Court Opinion

ID: 9390614
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-04-28 00:02:21.897435+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:18:35.764693
License: Public Domain

Case: 22-50348        Document: 00516729703             Page: 1      Date Filed: 04/27/2023

             United States Court of Appeals
                  for the Fifth Circuit
                                     ____________
                                                                               United States Court of Appeals
                                                                                        Fifth Circuit
                                      No. 22-50348
                                    Summary Calendar                                  FILED
                                    ____________                                  April 27, 2023
                                                                                 Lyle W. Cayce
   United States of America,                                                          Clerk

                                                                      Plaintiff—Appellee,

                                            versus

   Meriah Sanchez,

                                              Defendant—Appellant.
                     ______________________________

                     Appeal from the United States District Court
                          for the Western District of Texas
                              USDC No. 7:21-CR-333-2
                     ______________________________

   Before Jones, Haynes, and Oldham, Circuit Judges.
   Per Curiam: *
         Meriah Sanchez pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess with
   intent to distribute, and distribute, five grams or more of actual
   methamphetamine. See 21 U.S.C. §§ 846, 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(B). Based in
   part on the PSR determination that Sanchez was responsible for 54 grams of
   actual methamphetamine, the district court sentenced her to 150-months’

         _____________________
         *
             This opinion is not designated for publication. See 5th Cir. R. 47.5.
Case: 22-50348      Document: 00516729703          Page: 2   Date Filed: 04/27/2023

                                    No. 22-50348

   imprisonment and 5-years’ supervised release. See USSG § 2D1.1. Sanchez
   now argues the court below erred in calculating the drug quantity. But
   because Sanchez waived this exact argument at sentencing, any such error is
   unreviewable.
          Waiver is unlike forfeiture. “Whereas forfeiture is the failure to make
   the timely assertion of a right, waiver is the intentional relinquishment or
   abandonment of a known right.” United States v. Rodriguez-De la Fuente, 842
   F.3d 371, 374 (5th Cir. 2016) (quoting United States v. Olano, 507 U.S. 725,
   733 (1993)). We review forfeited claims for plain error. Fed. R. Crim. P.
   52(b). But “waived errors are entirely unreviewable.” United States v. Arviso-
   Mata, 442 F.3d 382, 384 (5th Cir. 2006).
          Sanchez intentionally waived any claim that the district court
   erroneously calculated the quantity of methamphetamine. The essence of her
   argument is that the court erred by applying the Guidelines range for pure
   methamphetamine to all 54 grams that were seized. Instead, she says, the
   court should have awaited a laboratory report on the concentration of actual
   methamphetamine in those drugs, or otherwise applied the Guideline for
   mixtures of controlled substances. See USSG § 2D1.1(c) (setting different
   guidelines for “actual” methamphetamine and mixtures containing
   detectable amounts of methamphetamine). Sanchez, however, knowingly
   abandoned this claim. At sentencing, Sanchez’s counsel noted that he “still
   ha[d] not received a drug lab” on the purity of the methamphetamine at
   issue. The district court judge offered to reset the hearing to sort out the
   drug-quantity issue. Sanchez and her lawyer declined, thus waiving any
   future challenge to that calculation. Cf. Rodriguez-De la Fuente, 842 F.3d at
   374 (similar).
          AFFIRMED.

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