Court Opinion

ID: 4118074
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2017-01-24 21:01:01.679295+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:46:19.087587
License: Public Domain

FILED
                            NOT FOR PUBLICATION                              JAN 24 2017

                                                                         MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
                    UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS                        U.S. COURT OF APPEALS

                            FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,                        No.    15-50550

              Plaintiff-Appellee,                D.C. No. 2:14-cr-00330-JAK

 v.
                                                 MEMORANDUM*
ANTONIO SANCHEZ,

              Defendant-Appellant.

                    Appeal from the United States District Court
                       for the Central District of California
                    John A. Kronstadt, District Judge, Presiding

                           Submitted January 18, 2017 **

Before:      TROTT, TASHIMA, and CALLAHAN, Circuit Judges.

      Antonio Sanchez appeals from the district court’s judgment and challenges

the 180-month sentence imposed following his guilty-plea conviction for

conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine, in

violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846; distribution and possession with intent to distribute

      *
             This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.
      **
             The panel unanimously concludes this case is suitable for decision
without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2).
methamphetamine, aiding and abetting, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1),

(b)(1)(A)(viii), and 18 U.S.C. § 2(a); and possession of a firearm in furtherance of

a drug trafficking crime, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1)(A)(i). We have

jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and we affirm.

      Sanchez contends that the district court erred by failing to consider evidence

of derivative entrapment and its resulting sentencing entrapment as a mitigating

factor to forego imposition of the five-year sentence for his section 924(c)

conviction. We disagree. Sanchez’s guilty plea waived any entrapment defense to

his conviction. See United States v. Lopez-Armenta, 400 F.3d 1173, 1175 (9th

Cir. 2005). Further, having suffered that conviction, Sanchez was subject to its

mandatory five-year consecutive sentence, and the district court had no authority to

depart below it. See 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1)(A)(i); United States v. Wipf, 620 F.3d
1168, 1170-71 (9th Cir. 2010) (substantial assistance and safety valve are the only

grounds for imposing a sentence below a mandatory minimum).

      AFFIRMED.

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