Court Opinion

ID: 9385445
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-04-06 18:00:45.682471+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:18:01.765810
License: Public Domain

Case: 21-40574     Document: 00516703466         Page: 1   Date Filed: 04/06/2023

           United States Court of Appeals
                for the Fifth Circuit                              United States Court of Appeals
                                                                            Fifth Circuit

                                                                          FILED
                                                                       April 6, 2023
                                  No. 21-40574                       Lyle W. Cayce
                                                                          Clerk

   United States of America,

                                                           Plaintiff—Appellee,

                                      versus

   Matthew Lee Sepulveda,

                                                        Defendant—Appellant.

                  Appeal from the United States District Court
                      for the Southern District of Texas
                           USDC No. 7:19-CR-2120-1

   Before Wiener, Higginson, and Wilson, Circuit Judges.
   Stephen A. Higginson, Circuit Judge:
         Matthew Lee Sepulveda was convicted by a jury of depriving two
   persons of their constitutional rights under color of law in violation of 18
   U.S.C. § 242. The district court sentenced Sepulveda to concurrent terms
   of 12 and 360 months of imprisonment and ordered Sepulveda to pay $10,000
   in restitution to one of the victims. Sepulveda now appeals. For the reasons
   stated below, we AFFIRM Sepulveda’s conviction and sentence.
Case: 21-40574      Document: 00516703466           Page: 2   Date Filed: 04/06/2023

                                     No. 21-40574

                                          I.
          Sepulveda served as a police officer with the Progreso Police
   Department. The government alleged that in June 2019, Sepulveda sexually
   assaulted two young men inside the police station. At trial, the victims
   testified about the assaults, and the government introduced evidence
   corroborating their accounts.
                                          A.
          On the evening of June 28, 2019, Sepulveda pulled over a 2007 Tahoe
   for going five miles per hour over the speed limit. The driver, C.L., was a
   twenty-year-old man. Sepulveda arrested C.L. for driving without insurance
   or a license. After another officer arrived at the scene, Sepulveda told C.L.
   that he would also be charged with resisting arrest. At about 11:40 p.m.,
   Sepulveda drove C.L. to the station.
          At the station, among other questions, Sepulveda asked C.L. whether
   he had a Social Security number. When C.L. said that he did not, Sepulveda
   said that he would be deported.
          Sepulveda took C.L. to a cell and told him to pull down his shorts for
   a pat down. C.L. testified that after he complied, Sepulveda said “I see you
   have nothing.” Another police officer testified that during a pat down, the
   procedure is to touch the suspect over the waist, not to insert fingers into the
   waistband or underwear.
          C.L. asked Sepulveda to let him go, and Sepulveda responded that he
   would “think about it” and would check on C.L.’s truck. When Sepulveda
   returned, he asked whether C.L. had a girlfriend. C.L. said yes, told
   Sepulveda that he was scared and didn’t want to go back to Mexico, and
   asked Sepulveda to give him a chance.

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          Then, Sepulveda took C.L. out of the cell and brought him to an office.
   Sepulveda told C.L. that if another officer saw them, C.L. should say that he
   was “having an anxiety attack inside the cell.” An investigator for the
   Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office testified that a surveillance video showed
   Sepulveda taking C.L. into the office.
          Inside the office, Sepulveda continued asking C.L. about his girlfriend.
   Sepulveda also asked C.L. about his sexual activities, masturbation, and
   pornography. A knock at the door interrupted Sepulveda’s questioning.
   Sepulveda went out to the lobby, and C.L. heard his mother talking to
   Sepulveda.
          C.L. testified that when Sepulveda came back to the office, Sepulveda
   said, “I can’t just let you off like that. You’re going to have to do something.”
   C.L. asked about community service, and according to C.L., Sepulveda
   replied, “I need you to grab that chair, turn out the light[,] and let me suck
   your dick.” Sepulveda then performed oral sex on C.L. C.L. testified that
   he complied with Sepulveda’s order because he “didn’t think [he] had an
   option” since Sepulveda “had [him] there under arrest.”              After C.L.
   ejaculated, Sepulveda first told him “to go to the restroom and wash off,”
   but then said, “[n]ever mind, just leave, just leave. Let me walk you out to
   your mom.”
          When C.L. got home, he texted his girlfriend about the assault. The
   text messages were admitted into evidence and corroborated C.L.’s trial
   testimony. C.L. also texted his girlfriend that he wanted to kill himself.
          A few hours after the assault, C.L. reported the incident to his local
   police department. The Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office dispatched an
   officer who collected C.L.’s underwear.          During the investigation, the
   Sheriff’s Office obtained a search warrant for samples of Sepulveda’s DNA.

