualify for this adjustment, a defendant must show that he is both less culpable than most of his cohorts in the particular criminal endeavor and less culpable than the mine-run of those who have committed similar crimes. See United States v. Ocasio, 914 F.2d 330, 333 (1st Cir. 1990). A defendant bears the burden of proving his entitlement to a minor participant reduction by a preponderance of the evidence. See United States v. Quinones-Medina, 553 F.3d 19, 22 (1st Cir. 2009).
A determination of a defendant's role in the offense is invariably fact-specific and, thus, appellate review of such a determination is respectful. See United States v. Santos, 357 F.3d 136, 142 (1st Cir. 2004). " Consequently, we review a district court's resolution of the facts relative Page 29
to a minor role adjustment for clear error . . . ." Quinones-Medina, 553 F.3d at 22. Given this deferential standard of review, battles over a defendant's role in the offense " will almost always be won or lost in the district court." United States v. Graciani, 61 F.3d 70, 75 (1st Cir. 1995).
The appellant labors nevertheless to portray himself as an " expendable cog" in the venture by labeling Delgado as the decisionmaker. This sets up a false dichotomy: a defendant need not be the key figure in a conspiracy in order to be denied a mitigating role-in-the-offense adjustment. See, e.g., United States v. García-Ortiz, 657 F.3d 25, 29-30 (1st Cir. 2011); United States v. Mateo-Espejo, 426 F.3d 508, 512 (1st Cir. 2005). What counts is that the appellant was present for the planning of the scheme and deeply involved in its execution. There is, therefore, no good reason to believe that he was less culpable than the mine-run of those who have committed similar crimes. Indeed, we have routinely upheld the denial of a mitigating role adjustment in drug-trafficking cases for defendants who have had even less involvement than the appellant. See, e.g., Vargas, 560 F.3d at 50-51 (affirming denial of adjustment where defendant's sole involvement in conspiracy was driving delivery truck containing single shipment of cocaine); United States v. Ortiz-Santiago, 211 F.3d 146, 149 (1st Cir. 2000) (affirming denial of adjustment where defendant performed only " menial tasks" such as unloading drugs and standing watch).
That ends this aspect of the matter. Mindful of the deferential lens through which we must review fact-intensive role-in-the-offense determinations, we cannot say that the sentencing court committed any error, clear or otherwise, in rejecting the appellant's bid for such an adjustment.[2]
This brings us to the appellant's claim that the sentencing court erred in holding that it lacked discretion to grant an additional one-level adjustment for acceptance of responsibility absent a government motion. The question presented is legal in nature and engenders de novo review. See Quinones-Medina, 553 F.3d at 22.
We set the stage. The sentencing guidelines create a two-tiered system for treating acceptance of responsibility. The first tier comprises a basic two-level reduction in the offense level when the court determines that a defendant has accepted responsibility for the offense of conviction. See U.S.S.G. § 3E1.1(a). If the defendant receives this first-tier adjustment and if his offense level, calculated without reference to the first-tier adjustment, is 16 or more, the second tier comes into play. Page 30
That tier makes available a further one-level adjustment " upon motion of the government stating that the defendant has assisted authorities in the investigation or prosecution of his own misconduct by timely notifying authorities of his intention to enter a plea of guilty, thereby permitting the government to avoid preparing for trial and permitting the government and the court to allocate their resources efficiently." Id. § 3E1.1(b).
The present problem, of course, arises out of the language of section 3E1.1(b), which is prefaced with the phrase " upon motion of the government." At the time that the appellant was sentenced, the November 2012 edition of the guidelines pertained. The then-current guideline commentary stated that " [b]ecause the Government is in the best position to determine whether the defendant has assisted authorities in a manner that avoids preparing for trial, an adjustment under subsection (b) may only be granted upon a formal motion by the Government at the time of sentencing." Id. § 3E1.1, comment. (n.6). But guideline commentary is not always to be taken as gospel, see Stinson v. United States, 508 U.S. 36, 43-45, 113 S.Ct. 1913, 123 L.Ed.2d 598 (1993); United States v. Piper, 35 F.3d 611, 617 (1st Cir. 1994), and the main question presented by this appeal is the extent (if at all) to which the sentencing court retains discretion to grant the additional one-level adjustment under section 3E1.1(b) without a government motion.
The answer to this question is informed by our decision in United States v. Beatty, 538 F.3d 8 (1st Cir. 2008). There, we considered the scope of the government's discretion to withhold a motion for the additional one-level discount for acceptance of responsibility. Id. at 13-17. We held that even though the government enjoys wide discretion in deciding whether to move for this adjustment, the district court's hands are not tied simply because the government abjures such a motion. See id. at 14-15. Rather, the court may grant the additional level when the government's withholding of the predicate motion " was based on an unconstitutional motive" or " was not rationally related to any legitimate government end." Id. at 14 (internal quotation marks omitted); cf. Wade v. United States, 504 U.S. 181, 185-86, 112 S.Ct. 1840, 118 L.Ed.2d 524 (1992) (adopting this approach in the context of the government's refusal to file a substantial-assistance motion under U.S.S.G. § 5K1.1). The district court's conclusion that it lacked discretion to grant the requested adjustment without a government motion overlooked the Beatty exception and, thus, was incorrect as a matter of law.[3]
Let us be perfectly clear. We do not suggest that the appellant is deserving of the additional one-level adjustment. We do not know, and, in all events, that matter is for the sentencing court. But once the appellant raised a claim that the government withheld its section 3E1.1(b) motion for an improper reason, he was entitled to have the district court resolve this point. Cf. United States v. Mariano, 983 F.2d 1150, 1153 (1st Cir. 1993) (remanding where district court erroneously concluded that it lacked discretion to depart downward based on defendant's substantial assistance).
We need go no further. For the reasons elucidated above, we affirm the denial of a mitigating role adjustment, vacate the denial of a second-tier acceptance of responsibility adjustment, and remand the case with directions to vacate the sentence and conduct a new sentencing hearing consonant with this opinion.[4] At resentencing, the only open questions (apart from the length of the sentence to be imposed) shall be whether the government improperly withheld the section 3E1.1(b) motion and, if so, whether the appellant is entitled to the additional one-level discount for acceptance of responsibility.