Court Opinion

ID: 9363816
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-01-17 19:00:38.627362+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:15:34.423441
License: Public Domain

Case: 22-50323        Document: 00516612267             Page: 1      Date Filed: 01/17/2023

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

                                      No. 22-50323
                                                                                     FILED
                                                                               January 17, 2023
                                    Summary Calendar
                                    ____________                                Lyle W. Cayce
                                                                                     Clerk
   United States of America,

                                                                     Plaintiff—Appellee,

                                            versus

   Luis Alberto Lopez-Contreras,

                                              Defendant—Appellant.
                     ______________________________

                     Appeal from the United States District Court
                          for the Western District of Texas
                              USDC No. 2:21-CR-1533-1
                     ______________________________

   Before Jolly, Oldham, and Wilson, Circuit Judges.
   Per Curiam: *
         Luis Alberto Lopez-Contreras appeals the 50-month within-
   guidelines sentence imposed by the district court following his guilty plea
   conviction for illegal reentry into the United States. According to Lopez-
   Contreras, the sentence imposed by the district court was greater than
   necessary to achieve the sentencing goals enumerated in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)

         _____________________
         *
             This opinion is not designated for publication. See 5th Cir. R. 47.5.
Case: 22-50323     Document: 00516612267           Page: 2   Date Filed: 01/17/2023

                                    No. 22-50323

   and, therefore, was substantively unreasonable. He asserts that a sentence at
   the bottom of the guidelines range, or 46 months, would still have been the
   longest sentence that he has served by at least 10 months.
          By requesting a lesser term at the sentencing hearing, Lopez-
   Contreras preserved his substantive reasonableness challenge. See Holguin-
   Hernandez v. United States, 140 S. Ct. 762, 767 (2020). Sentences are
   reviewed for reasonableness under an abuse-of-discretion standard. Gall v.
   United States, 552 U.S. 38, 51 (2007). “A discretionary sentence imposed
   within a properly calculated guidelines range is presumptively reasonable.”
   United States v. Campos-Maldonado, 531 F.3d 337, 338 (5th Cir. 2008).
          Lopez-Contreras has not rebutted the presumption that the 50-month
   within-guidelines sentence imposed by the district court was substantively
   reasonable. See United States v. Jenkins, 712 F.3d 209, 214 (5th Cir. 2013).
   The district court considered his arguments for a sentence at the bottom of
   the guidelines range and determined that the 50-month sentence was
   appropriate based on its consideration of the § 3553(a) factors. Lopez-
   Contreras has not shown that the sentence does not account for a factor that
   should have received significant weight, gave significant weight to an
   irrelevant or improper factor, or represented a clear error in the balancing of
   the sentencing factors. See id. His argument that a 46-month sentence was
   appropriate amounts to a disagreement with the propriety of the sentence
   and the district court’s balancing of the sentencing factors, which is
   insufficient to rebut the presumption of reasonableness. See United States v.
   Ruiz, 621 F.3d 390, 398 (5th Cir. 2010).
          AFFIRMED.

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