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          Samples taken from the front panel of the underwear were tested for
   DNA. Analysis showed that the samples contained a mixture of DNA from
   three people. A DNA analyst testified that it was 434 million times more
   likely that the DNA came from C.L., Sepulveda, and an unknown person
   than C.L. and two unknown people.            The analyst also testified that
   Sepulveda’s DNA could have been transferred to the underwear by touching
   it.
          Laboratory tests did not detect semen on the back panel of C.L.’s
   underwear. The front panel was not tested for semen. The forensic scientist
   who performed the tests explained on cross-examination that she did not test
   the front panel because “it might be a natural occurrence” for “an adult male
   . . . to have semen on his own boxers.”
                                          B.
          About two days after C.L.’s assault, Sepulveda was allegedly involved
   in a similar incident.
          During the early morning hours of June 30, 2019, Progreso Police
   Officer Jacob Rivera stopped a vehicle for a broken taillight. After Rivera
   made the stop, Sepulveda arrived with another officer, Eric Rodriguez. At
   trial, Rivera testified that there were “[t]hree boys and four girls” in the car.
   Rivera asked the driver for his license and insurance. Although the driver
   had neither, Rivera decided not to arrest him.
          Rivera determined that the occupants of the car were all between 16
   and 17 years old and told Sepulveda that he wanted to have their parents come
   pick them up. One of the girls’ mothers picked up all the girls. But Sepulveda
   told Rivera that the father of two of the boys was not answering the phone.
   Although Rivera proposed having the parent of the other boy take those two
   with him, Sepulveda said that he would take the remaining two boys back to
   the police station.

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          Rivera testified that Sepulveda told Rodriguez to ride with Rivera, and
   then Sepulveda left with the minors. Rivera and Rodriguez stayed at the
   scene and waited for a tow truck to remove the vehicle. After the tow truck
   finished, they did not return to the station because Sepulveda called and told
   them to watch for a high-speed pursuit approaching Progreso. Rivera
   testified that these calls came over the phone and that he was not provided
   with a radio. For thirty or forty minutes, Rivera and Rodriguez waited for the
   chase. Meanwhile, Rivera checked in three or four times with Sepulveda,
   who told him to “[s]tand by.”
          When Rivera and Rodriguez gave up on the chase and headed back to
   the station, they found Sepulveda there alone. Rivera asked him where the
   children were, but Sepulveda “changed the subject and said that a city
   manager called for him to take them home.” After about ten minutes, Rivera
   and Rodriguez were called to the scene of a drug overdose. Sepulveda stayed
   behind purportedly to take the kids home. Yet Sepulveda arrived at the scene
   of the overdose five or ten minutes after Rivera and Rodriguez had left the
   station. Sepulveda parked the car thirty or forty feet away from Rivera, and
   Rivera could not see if the kids were in Sepulveda’s car. Sepulveda left the
   scene soon after he arrived.
          The two passengers that Sepulveda drove to the station were a
   seventeen-year-old boy named A.A. and his brother. At trial, A.A. testified
   that when they arrived at the station, Sepulveda put A.A.’s brother in a cell
   and took A.A. to an office. Surveillance video corroborated that Sepulveda
   went into a separate room with A.A.
          In the office, Sepulveda asked A.A. about the size of his penis and
   ordered A.A. to expose his penis. A.A. testified that he protested that he did
   not have an erection, and Sepulveda offered to play a pornographic video.
   Sepulveda then used his phone to play a video in which a man and a woman

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   had sex. The web history from Sepulveda’s phone corroborated A.A.’s
   account that Sepulveda accessed such a pornographic video. A.A. testified
   that he felt that he could not leave because Sepulveda was a law-enforcement
   officer and he thought that Sepulveda was detaining or had arrested him.
   Again, Sepulveda told A.A. to expose himself and watched while A.A.
   masturbated. A.A. testified that, during this time, Sepulveda made calls on a
   radio to other officers telling them about a truck headed towards Progreso.
            Sepulveda then performed oral sex on A.A. A.A. testified that he felt
   pain during the encounter. When Sepulveda stopped, he asked A.A. if his
   “brother would do this type of stuff” and asked A.A. to convince his brother.
   Back in the cell, A.A. warned his brother about Sepulveda and told him to
   stall.
            Eventually, Sepulveda decided to take A.A. and his brother home. But
   first, according to A.A.’s testimony, Sepulveda stopped to answer a call about
   an overdose.       Finally, Sepulveda dropped the boys in front of their
   neighborhood.
                                            C.
            Sepulveda did not testify at trial, instead calling a forensic scientist as
   an expert witness.        Sepulveda’s expert testified that the percentage
   composition of the DNA sample taken from C.L.’s underwear would
   “usually confirm[] that . . . touch DNA [is] in [the] sample.” According to
   the expert, if there were “blood, semen[,] [or] saliva” in the sample, she
   “would expect to see more DNA present” from Sepulveda. And the expert
   testified that a pat-down search would be sufficient to transfer touch DNA to
   an article of clothing. However, on cross-examination, the expert conceded
   that a high percentage of DNA material from one contributor of DNA can
   “mask the percentage from a second individual.”

