Opinion ID: 2831975
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Puerto Rico's Violent Crime Rate

Text: Pantojas challenges the district court's consideration of Puerto Rico's violent crime rate as a factor in sentencing. Specifically, he argues that the district court focused too much on statistics of Puerto Rico's violent crime rate, and too little on his personal circumstances. Pantojas ultimately alleges that the district court's reliance on such community-based considerations amounted to an abuse of discretion. Because Pantojas failed to preserve this argument below, we review it for plain error. United States v. FernándezHernández, 652 F.3d 56, 71 (1st Cir. 2011). However, we find no error, plain or otherwise. Contrary to Pantojas's contentions, in making sentencing determinations, district courts may consider community-based and geographic factors, including the incidence and trend lines of particular types of crime in the affected community. FloresMachicote, 706 F.3d at 22-23; see also Narváez-Soto, 773 F.3d at 286 (In weighing the impact associated with a particular crime, a sentencing court may consider the pervasiveness of that type of crime in the relevant community.). Indeed, this court has noted -10- the important role of deterrence in the sentencing calculus, and explained that [c]ommunity-based considerations are inextricably intertwined with deterrence, which aims to 'prevent[] criminal behavior by the population at large and, therefore, incorporates some consideration of persons beyond the defendant.' FloresMachicote, 706 F.3d at 23 (citing United States v. Politano, 522 F.3d 69, 74 (1st Cir. 2008)). Although we have stated that [i]t is possible for a sentencing judge to focus too much on the community and too little on the individual and, thus, impose a sentence that cannot withstand the test of procedural reasonableness, id. at 24, that did not happen here. Though the district court considered community-based factors at some length, it is clear from the record that its primary consideration in imposing a sentence above the applicable GSR was the fact that a Commonwealth of Puerto Rico court had found probable cause against Pantojas for a murder committed with the weapon he was charged with possessing. This is evident from the following district court statement: [C]onsidering that probable cause was determined that Mr. Pantojas committed a murder using the weapon for which he is charged in this case, [the court] will impose a sentence above the guideline range. That sentence above the guideline range is the sentence that would reflect the seriousness of the offense, would promote respect for the law, would protect the public from further crimes by Mr. Pantojas and would address the issue of deterrence and punishment. -11- The record shows that the district court also gave serious consideration to Pantojas's history and characteristics, emphasizing his drug use and prior arrest for drug possession. Thus, it is clear that the district court's sentencing rationale was neither dominated nor improperly influenced by community-based considerations. See Narváez-Soto, 773 F.3d at 287 (The analytic centerpiece of the court's sentencing rationale was the crime of conviction, and there is no satisfactory footing for a conclusion that community-based considerations either dominated or improperly influenced the fashioning of the sentence.). Pantojas's argument that the district court erred by relying on crime statistics because crime has been decreasing nationwide, as well as in Puerto Rico, fares no better. See id. at 286 (Even if certain types of violent crime are more prevalent in other places than the court realized, that does not detract from the court's reasoned determination, predicated on its experience, that the incidence of violent crime -- and, particularly, gunrelated violent crime -- is an acute problem in Puerto Rico.). Accordingly, the district court committed no procedural error -- let alone a plain one -- in considering community-based factors and the prevalence of gun violence in sentencing Pantojas.