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                                      No. 21-40574

          Sepulveda’s expert also attacked the government’s DNA analysis.
   She testified that it was irregular to test only samples from the front of the
   underwear, as opposed to the front and the back, and she criticized the
   laboratory’s failure to analyze the percentage of male DNA in the samples.
   Moreover, the expert stated that based on the amount of genetic material
   missing from the samples, she “would question the level of [the] DNA in
   making any conclusions because it is very low level.” The expert identified
   errors in the laboratory’s procedures but admitted on cross-examination that
   those errors had been corrected.
                                          D.
          Sepulveda was indicted by a grand jury on two counts of violating 18
   U.S.C. § 242. The first count alleged that Sepulveda, while acting under
   color of law, sexually assaulted C.L. and thereby deprived him of liberty
   without due process of law. The second count alleged that Sepulveda, while
   acting under color of law, sexually assaulted A.A. and thereby deprived him
   of liberty without due process of law. Further, the second count alleged that
   Sepulveda’s assault of A.A. resulted in bodily injury and included aggravated
   sexual abuse, attempted aggravated sexual abuse, and kidnapping.
          After a two-day trial, the jury found Sepulveda guilty on both counts.
   As to the second count, the jury specifically found that Sepulveda’s conduct
   resulted in bodily injury and included aggravated sexual abuse, attempted
   aggravated sexual abuse, and kidnapping.
          The district court sentenced Sepulveda to 12 months’ imprisonment
   on the first count and 360 months’ imprisonment on the second count, to run
   concurrently. In addition, the district court ordered Sepulveda to pay
   $10,000 in restitution to C.L.
          This appeal followed.

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                                          No. 21-40574

                                                II.
           Sepulveda argues that the government failed to disclose impeachment
   evidence in violation of the Brady rule, and he seeks a new trial on that basis.
   Because the withheld evidence was not material, we affirm Sepulveda’s
   conviction. 1
                                                A.
           When a defendant seeks a new trial on Brady grounds, he must
   establish that “(1) the prosecution did not disclose the evidence; (2) the
   evidence was favorable to the defense; and (3) the evidence was material,”
   meaning that “there is a reasonable probability that if the government had
   disclosed the evidence, the result of the proceeding would have been
   different.” United States v. Fernandez, 559 F.3d 303, 319 (5th Cir. 2009)
   (quoting United States v. Infante, 404 F.3d 376, 386 (5th Cir. 2005)). We
   review de novo whether the government violated the Brady rule. United
   States v. Valencia, 600 F.3d 389, 418 (5th Cir. 2010) (per curiam). To prevail,
   a defendant “need not show that he more likely than not would have been
   acquitted had the new evidence been admitted,” but rather has to show “only
   that the new evidence is sufficient to undermine confidence in the verdict.”

           1
             Sepulveda raises an additional issue of whether his rights under the Confrontation
   Clause of the Sixth Amendment were violated by the prosecution’s suppression of this
   material. But Sepulveda cites no authority that a defendant’s Sixth Amendment rights—
   as opposed to his Brady rights—are violated when the prosecution withholds impeachment
   evidence or when the district court declines to order a new trial on that basis. Indeed, this
   is not a cognizable Sixth Amendment claim. See United States v. Wright, 866 F.3d 899, 912
   n.3 (8th Cir. 2017) (citing Pennsylvania v. Ritchie, 480 U.S. 39, 52 (1982) (plurality op.));
   see also United States v. Bagley, 473 U.S. 667, 676-78 (1985) (rejecting appellate court’s
   theory that the withholding of impeachment evidence implicates the Sixth Amendment
   where there is no “direct restriction on the scope of cross-examination”). Even if a legal
   basis for such a claim existed, for the reasons explained in this section, any violation of
   Sepulveda’s Confrontation Clause rights was harmless.

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   Wearry v. Cain, 577 U.S. 385, 392 (2016) (per curiam) (cleaned up). In
   making that determination, we “evaluate the withheld evidence in the
   context of the entire record.” Turner v. United States, 137 S. Ct. 1885, 1893
   (2017) (cleaned up).
                                         B.
          The withheld impeachment evidence concerned A.A.’s prior arrest
   for sexual assault and pending state criminal case. Specifically, on March 11,
   2021, the day after the jury returned its verdict, the government learned from
   an FBI Victim/Witness Coordinator that A.A. had been arrested in January
   2020 for sexual assault. A.A.’s mother had told the FBI Victim/Witness
   Coordinator about the arrest during A.A.’s testimony.
          On March 12, 2021, the government notified Sepulveda’s counsel,
   and three days later, the government filed a sealed motion asking the court
   for a hearing. The government’s papers asserted that A.A.’s case had been
   referred to the Hidalgo County District Attorney’s Office in August 2020
   and remained pending. That day, Sepulveda moved for a new trial, arguing
   that the government had a duty to disclose the arrest to Sepulveda’s counsel
   so that A.A. could have been cross-examined on the issue.
          On March 26, 2021, the district court held an initial hearing and
   granted Sepulveda’s motion to substitute counsel. At the hearing, the
   prosecutor stated that A.A.’s “case was taken to [a] [g]rand [j]ury on March
   23rd”—thirteen days after Sepulveda’s trial ended—“and was no-billed.”
   Sepulveda’s new attorney asked to withdraw the pending motion for a new
   trial to give him time to conduct due diligence for his client. The district
   court granted the request and advised counsel that he could refile a new
   motion.
          Although Sepulveda does not appear to have renewed his motion in a
   filing, the district court considered Sepulveda’s motion for a new trial at the

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   sentencing hearing. The district court noted that the charges against A.A.
   had been “dropped or dismissed.” Relevant here, Sepulveda’s counsel
   argued that the withheld information would have provided a basis for the jury
   to conclude that A.A. would have been granted “leniency on his pending case
   in exchange for his testimony.” In response, the prosecutor explained that
   when she “found out about the arrest, [she] did contact the District
   Attorney’s Office to see what the status was,” but she “was not told when it
   was going to go to [the] grand jury and [she] did not direct them to take it to
   [the] grand jury.” Rather, according to the prosecutor, “[i]t just so happened
   that they then took it to [the] grand jury while this was going on . . . and the
   grand jury no-billed the case.”
          The district court concluded that the evidence of “a mere allegation
   against [A.A.]” would not have been admissible to impeach A.A. The district
   court explained that it did not appear that “there was any sort of deal struck
   or agreement with the state authorities.” Since the government was not
   “even aware until after the testimony” about A.A.’s case, the district court
   decided that it was “impossible for there to have been some kind of an
   agreement or understanding with the witness.”               The district court
   recognized that the District Attorney might have “manipulated” the case
   presented to the grand jury “by not presenting good evidence.” Still, the
   district court denied the motion for a new trial.
                                         C.
          Sepulveda’s Brady theory is that evidence of A.A.’s arrest and
   “pending prosecution” would have been used to impeach A.A.’s “possible
   bias or motive . . . for testifying in a particular manner.” However, beyond
   arguing that law enforcement first approached A.A. about Sepulveda’s
   alleged assault on him and that the jury “was left with the impression that
   A.A. had no experience with law enforcement and had no arrests,”

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   Sepulveda does not explain how evidence related to the arrest would have
   been used to impeach A.A.’s motive or how that impeachment evidence
   would have been material under Brady.
          The government argues that evidence of A.A.’s arrest and open
   criminal case was not material because it (1) would not have been admissible
   to impeach A.A., and (2) did not undermine confidence in the verdict given
   the other evidence at trial.
          Notwithstanding the government’s first argument, “[e]vidence may
   be material under Brady even though it is inadmissible,” and so “we apply
   the general Brady test and ask only whether the disclosure of the evidence
   would have created a reasonable probability that the result of the proceeding
   would have been different.” United States v. Sipe, 388 F.3d 471, 485 (5th Cir.
   2004) (cleaned up); United States v. Brown, 650 F.3d 581, 588 (5th Cir. 2011).
   However, because the withheld evidence here does not undermine
   confidence in the verdict, we conclude that no Brady violation occurred.
          There is no reasonable probability that if the government had
   disclosed the evidence of A.A.’s arrest and pending criminal case, the result
   of the proceeding would have been different. Fernandez, 559 F.3d at 319.
   Even assuming that the withheld evidence of A.A.’s arrest and pending state
   criminal case were admissible, would have led to admissible evidence, or
   would have led to permissible cross-examination of A.A. on those topics,
   A.A.’s credibility would not have been seriously called into question.
   Moreover, A.A.’s testimony was corroborated by substantial evidence.
          Sepulveda’s theory of how he would have used evidence of A.A.’s
   arrest and pending criminal case to impeach A.A. rests on speculation.
   Sepulveda does not point to any evidence that federal prosecutors could have
   influenced the Texas prosecutor’s conduct before the grand jury or the grand
   jury’s findings. Nor does he point to any evidence of contacts between the

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   federal and Texas prosecutors during the trial, or between A.A. and the
   Texas prosecutors. Sepulveda also offers no evidence that Texas prosecutors
   were aware of A.A.’s testimony in this case during the trial, or that A.A. was
   even aware that his criminal case remained pending. At most, the federal
   prosecutor contacted the Texas prosecutor after Sepulveda’s trial to ask
   about the status of A.A.’s case—but there is no evidence that she ever told
   the Texas prosecutor about A.A.’s testimony. 2 Even if she had, there is no
   evidence that A.A. knew about the grand jury proceedings such that he could
   have manipulated his testimony. Sepulveda’s assertion that the withheld
   evidence might have led A.A. to make exculpatory admissions regarding how
   the Texas prosecution influenced his testimony is therefore built on
   conjecture. Again, Sepulveda, with new counsel, chose not to refile his
   motion requesting an evidentiary hearing at which he could have probed the
   above. Such an attenuated chain of inferences does not give rise to a
   reasonable probability that Sepulveda’s case would have turned out
   differently. 3
           At best, Sepulveda could have caught A.A. in a lie about whether he
   had been arrested before. On direct examination, the government asked
   A.A., “[h]ave you ever been arrested or anything like that in the past,” as
   part of a line of inquiry about whether A.A. had thought that Sepulveda’s
   questions about sex were normal. A.A. said no. If Sepulveda’s counsel had

           2
             Once the prosecutor “found out about the arrest,” she “contact[ed] the District
   Attorney’s Office to see what the status was.” She “was told that it was one case in a bunch
   of boxes of cases that were waiting to go to [the] grand jury. [She] was not told when it was
   going to go to [the] grand jury and . . . did not direct them to take it to [the] grand jury.”
           3
             While the fact that the state grand jury returned a no-bill less than two weeks after
   Sepulveda’s trial ended and after the federal prosecutor contacted Texas might change a
   trial court’s Rule 403 balancing as to admissibility, the timing of the no-bill or the post-trial
   contact with Texas are not evidence of collaboration between the federal and state
   prosecutors that would render Sepulveda’s impeachment theory non-speculative.

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   known about A.A.’s arrest and pending case, A.A. could have been cross-
   examined about why he had not told the truth about his arrest, and
   Sepulveda’s counsel could have attacked A.A.’s credibility on this basis.
          However, A.A.’s testimony that Sepulveda sexually assaulted him in
   the police station was corroborated extensively by other testimony and
   evidence. Rivera testified that Sepulveda inexplicably separated A.A. and his
   brother from the other kids at the scene of the traffic stop, took them to the
   station, and delayed Rivera and another officer from returning to the station.
   Meanwhile, surveillance video showed that Sepulveda took A.A. into an
   office in the police station where the assault allegedly happened. A.A.
   testified that Sepulveda showed him a pornographic video, and Sepulveda’s
   web browser history was consistent with that testimony.
          A.A.’s testimony also mirrored C.L.’s testimony about his assault.
   Like A.A., C.L. testified that Sepulveda asked him sexual questions, took him
   into an office in the police station, and performed oral sex on him. And C.L.’s
   account was also corroborated. C.L. texted his girlfriend about the assault,
   and the evidence showed that it was 434 million times more likely that DNA
   on C.L.’s underwear came from C.L., Sepulveda, and an unknown person
   than C.L. and two unknown people.
          Given the evidence that Sepulveda sexually assaulted A.A. in the same
   manner as he sexually assaulted C.L., the withheld evidence that A.A. had
   been arrested for sexual assault and had a pending criminal case does not
   undermine confidence in the verdict. Indeed, on appeal, Sepulveda does not
   try to explain how or why C.L.’s and A.A.’s testimony converged.
          For those reasons, the withheld evidence is not material under Brady,
   and Sepulveda is not entitled to a new trial.

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                                         III.
          Next, Sepulveda argues that the district court improperly determined
   his sentence based on his silence during the sentencing hearing. Specifically,
   Sepulveda contends that the district court drew an adverse inference from
   his refusal to speak in violation of his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-
   incrimination. But contrary to the premise of this claim, the district court did
   not draw an adverse inference in determining Sepulveda’s sentence.
   Accordingly, we affirm the district court on this issue.
                                         A.
          The standard of review that applies on appeal of a criminal sentence
   depends on whether the defendant challenges a procedural error in the
   sentencing or the sentence’s substantive reasonableness. See United States v.
   Coto-Mendoza, 986 F.3d 583, 585 (5th Cir. 2021). Where the district court
   made a “significant procedural error,” Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 51
   (2007), we must remand for resentencing unless the error was harmless,
   Coto-Mendoza, 986 F.3d at 585. On the other hand, we review “substantive
   unreasonableness for abuse of discretion.” United States v. Zarco-Beiza, 24
   F.4th 477, 480-81 (5th Cir. 2022). However, if the defendant does not
   preserve a claim of procedural error or substantive unreasonableness in the
   district court, plain error review applies.       Id. at 481-82 (substantive
   unreasonableness); United States v. Peterson, 977 F.3d 381, 392 (5th Cir.
   2020) (procedural error).
          Since Sepulveda’s challenge fails under any standard of review, we
   need not decide whether this issue concerns a procedural error or the
   substantive reasonableness of the sentence, or, in either case, whether
   Sepulveda preserved that error for appellate review.

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                                         B.
          In preparation for sentencing, the Probation Department prepared a
   Presentence Investigation Report (“PSR”). Probation revised the PSR to
   include information from a Declaration of Victim Losses submitted by C.L.
   The PSR calculated Sepulveda’s total offense level under the Sentencing
   Guidelines as 43. Based on that offense level, a criminal history category of
   I, and the statutory maximum sentences for both counts, the Guidelines
   range for the first count was 12 months’ imprisonment and the range for the
   second count was life imprisonment.
          At the sentencing hearing, the district court addressed Sepulveda and
   said, “I know you did not testify and forced the [g]overnment for its burden
   of proof but now that the trial’s over, I don’t know what you want to say but
   you get to speak. If there’s anything you want to say, now is your chance to
   speak.” Sepulveda said, “[n]o comment.”
          The district court sentenced Sepulveda to the statutory maximum of
   12 months’ imprisonment on the first count, 18 U.S.C. § 242, and varied
   downward from the Guidelines range of life imprisonment on the second
   count to 360 months’ imprisonment. In fashioning that sentence, the district
   court explained that it had considered “the extreme conduct, the very serious
   offense, the magnitude of the impact on these two young victims,” as well as
   Sepulveda’s “youth” and “what a life sentence means to a 25 year old.” The
   district court concluded that a “60 or 70 year sentence” would not be “just”
   but asserted that a sentence of 360 months’ imprisonment would be
   “appropriately punitive,” would “deter others from considering such
   conduct,” and would “protect the community from . . . Sepulveda
   reoffending.” After stating those reasons for the sentence on the record, the
   district court awarded restitution to C.L.

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            Finally, the district court directly addressed Sepulveda. In relevant
   part, the district court criticized Sepulveda:
            Mr. Sepulveda, the evidence . . . in this case . . . was
            overwhelming. I know you wanted to preserve your appellate
            rights. I am disappointed that you didn’t take the opportunity
            to at least apologize or show any empathy towards what
            happened to these young men who . . . a unanimous jury was
            convinced were very sincere. . . . These individuals were very
            candid and truthful testifying about things that were very
            emotional, and it’s disappointing to me that you didn’t at least
            show some empathy towards them.
            I understand that you need to preserve your [Fifth]
            Amendment rights because of appeal but that wouldn’t have
            prevented you from offering empathy as any of us who listened
            to them and watched them would have had for these young
            individuals.
            After the district court finished discussing Sepulveda’s lack of
   empathy, the district court explained to Sepulveda why it had imposed such
   a long sentence. The district court did not mention Sepulveda’s silence
   again.
                                          C.
            Contrary to Sepulveda’s argument, the record does not indicate that
   district court drew an adverse inference from Sepulveda’s silence in
   determining his sentence. Rather, the court’s reference to Sepulveda’s
   silence appears to have been separate and distinct from the sentencing and
   did not have an adverse effect on his sentence.
            In Mitchell v. United States, the Supreme Court held that a sentencing
   court may not draw an adverse inference about the “factual . . . circumstances
   and details of the crime” from the defendant’s silence because such an
   inference impermissibly burdens the defendant’s Fifth Amendment right

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   against compelled self-incrimination. 526 U.S. 314, 328 (1999); see id. at 327-
   30; United States v. Ronquillo, 508 F.3d 744, 749 (5th Cir. 2007) (discussing
   Mitchell). Mitchell declined to reach the issue of whether a sentencing court
   may draw an adverse inference about the defendant’s lack of remorse or any
   other factor relevant in sentencing from the defendant’s silence. See Mitchell,
   526 U.S. at 330 (“Whether silence bears upon the determination of a lack of
   remorse . . . is a separate question. It is not before us, and we express no view
   on it.”). The parties have not identified any authority in our circuit that has
   squarely addressed that issue. Cf. United States v. Caro, 597 F.3d 608, 629
   (4th Cir. 2010) (describing circuit split on whether Mitchell extends to
   adverse inferences about remorse in the capital sentencing context).
          We need not decide the difficult question of whether a district court
   may draw an adverse inference about remorse from a defendant’s silence
   because the district court here did not draw an inference that was adverse to
   Sepulveda in a constitutionally relevant way.
          Even assuming that the Fifth Amendment does protect a defendant
   from adverse inferences drawn from his silence about his remorse, such an
   inference would be adverse to the defendant and therefore impermissible
   only when it affects his sentence. See United States v. Johnston, 789 F.3d 934,
   943 (9th Cir. 2015) (holding that defendant was not entitled to resentencing
   due to adverse inference drawn from defendant’s failure to testify because
   the defendant’s “sentence was not affected”); cf. Ronquillo, 508 F.3d at 749
   (finding no constitutional problem where the district court did not “draw any
   inference at all” from the defendant’s silence, let alone an inference
   “concerning a fact of [the] offense,” instead noting “its doubt concerning
   whether [the defendant] was repentant for his crime”); United States v.
   Riascos Tovar, 782 F. App’x 347, 348 (5th Cir. 2019) (per curiam) (similar).
   In other words, if the district court doesn’t use the inference against the

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   defendant in crafting the sentence, nothing of Fifth Amendment significance
   has occurred.
          This rule follows from Mitchell. There, the sentencing court drew
   adverse factual inferences from the defendant’s silence at a sentencing
   hearing that “determine[d] the specifics of the crime” and may have resulted
   in a harsher sentence. 526 U.S. at 329. Specifically, the sentencing judge
   “held it against” the defendant that she “didn’t come forward” to negate or
   explain testimony that she “had been a drug courier on a regular basis,” and
   accordingly found her responsible for selling more than five kilograms of
   cocaine. Id. at 319. That quantity of cocaine triggered a ten-year mandatory
   minimum sentence. Id. In effect, the government had “enlist[ed] the
   defendant” in meeting its “burden of proving facts relevant to the crime at
   the sentencing phase.” Id. at 330. And so “the central purpose of the [Fifth
   Amendment] privilege—to protect a defendant from being the unwilling
   instrument of his or her own condemnation,” was implicated. Id. at 329. If
   the sentencing court in Mitchell had drawn inferences about facts that were
   not “relevant to the crime,” id. at 330, or about facts that were not disputed,
   see Ronquillo, 508 F.3d at 749 (“Mitchell is inapplicable to the sentencing
   decision . . . because ‘the facts of the offense’ were based entirely on [the
   defendant’s] admissions.”); Riascos Tovar, 782 F. App’x at 348 (similar), the
   defendant might still have been an unwilling instrument—just not of his own
   condemnation.      Accordingly, those inferences would not have been
   constitutionally problematic.
          In this case, any inference the district court drew from Sepulveda’s
   “[n]o comment,” did not affect his sentence. The district court only
   commented on Sepulveda’s silence after it had imposed a sentence and stated
   its reasons for doing so. At no point in its comments about Sepulveda’s
   silence or at any other time did the district court suggest that lack of remorse,
   lack of empathy, or any other inference about Sepulveda or Sepulveda’s

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   crime drawn from his silence affected the sentence.              Moreover, in
   commenting on Sepulveda’s apparent lack of empathy for the victims, the
   district court recognized Sepulveda’s Fifth Amendment rights. See Johnston,
   789 F.3d at 943 (concluding that defendant’s sentence was not affected in
   part because trial judge “explicitly recognized that remaining silent was ‘his
   right’”).
          For those reasons, Sepulveda is incorrect that in sentencing him, the
   district court “drew an adverse inference” from his silence that “may have
   resulted in added imprisonment.” Sepulveda does not point to any specific
   foundation in the record for his claim that the district court relied on his lack
   of remorse in determining his sentence. While the district court may have
   criticized Sepulveda’s silence, it walled off its reproach from the rest of its
   sentencing decision. Accordingly, any inferences the district court drew
   from Sepulveda’s refusal to comment at the sentencing hearing did not
   adversely impact his sentence and did not burden his Fifth Amendment
   privilege against compelled self-incrimination.
                                         IV.
          Finally, Sepulveda challenges the $10,000 in restitution that the
   district court awarded to C.L. Since a sufficient evidentiary basis existed for
   this award, we affirm the restitution order.
                                          A.
          Sepulveda did not preserve this issue, and he does not seem to dispute
   that plain-error review applies. To establish plain error, a defendant must
   show that the district court committed an error that was clear or obvious and
   that affected his substantial rights. See Puckett v. United States, 556 U.S. 129,
   135 (2009). If those conditions are met, we have the discretion to remedy the
   error but should only do so if it “seriously affects the fairness, integrity or
   public reputation of judicial proceedings.” Id. (cleaned up).

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          Notwithstanding the parties’ apparent agreement that we should
   review this issue for plain error, we generally review the legality of a
   restitution order de novo even if a defendant failed to preserve the issue,
   because restitution that exceeds the court’s statutory authority is an illegal
   sentence, which always constitutes plain error. United States v. Penn, 969
   F.3d 450, 458 (5th Cir. 2020) (citations omitted). “[A]n order of restitution
   that exceeds the victim’s actual losses or damages is an illegal sentence.”
   United States v. Chem. & Metal Indus., Inc., 677 F.3d 750, 752 (5th Cir. 2012)
   (citation omitted).   Applying those principles, some of our cases have
   reviewed de novo the amount of restitution ordered where the defendant
   attacks the causal link between the restitution ordered and the offense. Id.;
   cf. United States v. Swenson, 25 F.4th 309, 322 (5th Cir. 2022) (reviewing
   restitution order de novo where defendant argued that the award included
   activity that was not part of the convicted offense). But in other cases, we
   have applied an abuse-of-discretion standard under similar circumstances.
   See United States v. Arledge, 553 F.3d 881, 897 (5th Cir. 2008). Recently, we
   stated that “[w]e review the legality of [a restitution] award de novo, . . . its
   amount for abuse of discretion,” and the court’s “[factual] finding regarding
   the amount of loss . . . for clear error.” United States v. Williams, 993 F.3d
   976, 980 (5th Cir. 2021) (citations omitted).
          Because the amount of restitution ordered here survives de novo
   review, we need not reconcile these cases and decide whether some less
   stringent standard of review applies.
                                           B.
          The PSR recommended that the district court order restitution under
   the Victim and Witness Protection Act (“VWPA”), 18 U.S.C. § 3663. The
   PSR also stated that the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act (“MVRA”), 18
   U.S.C. § 3663A, applied. The PSR summarized C.L.’s assertions that,

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   because of Sepulveda’s offense, he lost his job and his monthly income of
   $1,000. C.L. requested 20 months of lost income, or $20,000 in restitution.
          C.L.’s Declaration of Victim Losses and Victim Impact Statement
   described how the offense impacted his finances. C.L. stated that he became
   insolvent and suffered substantial harm to his ability to obtain credit. He
   further explained that he lost his job at a pizzeria a month after the incident
   because of his “mental problems” and “me[e]tings with agents.” The
   offense caused him to “spend most of [his] time in [his] room alone” and to
   feel “afraid” and “ashame[d] to be seen in public.”           He had started
   counseling and experienced anger, anxiety, fear, guilt, sleep loss, nightmares,
   chronic fatigue, depression, forgetfulness, and difficulty concentrating.
   Because he earned $1,000 per month at the restaurant and had been out of
   work for twenty months due to the incident, his lost income added up to
   $20,000.
          At the sentencing hearing, the district court ordered Sepulveda to pay
   $10,000 in restitution to C.L. and identified the factual basis for its
   calculation:
          [T]he victim made a financial claim—everybody has seen it—
          for sums that the victim sincerely thought that the [d]efendant
          was responsible for, just some lost wages after this incident.
          The victim’s employment ceased. The victim described that
          because of this offense, emotional issues, the person didn’t go
          back to work, but he also indicated that some of it was because
          [he was] meeting with agents in preparation for the trial or just
          the investigation of this matter . . . [which was] time-consuming
          and prevented the person from working.
          I felt that there’s some type of compensation that was owed
          there but I felt the amount requested perhaps overstated what
          was proximately caused by this event. We also had the
          pandemic arrive, which accounted for much time, and the

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                                         No. 21-40574

           industry in which the person was employed                             was
           disproportionately impacted by the COVID pandemic.
                                               C.
           Citing both the VWPA and the MVRA, Sepulveda argues that the
   record evidence does not show that every dollar of loss accounted for in the
   restitution order was caused by Sepulveda’s offense conduct. We disagree.
           While the district court did not specify the statute upon which it
   relied, 4 under both the VWPA and the MVRA, restitution is limited to “the
   loss caused by the specific conduct that is the basis of the offense of
   conviction.” Hughey v. United States, 495 U.S. 411, 413 (1990) (VWPA
   context); see United States v. Maturin, 488 F.3d 657, 661 n.2 (5th Cir. 2007)
   (explaining that Hughey controls in the MVRA context); United States v.
   Sharma, 703 F.3d 318, 323 (5th Cir. 2012) (“The MVRA limits restitution to
   the actual loss directly and proximately caused by the defendant’s offense of
   conviction.”).
           The government bears the burden of “demonstrating the amount of
   the loss sustained by a victim as a result of the offense.” 18 U.S.C. § 3664(e).
   The sentencing court resolves any dispute as to the amount of restitution “by
   the preponderance of the evidence.” Id. This framework first requires the
   government to “carry its burden of demonstrating the actual loss . . . by a
   preponderance of the evidence,” and “[t]hen the defendant can rebut the
   [g]overnment’s evidence.” Williams, 993 F.3d at 980-81. “[E]very dollar
   must be supported by record evidence.” Sharma, 703 F.3d at 323. However,
   the court does not have to make specific findings “if the record provides an

           4
              While the MVRA requires the district court to order restitution for certain
   offenses, see 18 U.S.C. § 3663A, the VWPA permits a district court to order “a defendant
   convicted of [a Title 18] offense” to “make restitution to any victim of [the] offense,” 18
   U.S.C. § 3663(a)(1)(A).

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   adequate basis to support the restitution order.” United States v. De Leon,
   728 F.3d 500, 507 (5th Cir. 2013) (citation omitted).
          Here, the government met its burden to establish that $10,000 of
   C.L.’s losses were caused Sepulveda’s offense conduct. The record included
   C.L.’s Declaration of Loss and Victim Impact Statement. Those documents
   provided evidence that the sexual assault harmed C.L.’s mental health,
   which in turn prevented C.L. from keeping his job at the pizzeria or obtaining
   other work.     They also indicated that C.L.’s involvement with the
   prosecution of this case interfered with his job. Moreover, those documents
   established the amount of income C.L. received from his prior employment
   and lost due to the offense. Based on that unrebutted evidence, it would have
   been reasonable for the district court to find that C.L. suffered a $20,000
   loss, equal to twenty months of his restaurant wage, from Sepulveda’s
   offense conduct. And the district court relied on those facts in determining
   the amount of restitution authorized by law.
          The district court also appropriately considered whether the
   defendant’s conduct had proximately caused all that lost income. See United
   States v. Kim, 988 F.3d 803, 809 (5th Cir. 2021); Robers v. United States, 572
   U.S. 639, 645 (2014) (“The basic question that a proximate cause
   requirement presents is whether the harm alleged has a sufficiently close
   connection to the conduct at issue.” (quotation and citation omitted)). The
   district court determined that ten months of C.L.’s lost income was caused
   not by Sepulveda’s offense conduct but by the impact of the COVID-19
   pandemic on the restaurant industry. As such, the district court calculated
   the amount of C.L.’s loss caused by the sexual assault as ten months of his
   former income, or $10,000.
          On appeal, Sepulveda does not give us any reason to reverse the
   district court. Sepulveda makes the bare assertion that the restitution award

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   was “excessive” but does not explain why the district court’s factfinding was
   erroneous in any way. And he has never offered any rebuttal evidence
   regarding the district court’s initial calculation of C.L.’s income or its
   conclusions that Sepulveda’s offense conduct caused C.L. to suffer mental
   health problems, that Sepulveda’s offense conduct caused C.L. to miss work
   for participating in this case, or that the COVID-19 pandemic accounted for
   ten months of C.L.’s lost work. At its most specific, Sepulveda’s brief argues
   that C.L.’s “emotional issues,” “preparation for the trial,” and “lost
   wages” were not “shown to have resulted from [Sepulveda’s] actions.” But
   C.L.’s Declaration of Loss and Victim Impact Statement do establish causal
   relationships among the offense conduct, C.L.’s mental health, the
   prosecution of this case, and C.L.’s financial loss by a preponderance of the
   evidence. 18 U.S.C. § 3664(e).
          For those reasons, we affirm the $10,000 award of restitution to C.L.
                                        V.
          Accordingly, Sepulveda’s conviction and sentence are AFFIRMED.

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